AIBU to hide food....literally!

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I have got to the stage where I cannot wait to see my DCs go back to school tomorrow.
In the last week and a half they have eaten me out of house and home.
As soon as I walk back through the door from the supermarket laden with bags, they are round me like vultures, picking over a carcass.
They seem to think that just because I bought the food that say, it has to be eat that day.
I have decided to actually hide food to make it last longer than one day instead of putting it in the cupboards, fruit bowl etc
AIBU

I think I've read stories about people putting locks on the biscuit cupboard we have had one for last 2 years.

I was thinking the exact same thing today!! I am sick of it they just eat everything on sight when it has to last!!!

What I have done when my shopping came today is hide th pack lunch items!! I have bought "value" items for them to snack on like Swiss rolls 20p etc!!! And all the good stuff is hidden!!

I have also told them from now on 2 things out of the cupboard a day, 1 yogurt a day but unlimited fruit from the bowl!!

Let's see how we get on ...

YANBU! We used to do that. Eat like crazy things until it was all gone (the 'good' Stuff that is then whine that there was nothing to eat.

Having food in bulk is too tempting for lots of people - multi-bag of crisps? Don't mind if I eat them all!

What ages are they just out of interest?

Have you considered not buying the sort of food that can be hoovered down in moments? Only my dcs went through this phase and it was an expensive and tiresome nightmare. Once the constant supply of biscuits, crisps, yoghourts and anything else that required the slightest effort to transfer itself from cupboard to mouth dried up, the difference in the food bill was quite amazing. I never restricted fruit though.

The alternative is to lock it away, I suppose.

I did consider putting a lock on the fridge think they will manage to jemmy it open.
Stopped buying biscuits a long time ago as they never it made it the biscuit tin.
I just cannot keep up with them.
I turn my back for 5 mins and the bloody fruit bowl is empty....again.

Ive got a lockable cupboard in my kitchen.

I lock food in it purely because of this reason.

This reminds me of my Mum who would say ' I am not buying x again as you only eat it/ them'

For those of you who have not heard my tip:
Hide the stuff you want to keep in a big empty detergent box under the sink. I can promise you they will not look there, it will be safe :o

Does nobody teach their kids to ask before helping themselves to something anymore?

don't buy biscuits, crisps or cakes. They don't need them.

Yes, I do, but then I go to the loo and she eats half a chorizo.

They are 4, 5 and 10.
I tend to steer away from crisps, choc bars and so on. But they managed to work their way through a mulipack of yughurts in 1 day.
I could understand it if they were really hungry, but I think they just see the fridge full of stuff and think they have to eat it asap.
A whole carton of cherry tomatoes has mysteriously vanished since this morning, so that's one less item for the packed lunches.
It has even been known for me to boil a load of eggs to make egg sarnies, then go back later to find they have just eaten them as a snack! So nothing left for the sarnies.
Doesn't seem to matter what it is, carrots, cucumber, gherkins, pickled onions even, they have all just been gobbled up over the past few days.

Why are your children just helping themselves to what they like? I was never allowed to do that as a child, I had to ask. It isnt a form of child abuse to be in control of what your child eats you know! :)

on the rare occasions I buy crisps or biscuits for some specific event I have to keep them in the boot of my car. otherwise they go missing .... normally DH or me though

When I had three teens living with me, and it was a lot harder to enforce the no helping yourself rules, I had excellent skills at hiding the good stuff.

Choc-ices etc were hidden inside (empty) bags of frozen sprouts and carrots..

squeakytoy, I don't allow them to do this. They just wait until I'm not physically in the kitchen then go for it.
I have shouted till I am blue in the face, but they just don't get it.
They seem to think food just grows on trees!

Well if they dont get it now, and dont do as they are told, you are going to be buggered as they get older and have no control over them.

The only solution is to stop buying anything like that at all. They wont starve.

I have always had a open fridge policy. I buy it to be eaten so dont see the point of locking it away. All i ask is if the eat the last of something they jot it on the shopping list i keep in the kitchen.

Am loving the tip about hiding the nice stuff in empty sprout bags.
My main problem is that most of our food is either for the fridge or the freezer, so it's a bit hard to hide it in a cupboard where they won't think to look.

It's great that your DC love fruit so much. I would love it if my 2 fussy eaters would raid the fruit bowl! Why would you want to limit how much fruit they eat? Wouldn't it be better to cut down on the crisps, bisuits etc. than fresh fruit?

If you don't want your DC to help themselves to food, then the first time you catch them doing it, you scold, second time you punish them, same as you would for any other behaviour you want them to know is not appropriate.

No wonder they do this, they don't get any come back.

Or, you do what cantspel does and have an open door policy and let go.

I agree about the sugary stuff, which is why I try to steer away from it. But even a packet of ham is not safe in our fridge.
As for the toast, at over a £1 a loaf, I can't afford that. Plus there would be none left for packed lunches.

I have similarly aged children, they know to never take anything without asking, ever.
I assumed you were talking about teenagers!

I have to lock anything sweet away. My DS eats bags of sugar.
I have never done the free range thing Part from with fruit.
DS1 is obsessed and the only way to stop him is to lock up stuff and then hide the keys.