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

Mine are like this too. I got them to just eat from the fruitbowl but realised they were eating up to 18 apples a day between them. (I have three dcs)

I now have a fruitbowl full of carrots that they can help themselves to. Toast and jam is a good filler too. )

Also agree about them liking fruit. But it's so bloody expensive, as is all foodstuff now, so to see them demolish a whole bowl pains me.
I do chastise them, believe me. They have even been known to be grounded on one certain ocassion, just seems to make no difference.
Must add that they have 3 meals a day so it's not that they are being starved.

My kids always ask and I will either say yes or no!!!

If its a no I will then have to put up with the crying, "I'm starving" constantly!! It drives me nuts the bein ours must think I starv them!

Mine also tuck into tomorrows, cucumber, etc!!! Aslong as its there they want to eat it!!

I can't remember if we had to ask or not. I think we did. When you have teens though it's tougher.

I would be inclined towards going with it if it is fruit. Maybe pack away things you have your eye on for packed lunches but leave out sacrificial stuff. Habitual eating isn't a great thing though is it - not least for your purse! Are they bored?

I'm quite shocked that you're not controlling what they help themselves to, to be honest.

I think food should be shared in the family, but I would go ballistic if mine raided the fridge like that. My youngest is 6, and he doesn't help himself to anything, he asks.

My eldest is 14, and she still asks if she can have certain things. I sort of think it's bad manners otherwise.

Horace that is my mantra to them....."When it's gone, I'm not buying anymore".
Then it comes round to the following week, and it starts all over again.
Think I have no choice but to hide it all anywhere .

My dsis kept her food in her garage until the mice decided to eat it.

Of course you have a choice. You need to instill a bit more discipline. They wouldnt go into anyone else house and just help themselves to whatever they wanted.

Pass I do wonder myself if it's just boredom eating.
when they are off school they have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. 10 mins later they are whining that they are hungry. God knows how they manage to get through a whole morning at school. They must be literally gnawing their own hands off by lunchtime. Unless they are so engrossed in lessons of course.
I would be very worried if they showed any signs of obesity, but they are all like whippets and are constantly on the go.

i just leave most of the stuff in the car boot and bring it in as and when i feel. as the car is with me all day it means theres a fighting chance of some being left when i get home

when you have teens you will understand

Actually squeaky, when they have been to my mum for a day, she is always aghast at their constant whining for food too. So it's not like they just do it at home. Although they do not actually just raid her cupboards, just keep asking for something.

when we were little my dad used to buy flavours of things that none of us liked to avoid this

You are going to have to bring in some rules. And enforce them. Because even when my dcs would demolish anything on sight, "anything" was, in fairness, limited to very specific things I could avoid buying. One of my rules was strictly no eating of anything that you knew was intended for a lunch box or a meal. Sometimes I think you have to be very specific and make things absolutely clear. If your guidelines rules are ignored then there has to be some sort of consequence. Otherwise your dcs will continue to take the piss.

With 3 teenagers & a DS of 21 home from his studies for a while, I made a large order from Approved Foods website for the little monsters to snack on. Apart from the fact my dining room looks like Del Boy's lounge with all the boxes it has been quite handy.
My 4 do have very healthy cooked meals in evening & I do nag that there is a full fruit bowl on kitchen table!
Has anybody elses DC discovered those 10p noodle packets? The smell is revolting when they cook in microwave.

how odd that so many people let the Dc just help themselves.

I think the reason that most of us on here who were kids in the 70's and 80's didnt behave like this ourselves was because in those days, there was a lot less choice, and also a lot less money to buy stuff other than the basics for meals, so we grew up eating what we were given, and knew there was no point in whining for more food.

There were a lot less picky eaters then too, probably because we didnt really eat between meals and therefore were starving by the time we got fed.

Only one of my DC helps himself willy nilly - the others do ask.
He has always been a bit of a handful to be hoest.

Mine are allowed to help themselves but they know not to push it...they are all a good deal older though and have expereinced my wrath. I am very anti all the grazing that seems to go on, there really is no need

We stick with mealtimes for food, occasional snack if we are having a night in/movie night

One thing that did work was counting stuff out and putting "expiry" dates on it...sort of. You buy 24 packets of crisps....three kids, one packet a day at most, then a note goes on the fridge that NO MORE crisps will be purchased for eight days. Ditto biscuits/cakes. They have to self ration then! :D

lowest maybe they genuinely are burning off what they eat. If they are whizzing around all day they will be burning off lots of calories.

When I am at school (teaching) I forget about being hungry because there is nothing else you can do (apart from hide nibbles in my handbag - a necessity in the first months of pregnancy). However, when I am home all I think about it food.

Maybe you could trial them with a very filling breakfast like porridge. They are only little so you could help them develop a taste for it now.

My friend's mum used to lock the kitchen to stop her db eating all the food!

catsmama that is great - encourages long-term planning.

I am wondering if snacking is just part of who you are. Other than when I am bored I don't snack - wouldn't dream of buying chocolate or crisps to eat other than at lunchtime. Typically I am a 3 meal a day lady. My siblings, however, are real grazers. They were incorrigible and would swarm like locusts after shopping!

My mum would also use the "I'm not buying that again because you only eat it" Brilliant logic

But they already have porridge for breakfast.
For example, today they had mini shreddies for breakfast, meatballs and pasta for lunch then sweet n sour chicken with rice and prawn crackers for dinner.
In between they have stuffed themselves on fruit, raw veg, yoghurt and ribena.
I would be very interested and grateful to know what other folk do regarding this.
Do you not allow any snacking between meals at all or do you only allow certain foods?

I hide chocolate in the filing cabinet. Have just found a stash of Jaffa Cakes inside a saucepan, presumably hidden by DH