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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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To hate my pre-teen (12yo) right now?

275 replies

t33jay · 14/04/2016 21:47

Having checked Parent Pay Transaction History we've realised he has been stealing money (sums approx £500) from us, then using the money to top up his cashless account in school via the machine. Sometimes in cornershops to buy sweets, but mostly to buy school dinners.

He is on packed lunch as we have told the school that he is on organic diet only to find out that he has been given a 'canteen access card' in school and this is what he has been using to buy ridiculous amount of food. He does not have the fingerprint access, hence the access card.

So gets his meals at home + snacks & pudding + packed lunch AND gets sweets + at least £10 worth of food from the canteen ON MOST DAYS!!!

Surely the schools should put a limit on the amount a child can spend on a day!?!!!!!!!

I have a meeting with the headmaster tomorrow. Give me more ammos, am going there all guns blazing!!!!

To say that I am livid is an understatement.

OP posts:
wheresthebeach · 14/04/2016 23:19

It would all make more sense if you said he was on a 'low fat' or 'low sugar' diet rather than organic.

Openmindedmonkey · 14/04/2016 23:19

What Inlovewithhubby said ^^

Just wondering- did you or a family member have weight 'issues' as a child? Might there be a connection with your apparent views of DS as a failure??

vindscreenviper · 14/04/2016 23:21

Sorry op I've just seen that your updated that your son has stolen £500 in cash from you but you didn't notice until you logged onto Parentpay and saw what he'd been buying with it.
My apologies,

t33jay · 14/04/2016 23:21

Thanks for the kind posts, I will work to get past the anger and speak to him.

Just to be clear, he is not at a disadvantage at home, he has always been stubborn, thats just the way he is. In fact, he got overweight by getting the same amount of junk his older brother was getting. That's why we started cutting down, he agreed. Or so he said.

OP posts:
revealall · 14/04/2016 23:22

Did you notice the connections between the stealing and the start of school?

What has he done before he started school to make you label him as the troublemaker?

Can you think of differences between parenting son1 ( the one who has turned out well) and son2?

grumpysquash3 · 14/04/2016 23:22

If I can make a suggestion, I would suggest you let your DS have school food under a strict condition:
you credit a certain amount per day or per week onto his account (e.g £4/£20, or whatever you think suitable) and he has to choose wisely and budget. And, you will sit with him and both look through the listing of what he has bought, and have a discussion about it. Every day, or weekly, or whatever suits.

Then you can figure something that suits you both, without clashing, without stealing, and encouraging healthy choices. If he's actually hungry and £4 isn't enough, he can take in some fruit, a granola bar, something home made.....he could buy a snack and take in a lunch, or vice versa.

And I would sort of apply the criteria to the older brother, as in looking at his choices and all having an open conversation about food choices, eating only when actually hungry, making good choices.

How does that sound?

FWIW, my DS1 is 14, 6 foot 1 and very skinny. DS2 is 10, about 5 foot (quite tall but also a stocky build) and has a layer on him. I do try to guide choices for DS2, where I can, and he is on a few 'sugar swaps' but it is low key. I will let him choose his food in senior school, but I will keep a closer eye on what he's buying. If it's doughnuts and chips, there will be a discussion about, for example, a doughnut once a week, chips max of twice; if he has pizza then he needs to reduce the chips. If hungry at break time get a hot wrap or a sandwich rather than crisps or muffins. Encourage the 'meal of the day' which at our school tends to be meat and two veg, or a stir fry, or a curry, shepherds pie with green beans, that sort of thing.

It's not easy, and I can see you want the best for your son. I also think you've had a bit of a bashing here. I do believe that if you let him have a bit of autonomy it will be ok.....[and bear in mind that teen and pre-teen boys really do eat a lot compared to the average adult woman!]

t33jay · 14/04/2016 23:25

Big hugs to grumpysquash3, will follow suit. Have copied & pasted your post. Thank you!

OP posts:
summerdreams · 14/04/2016 23:32

Your poor ds, to feel the need to steel to get food because his mums calls him short and fat thia has really upset me and to only like one of your children is really quite cruel he probably comfort eats because you dislike him. Chocolate

t33jay · 14/04/2016 23:36

I'll think about it revealall, thanks but I raised them the same, they are 16 months apart!

OP posts:
SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 14/04/2016 23:39

T33j - the impression I get from this thread is that you are comparing your sons, and that the 12-year-old is, quite literally, falling short - and there is every chance that he has picked up on this and it is contributing to his behaviour.

I do not condone the stealing, but at 12, he is moving past the point where you can control his diet so strictly. He needs to learn to make sensible decisions about food - and part of that is letting him make bad decisions and letting him live with the consequences.

I have been there with my three dses - they all had paper rounds from 14, and they had dinner money because they didn't want packed lunches - and this meant they could buy crap - and yes, school lunches were crap. They didn't make good decisions all the time, and two of them did put on weight (ds3 appears to be able to eat nothing but junk foods and still looks very fit).

Ds1 graduated last year, and is working now, and his brothers are at university - and the older two take great pride in telling me of the delicious, and usually healthy meals they are cooking. Ds3 isn't there yet, but I believe he will get there too.

I guess I am saying you need to loosen the reins, the control a little, and let him make some mistakes, or run the risk of him really rebelling. My mum was very controlling about food - I could have a single sweet, and had to ask to take it, and she counted/assessed the size of every portion - and I was kept short of money, so couldn't buy myself the things I thought of as treats - so when I left home and started earning, I started eating whatever I wanted.

I focus on food, and I think my relationship with food is very unhealthy - and as a result I am very overweight - I hate that (and myself/my lack of self control), but have failed over and over again to lose weight.

I don't think my mum meant to cause this - but I do think it is a direct result of her being so controlling about food - it became a restricted treat, and I never learned to moderate my own intake. I still struggle with this to this day.

ClopySow · 14/04/2016 23:41

Poor kid.

I have a tall skinny and a short broad. They both get the same treatment.

You're coming off really badly.

Maryz · 14/04/2016 23:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Canyouforgiveher · 14/04/2016 23:51

OP, your approach has failed your son.

you haven't given him a healthier diet. you haven't taught him how to make good food choices. you haven't made him feel as equally valued and trusted as his brother.

All you have achieved is you have put him in a situation where stealing was allowed (how the hell did you get to 500 before sorting this out? he is 12- you need to be on the ball)

I have 2 girls 14 months apart. one skinny one not. one makes good food choices. one likes sugar. It isn't moral character or better will power-they each came out that way and were like that from day 1. If I told the less skinntone she had to take a packed lunch but her thinner sister could eat what she wanted (and they are also in different schools), I can't imagine the additional shame and misery she would feel. We are, instead, trying to engage her to take control of her own appetite and food.

BurningBridges · 14/04/2016 23:59

"Usually on MN everyone condemns parents who let their children get overweight, and also condemn them using euphemisms and not facing the fact they are fat."

This. about 700 times. That was roughly the number of messages on that hate filled thread the other week about letting children get fat being child abuse. Yet here is someone really taking the bull by its chubby horns and you don't like it?! I thought the OP would be getting "Mumsnetter of the Year" or something. Make your minds up.

EverySongbirdSays · 15/04/2016 00:00

I was fatshamed from as young as 8. What happened? I grew up with an unhealthy relationship with food.

BurningBridges · 15/04/2016 00:04

But Every, you must know - its not fat shaming! Its people being concerned Hmm

Anyway. I think OP must try to build some bridges with her son and I see she has taken on board some advice here.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 15/04/2016 00:07

When you are on the receiving end, it is fat-shaming and it feels dreadful.

Beeziekn33ze · 15/04/2016 00:09

Give your unhappy child a hug, let him know he's still a worthwhile person and that you care about him.
Did you consider talking to people who actually know him and care about him before posting on here?

Maryz · 15/04/2016 00:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

EverySongbirdSays · 15/04/2016 00:12

If someone knows they are overweight constantly reminding them of that is not only unnecessary but is criticism not concern.

TheWeeBabySeamus1 · 15/04/2016 00:14

Taking the bull by it's chubby horns come on now this is a 12 year old child you're talking about, not on at all.

There's nothing wrong with being concerned about your child's weight/eating habits but the OP has said she hates him - it's right there in the title. Encouragement, praise, increasing physical activity as a family ( going on walks/bike rides/swimming together ) giving him a better understanding of how important good nutrition is especially while you're still developing - that's the way to improve his health. Not destroy his confidence and tell the world you hate him Sad

Honestly if the OP had come back and said that she didn't mean that she hated him, that she was furious that he'd stolen from her ( as she has every right to be ), that she'd wrote it in a moment of anger, then I don't think she'd have had quite so many negative responses.

EverySongbirdSays · 15/04/2016 00:14

Incidentally my response to being told I needed to lose weight as a child was to cry into a bar of chocolate

t33jay · 15/04/2016 00:14

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius Thank you for sharing, you're a star.

OP posts:
Canyouforgiveher · 15/04/2016 00:18

Yet here is someone really taking the bull by its chubby horns and you don't like it?!

har har -very funny. chubby horns. lol! you are a wit, you!

I don't like "it" being the OP's approach because it is (as is clearly evidenced from the original post) a completely and utterly ineffective way of dealing with an overweight 12 year old.

It is a stupid approach that has only resulted in her child, lying, stealing, and thinking-not without reason-that his mother values his skinny brother more than him.

Meanwhile the 12 year old still has weight issues. Great approach there - we should all applaud and like it.

Titsywoo · 15/04/2016 00:21

God you sound just like my mother. And I bloody hated her. She was 'concerned' too. But really she was just embarrassed about having a chubby kid.

I know it's difficult but making him feel shit about himself will make this worse not better.