AIBU to bag up cereal with pre-portioned sugar to stop the kids wasting it?

[TheOnlyColditz]

I mean a sandwich bag of cereal with another little bag of sugar inside? Currently I'm scraping glued on cereal and sugar off the bottoms of bowls every day! Kids are 7, 10 and 14

Have not read the whole thread.

I used old takeaway plastic boxes and portioned out cereal when we went camping. We all used the tub as the bowel as well. Perhaps you could do this and at least the tubs are reusable and washable?

It also looks really lovely staked neatly in the cupboard!!

ooo dear, this thread blew up a bit, didn't it?

Thank you all for all your suggestions. The fruit-instead-of-sugar idea is lovely but doesn't work for us.

The 'no sugar' idea is lovely but not acceptable to my family.

The 'do you eat vegetables?' question ... I'm sure was well meant.

I'm REALLY glad, Batteries, that sugar got your little teether to eat - it does help, there's a Mary Poppins song about it.

We do eat together at dinner, but not at breakfast and we aren't going to start.

We eat cereal for breakfast, we are going to continue to put sugar on it every day. It's about want, not need.

I'm not making their breakfast for them, nor am I going to get up 15 minutes earlier. I promote independence in my family, it works well for us.

All the kids are perfectly capable of pouring cereal, I promise, and I'm only upstairs, I'm not in Russia.

The sugar sachets look promising but quite expensive - although once we factor in bag costs, it might actually end up cheap to buy sachets - although again, we could reuse the bags.

I love the little stripy glassware bowls and might buy some just because.

Demarera sugar on cereal is not something that had ever occurred to me but it has now. I imagine it goes beautifully on bran flakes.

FYI breastmilk is 7% sugar.

I told - yes of course we all sit together at all meals if possible. If someone's not in then no, but not if someone just couldn't be bothered to get ready 10 mins earlier, it's rude. It shows you don't deem the time as important. And yes it's tiny to you maybe, but to a child or teenager it's reassuring to use that time to remind them what they need for school, or of an event happening that day, or whatever. Or just 10 mins to chat and be there before they are busy 7hrs elsewhere

Colditz - would they eat porridge if you added a small amount of Nutella stirred in and fruit?
You can make a kind of banana bread with oats, bananas, plain thick Greek yogurt, eggs (or substitute oats for wholmeal flour). Just mix it until it looks about right (plus tsp baking powder).No sugar and better than Starbucks.

OP
I am loving the way you reply to the bossy posters. Have a

Thanks for the porridge suggestion, but I think my 7 year old would struggle to make it himself

I like the banana bread idea but I don't think they would get any, I'd eat it all warm on the day I made it

Laughing at breakfast being a time for meaningful conversation. In my house this morning the hot topics were,
Who has the biggest banana DS2 or DS3?,
This thing that happened on the Simpsons,
Where is DD's pen (and in my head only wtf is she doing wearing a cropped vest in the middle of winter),
and who drank the last of the tea from the teapot without refilling it, it's the law I need two cups in the morning to endure the above with a smile.

Oh please, as a teenager I wolfed my breakfast down and left the house to bunk off go to school with my best friend, didn't want a meaningful conversation with my (very much loved) mum at that time.

The only cereal i think needs sugar is

Weetabix
Rice krispies
Cornflakes/bran flakes
Shreddies
Shredded wheat

However i love sugar on cereal and dont know how anyone can eat the above without sugar on.

I would definitely do them individual bags if they are wasting it.

If that works for you Art, then more power to your elbow. It doesn't work for me. Did you miss the bit when I said we had a 20min walk to school for chatting? DS also comes into my room while I am getting ready to chat. He gets countless reminders of what he needs for that day, and plenty of opportunity to tell me of any concerns. Sitting about 10 feet away from me eating his breakfast on his tod for 5 mins does him no harm at all.

I am old. I ate cornflakes by the bowl with full fat milk that you would pour carefully so the fat stayed on top allowing the sugar added to form a gooey crust. It was heaven. Porridge had pools of liquid sugar and you could repeatedly coat the back of your spoon and suck it off-what joy.
My kids get a healthy start all the way - yours may well enjoy mornings more;)

I loved having my breakfast on my own as a kid, it was my quiet time before the day began. I would have hated to have to make conversation that early in the morning rather than read my book. If you all sit down to dinner together I don't see why a weekday breakfast needs to be a big family affair!

Art, your children are very small. I can assure you that grunting teenagers are quite happy to be left to their own devices. And mine quite often have to leave the house early to get to a 'twilight' class.

I don't remind my teenagers of something they might have forgotten. What with the oldest being 16 and a fairly competent young woman.

ArtanCo, if they want to talk to me, I am available all evening. They don't.

I get up at 5 to supervise the cats' breakfast (one gets bullied). DS1 (14) leaves at 6.10 because of rowing. DH is either running or on the phone until leaving at 7 or whenever he needs to go. DS2 (12) leaves at 7. I leave with the girls (6 and 9) at 7.50. It's like a tsunami of whatever I'm making food-wise which I slide over the breakfast bar at them at intervals. So we don't eat together, but they're not alone either.

I feel the same way when people suggest 'date nights', Colditz. Should the urge to talk to Mr Inferior overtake me, I can go and find him.

alaia5 - I'm not living like that, full stop. I'm not a servant.

Cereal without sugar is gross unless it's the sort with loads already added. Making a child eat Weetabix with no sugar is tantamount to child abuse in my book 😉.

I know how you feel op, my issue is more with wasted milk as they always pour too much and leave half a bowlful. However I am trying to educate them into how much to use as giving them pre-measured amounts won't teach them how to judge it correctly themselves.

Alaia youre suggesting nutella as a way of not giving sugar... do you know how much crud is in nutella?!!!

OP just tell them to use one small teaspoon full and see how that goes? Im totally with you on encouraging independence

Of course Nutella is sugar and veg oil basically, but if the porridge is just skimmed milk and whole oats at least you can see and control what you're putting on it, if that makes sense?

Yeah, lovely thought, golden family time at the breakfast table all discussing our plans, dreams and aspirations for the day before cheerily kissing goodbye and waving each other off.

Yeah, no. In my house full of decidedly NOT morning people we had an unspoken agreement to NOT speak - AT ALL- in the mornings before school work. Obviously of course I made an exception for myself to yell at the kids to get out of bed NOW every few minutes and on a rising scale depending on how long it was before they'd miss their bus. We'd barely even make eye contact when we were stumbling around, jostling for bathroom time, the last of the milk or access to the toaster.

Fortnum and Mason have withdrawn their manuka honey after rumours that it might be fake.

God knows what was in it.

I put sugar on my cornflakes and porridge and sometimes pour gold top on it.

If they can't control themselves around sugar, they won't control themselves around Nutella, either! (and neither will I)

I'm not making their breakfast anyway, and I don't want the 7 year old making hot foods - and actually I don't serve skimmed milk to my kids, I don't believe in it. Taking the fat out of dairy takes away some of the satiety. Full fat and high fibre is a very filling breakfast.

if I don't like them to waste cereal, can you imagine how apoplectic I will be pouring milky manuka honey down the sink in the evenings?