To never buy snacks/squash/sweets etc again

[Fiera]

Every single time there is somthing remotely snackly in the house it just gets taken and eaten. The large double concentrate bottles of squash gone within 24 hours, any kind of sugary cerial gone the same day they come through the door.
I dont like to use the word 'steal' but tonight its the only word i can use because my daughter actually STOLE my can of coke.
We never usually buy coke or Fizzy anything, nut it was my eldest sons birthday and all the children had a can as a very rare treat. My daughter actualli hid my can up her sleeve (after having drank hers earlier in the evening) and went and drank it in her bedroom.
Even my toddler daughters 'treats' like 'GoGo' biscuits and 'Goodies' puffs just disapear before she even knows theyre there.
We have a full fruit bowl, two actually, every day and even they get emptied. They have hot meals every day so theyre not 'hungry' just greedy.
I just dont understand why they do it and im seriously considering just not buying again.
My toddler will happily drink water (theres hardly ever any squash left for her anyway)

[BrutusMcDogface]

Lethal- that very much deorbds on the child's personality, and not in your superior personality.

I have a child who would (and does) snaffle the lot if given the chance, and another who is excellent at self regulation, despite her massive appetite! They all have the same parents and upbringing, so it's clearly not something we've done or haven't done that makes them so different.

[BrutusMcDogface]

Ah, rubbish- I meant superior parenting, obviously!

[Troels]

Wow some of you drink a lot of squash.
I'd just stop buying all the squash, crisps, biscuits for a while and see what happens. Are they also buying this stuff on the way to/from school? Maybe a total break from sugar will help them to get over the craving.

[Teateaandmoretea]

The DS scarfed the whole bottle in under 5 minutes. My DD had a few sips and left the rest. It's still sitting in the fridge. I don't know what the answer is as DD's diet could definitely be better but I think if kids feel they're missing out they could easily take to binging.

I just don't buy that, sorry. Fruit shoots are gross, I let mine have them fairly regularly. Dd2 downs them in seconds. I just think your dd has more taste tbh - have you actually tried them?

The op also seems to be experiencing the Opposite, bingeing caused by crap being constantly available.

[PrimalLass]

A bottle of squash has about 30 servings. What are you all doing with it? Surely these kids are usually only in the house from around 4pm to bedtime? I can't imagine buying seven bottles every week.

[AlbertaSimmons]

A bottle of squash a day? A day? . A bottle of liquid sugar. I'm amazed that anyone buys squash these days at all, never mind gets through a bottle a day. Are you all deaf to the messaging around sugar and healthy eating or are you deliberately ignoring it? If I had young DC now, there's nothing would persuade me to buy it.

[nokidshere]

My two teens are like locusts! They too can clear the snacks within hours of buying them. So I stopped buying them

I would buy a box of crisps (pack of 32), biscuits, maybe some mini muffins etc and they would barely last the day let alone a week. So instead I gave them an extra £5 on their monthly allowance and now they buy their own.

I provide all food for 3 good meals a day, healthy snacks such as hummus, olives, fruit etc and if they want crap they buy it themselves. I have to say it seems to work and they each much less rubbish as a result.

[Ifailed]

There are 8 bottles of squash / cordial currently on the go in our house. We go through two a day.
two bottles a day - where do you live, the Sahara desert?

[Frosty66612]

How can bottles of squash be getting drank in a day?! Even between a few people? You must be having very strong glasses of squash

[Lethaldrizzle]

Brutus - odd that all my kids are the same tho! But yes I do have a superior personality natch!

[IveGotBillsTheyreMultiplying]

I don't buy squash, if I did my teens wouldn't drink it.

Or fruit juice, fizzy drinks, flavoured milk, or anything else like that. They drink water, tea, coffee and hot chocolate occasionally.

Fizzy drinks would be for a party-even then they aren't that bothered.

I was brought up the same way so it's just normal to me.

[PussGirl]

The whole concept of "treats" does my head in. No-one needs to have chocolate or crisps.

Children & teenagers usually need snacks in between meals. Teenage DS would have a tin of soup & a huge pile of buttered crackers after school & still shift a vast plate of dinner two or three hours later, and then often would be looking for something else for supper - milk & biscuits usually. He is slim.

He was literally falling asleep with hunger & no way could he have waited or he'd've got no homework done till after dinner.

[mammmamia]

I am so shocked at all the squash drinking. Are some of you still in tbe 1980s? It’s total crap. Either sugar loaded or full of artificial sweeteners. 2 bottles in a day is madness sorry. Can’t you just drink water or diluted juice?

[claraschu]

I don't buy the "children deprived of squash, coke, and sugary cereal will binge on it given half a chance" argument. These are things I have never bought because I think they taste disgusting. My parents never bought them, and my 3 grown up kids also hate them. They are not "forbidden" just not something I like to eat, so they are not around the house.

As long as you have lots of good food around, including good quality deserts, and as long as you have a healthy attitude towards food, as a fun part of family life, I think kids brought up without junky food tend not to like junky food. This is what I have observed in my family and among people I know.

[AlbertaSimmons]

Squash has to be diluted with water right? So if a bottle contains 30 servings, then a family of five people would have to be drinking six glasses of squash each per day. In addition to any other drinks (coffee, tea, dare I say it, water). How big a glass? I'm sort of morbidly fascinated by this now.

[mammmamia]

alberta me too. Are these families drinking squash as a meal replacement?

[willynillypie]

GreenTulips

Please write an amusing parenting book along the lines of your comment - made me snort with laughter.

OP, my brothers and I behaved like this as teenagers. It's just what teenagers do! We have never been even bordering on overweight, and have healthy attitudes to food as adults. Teenagers are just hooligans who enjoy snacking and eating everything they like.

[Xennialish]

I might start a thread asking where the squash drinkers live...so many places we visit, I wouldn't dream of making the kids drink the tap water but would never occur to me to buy squash at home.

[Juells]

Someone I know had four totally-out-of-control children, to such an extent that the parents were brought into the school for a serious talk. After investigation, the school sent a nutritionist to talk to them. The mother told me indignantly that the nutritionist was wired to the moon, that she'd said all squash, crisps etc. should be removed from their diet. The nutritionist didn't live in the real world, apparently.

[BarbaraofSevillle]

There's some insane squash drinking going on on this thread. Multiple bottles a day That can't be normal. You do know you are supposed to dilute it, right? What are you doing, bathing in it?

I bought two bottles for bonfire night and we've just finished the second one and it seemed that we were drinking it quite a lot.

And I probably won't buy any more ever because in the last few months it seems that the squash market has changed and it is now almost impossible to buy it without disgusting tasting artificial sweeteners in, to pander to those who are drinking it daily by the gallon.

Sugary drinks should be an occasional treat and if you are drinking so much that the calories are significant, you need to drink less, not fill it with artificial sweeteners to reduce the calories.

[MissCharleyP]

Hmmmm....in two minds about this. I confess to laughing at the thought of a kid hiding a can up their sleeve, how big are the sleeves?!

My parents always had chocolate biscuits, crisp, squash (fizzy drinks were an occasional treat) for me and my brother. We didn’t go mad and certainly wouldn’t have eaten 3/4 bags of crisp in one go! One of my friends however had a huge appetite (as did her brother and sister) - all grew up slim and healthy. Again, they had treats like us but ate huge portions and had after-school snacks like, toast/cereal.

Squash is not the worst thing, I buy the Belvoir ones (I’m allergic to artificial sweetners) and just put a drop in, just enough to colour the water. I will not drink tap water, it tastes very ‘chemically’ and when I lived in SE England it was cloudy and looked bloody awful! I normally just drink bottled water.

I’m surprised by the amount of people on here (I’m new!) that say ‘fruit is always available’; it’s also quite unsatisfying (if you’re very hungry, no way is a tangerine cutting it) and has lots of sugar. As a comparison (according to My Fitness Pal), a 50g apple has 16g of sugar, whereas some squashes have no sugar and black currant has 2g per 250 ml (diluted).

I was very overweight last year and sorted it by seeing a PT who also is a qualified nutritionist. He always says an occasional treat is OK. I obviously know that my diet plan would not be suitable for children but I’m always amazed how many people think artificial sweetners are OK and don’t think sugars in fruit matter.

[littlepill]

But fruit is just to fill a small gap between bigger meals, if really necessary. Bananas are pretty substantial.

[Storm4star]

It is ok. Water is required in order to live. No other beverage is. People might prefer something else, but it is ok to only offer water all the time.

Sorry, didn’t realise we should only give our children the basics of what’s “required” to live 🤨

I just think there’s plenty of non sugar alternatives, unsweetened fruit teas (hot or cold) milk (which yes I have seen some posters give) but can be flavoured by blending in a (healthy) banana for example. There are also plenty of “zero” drinks available. Even fizzy water makes a change (always my preference over still).

I don’t think bulk amounts of tap water is particularly healthy and bottled is even worse. Anyway, none of my business, I just feel a bit sorry for all these kids with such limited choices.

[MrsMozart]

That is a lot OP. I get your annoyance.

The stealing Coke thing would make me both upset and angry.

[nellieellie]

As a pre parent adult, I didn’t drink squash, eat biscuits or have fizzy drinks at all. I don’t think at any point I decided that my DCs would not have squash or fizzy drinks or sweets, but I just don’t buy them. There might be an odd packet of crisps around at the weekend, and there are generally biscuits. If the DCs are thirsty they can help themselves to water, and my DS likes orange juice at weekends. They are not allowed to help themselves, apart from fruit, although it’s never been an issue really.
I would be worried about binge consumption, and I think for some kids, food does become a bit addictive - fizzy drinks, biscuits etc. I am surprised at some of the posters here who seem to be saying, let them eat as much as they want. I don’t think it’s “controlling” to control what your DCs eat in your home. I think it’s what parents are meant to do. I’d cut the junk. The eating habits they develop now will determine those in the future.