nothing better than gangly 15yo tucking into 5 weetabix straight after huge dinner?

[lightlypoached]

AIBU as a mother to think there is nothing better than watching your 15 yo gangly, long-legged lovely boy tucking into a giant bowl of cereal just after demolishing a giant dinner of pasta?

I too have a teenager with hollow legs. They have a cupboard for themselves full of cheap filling foods like bread ,baked beans , tinned spaghetti. I couldn't afford weetabix and branded cereals.

I don't think I've ever had a weetabix. I really want to go find some now!

and then see if I can eat 5 in a row

There have been loads of similar threads over the years. A couple of years ago there was a teen dd who ate 8 (I think) after meals regularly

I wish mine could shovel it away and not have to worry about weight

It always makes me hmm when a load of posters are agreeing with the OP and happily sharing their own thoughts and experiences and one poster arrives to brand it "weird" or odd. Surely it's you that would be the "weird" one?

Then again there are threads where the first 20 comments slate the OP and then someone turns the tide and the next 20 support her.

I’m going to freely confess I know nothing about the feeding of hungry teenagers, although I remember being one and eating a lot of snacks.

But why is OP posting about her “lovely scrumptious boy” in AIBU? Isn’t there a topic for funny things kids do? She clearly doesn’t think she’s being at all unreasonable. She must have known she’d catch some flack here. That’s what AIBU is all about!

They'd be better off eating eggs and beans for breakfast rather than a ton of carbs. Cereals are not particularly healthy or filling..

I think my DD is lovely amd I could eat her. Just the same as when she was a baby. That doesn’t change when they get big. I don’t blow raspberries on her tummy anymore but the feelings don’t change.

Eggs and beans would require cooking. The hungry teen will not do this they need instafood

Just catching up on the later posts last night.
If your definition of creepy is that I’m a mum who loves her son (and DD) and give them big squeezy hugs, and tells them how great they are (and how rubbish, if they are) , and how much I love them then yes I’m creepy. My feeling for my kids are no different from when they were baked,bean toed babies , or raging tantruming 2 yo or engaging 8 year olds, or sweet 12 year olds. Just coz they’re big, tall, spotty and with a deep voice (DS that is) that doesn’t change. It never will I hope.

Oh and it’s Waitrose own brand weetabix (natch) and organic skimmed milk in case you need to sprinkle on any more derision

The rough and tumble of AIBU has not disappointed there must be quite a few pairs of judgy pants rammed up peoples’ bottoms right now, which is a perfect vision to start the morning off with.

I've always had this with both ds's, huge eaters. I like it.

Ds1 was a really fussy eater and still is, hardly eats anything.

Ds2 on.the other hand.... I once got flamed on here for starting a thread about how much some teenage boys eat and said that ds2 had just eaten a whole pizza as a snack to keep him going until dinner time a whole 2 hours away, and loads of people said he would end up obese and that in should have given him an apple rather than let him have a pizza. I concluded they probably didn't have teenage boys themselvrs 😂😂

Surely part of educating kids on healthy eating is to get them self regulating and understanding that when you are sporty and very active you will need more food than if you are leading a sedentary lifestyle. My brother used to pack food away like nobody’s business when he was a teenager. Now he’s approaching middle age he’s gained weight because he still seems to think he can eat like he used to but is nowhere near as active.

My bottomless pit 7yo is very active, plays football, swims and does a ton of running around. He has asked me before why he is still hungry after his dinner and asking for seconds and why I don’t want any. I’ve told him that I don’t do as much sport as him, I’m not still growing and don’t get as hungry as him so I don’t need to eat as much.

Surely part of educating kids on healthy eating is to get them self regulating and understanding that when you are sporty and very active you will need more food than if you are leading a sedentary lifestyle.

Yes - and I actually think a huge portion of a relatively healthy food like Weetabix is better in this regard because it's so much more easily cut down. So many of my male friends gained a lot of unwanted weight in their 20s and 30s when their metabolism aged out of them being able to eat anything they liked. The ones who had been eating healthily but huge portions fared much better than those eating smaller amounts but high density food, because it's easier to cut down your portions than to stop eating your favourite food whenever you want it.

I had a similar thought myself watching my 18mo son devour the fish pie I had made. There is something so satisfying about seeing him really enjoy something that I cooked myself, especially when he is generally more picky about chicken nuggets etc. It's given me an extra bit of enjoyment in my cooking

The cost of all this food must be eye watering.

But happy to see that it is about weetabix and milk not sugary or fatty crap. I can't stand weetabix without a load of sugar on it!!

Don't know how anyone could eat more than 2. My 5 year old son started to eat a lot more during the summer holidays and I thought he had worms as I didn't know how he was eating so much but he was playing outside most of the day so more active than normal.

I see from the majority of the posts who are raising an eye at the OP do not have teenage boys. Come back to the thread in ten years time and make comment

I remember deliberately counting DS1 as two dinners when I used to work it out portion wise

How strange and horrible to use the word 'creepy' about a mother calling her own child 'lovely and scrumptious'.

I have three boys, thinking I might start stocking up on weetabix now!

I remember my brothers eating loads as teens, one would demolish blocks of cheese.

The OP is lucky her teenage DS fills up on Weetabix.

Mine likes those sachets of Asian noodles.

And before the food police accuse me of being a bad Mum, the house is full of healthy choices - he buys them himself with his own money.

Pot noodle. Chicken and mushroom. I used to be ashamed putting them in the trolley 😂😂😂

Yes CCC. For a while I bought the "healthier' more expensive brands. DS didn't like them. So now he buys his own.

I blame the school. They introduced a thing called Pot Noodle Friday. Otherwise he would never even have known what it was.

My 4 year old is being the same at the mo, skinny and like a bottomless pit! Dreading the teens

Woah, mothers getting called creepy for calling their sons lovely and enjoying watching them turn from children to young men. A bit creepy in itself, don’t come on a parenting forum if you don’t want to hear such nice things!

I have teen boys and work with teen boys (the joy!) and the posters who say they wouldn’t be happy with their son eating so much, what kind of wierd attitude is that to deprive your own child of food that their body is clearly crying out for. You wouldnt do that to a baby as you’d be arrested, why is it different for a 15 year old?

those posters criticising or saying such boys will end up obese clearly don’t have any experience of a teenaged boy’s appetite during growth spurts. As a PP said, teenage girls obviously do grow and their appetite does increase (I was so skinny but recall coming home fir school dinners as a teen and my mum giving me a casserole, baked potato and veg. I stil had a big dinner at night too). But boys just seem to experience this growth spurt and demand for energetic to an even greater degree and it is a MARVEL to watch!

I think I get you, OP, it is a nurturing thing you’re describing, that’s joy of knowing you’ve done your job as a mum, your child has had enough food to grow and the growth has accelerated currently to the extent that you can almost see it hapennijg in front of you. It is joyful and fascinating to watch your children become adults. More so if they went through a fussy eater stage as small children. It’s exactly the same lovely warm feeling as when you’re happy at seeing your baby gurgling, smiling and kicking on a changing mat. I just can’t understand those who say it’s creepy. I guess it’s creepy to carry that adoration on when they ARE actually adults, but OP is talking about the between stage when they’re still classed as children and often act as such a lot of the time, but you can see glimpses of the wonderful individual unique human being they will become.

We’re not talking about boys who gorge on junk food and fizzy drinks here either so no problems with obesity for the people so concerned about that. It’s pure appetite and filling a hollow stomach (and legs!)

Lastly, I just want to say that if people don’t believe that teenaged boys don’t grow as fast as is claimed, google stretch marks in adolescent boys. Only discovered this was a thing yesterday because I had a shock when DS (15) showed me back in the bathroom and asked what the marks on his back were. It looked like he’d been mauled by a tiger across the middle of his back! . I was relieved to discover that yes they are stretch marks but it’s not the same ones as happen when someone puts weight on too quickly. this happens often in tall skinny teenaged boys when they are growing exceptional fast and basically their soft tissues don’t grow as fast as their bones are growing!

It is all fascinating to me experiencing it foe the first time, and realising that none of this teenaged boy appetite stuff is a myth.

We witnesses why families go all inclusive on holiday this summer. Teenage boys polishing off three huge plates of (healthy) dinner after a full day of horsing in the pool! I see my future...

Funny you should say that, it’s exactly the reason why we have booked our first ever all inclusive holiday this summer after years of self-catering!