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?

Apologies for the rant but this thread has touched a nerve, please encourage better eating habits in your teens!

I'm with OP.
I have a ds who is 16 and 6'3". He eats good meals and then at 10 pm, comes downstairs and makes himself another meal, like the 5 weetabix.

He has grown about 5" in the last year. He eats much more ont he weeks he works out int heschool gymn at lunchtime, and much less on the weeks he doesn't. He eats when he is hungry, and when not hungry doesn't.
I remember my brother being the same, he had breakfast, snakc, lunch, snack, meal, snack, and second meal later. Snacks were healthy, just needed lots of them!

Ds is skinny and tall. I love teenage boys, I love the gauche adolescent stage in boys and girls actually. I love being there to support them and then letting go and hoping they remember some of the wisdom I've tried to impart over the years, like the teenage version of a toddler taking their first steps.

As to girls, well, dd2 has eaten seconds, thirds and fourths at meals for the last week. We were staying with relatives and it became a standing joke. We were joking about her being about to have a growth spurt, and wondering if we should measure her now...

Where I’m reading 6 Weetabix other people seem to be reading 6 Whoppers and fries
I don't think this is your problem TSS. There are some eating disorders on this thread and they don't involve 5 Weetabix. Either that or a general dislike of teenage boys, which is awful.

@elvinsboys that’s also utterly, utterly bizarre.

I wish parents wouldn’t foist their food hang ups on teenagers. It is very damaging.

elvinsboy - hungry child, probabbly having a growth spurt, not allowed to eat???

Of course encourage good eating habits. That is basically listen to your ody and eat if you are hungry. If you insist they don[t eat when hungry, then you are teaching them NOT to listen to their body, and that will lead to food issues.

I've had a teen DS (now 21), so I definitely get the love as described by Op and other pp - not creepy at all to me.

That said, these types of threads always make me curious as I genuinely don't recognise this amount of eating. My Ds played rugby at county level, and football for a local team, and never came close to eating the amounts described here. Three good meals a day, and sometimes a couple of slices of toast in the evening if he fancied something. I also have two nephews whom I'm close to, and they weren't big eaters either.

What do families of teen boys do if they're on a tight budget? I have four older brothers, and there's no way my mum could've afforded for all of them to be fridge raiding, or cooking up extra meals for themselves.

Creepy thread. It's both the way that the OP is fetishizing her son's binge eating and talking about him in baby language. It's just a bit gag-inducing and over-indulgent. It reminds me of an interview I read with Liz Hurley and her so

Where did I put that safety-pin dress?

I'm reading this thread and laughing so much my DH and said gangly teen are looking at me like I'm bonkers. We've just finished a lovely roast beef dinner (including vegetables for those closely monitoring the balance of our diet), but no sign of any attack on the cereal. yet.

Thanks to all you lovely people out there who get it on the teen eating habits, and how we still love our big stinky boys even though they are v. tall. And yes the stretch marks are incredible aren't they?

poster user1481793247 poster willdoitinaminute poster Gettingbackonmyfeet poster PhilomenaButterfly and poster CarolDanvers I'm looking at you

user1481793247 willdoitinaminute Gettingbackonmyfeet PhilomenaButterfly and CarolDanvers I'm looking at you, again but hopefully properly tagged this time (you'd never guess I work in IT?

well that tagging went well....

We recently moved house to near a huge supermarket and my teen DSs have a new hobby- going shopping for yellow stickered snacks when they are marking down the food that's going out of date!
We also get through huge quantities of eggs and milk as they mainly snack on fried eggs, pancakes, eggy bread and so on.

i was on a VERY tight budget.

Pasta. Lot of veggie meals. Using EVERYTHING and throwing nothing out. A lot of eggs, and soups for lunch made from the chicken carcass.

Cheap biscuits and value fruit.

It was tough

French toast aka eggy bread and pancakes were also staples lol

This almost drove me to (silent, as I'd never have wanted DS to feel guilty for being hungry) despair when I was really struggling on UC. Well, I still am, but things are better now than they were. I used to be silently totting up how many slices of bread and how many weetabixes were left and praying I wouldn't have to go without meals again so the DC could eat. DS is like a bottomless pit though, I can't begrudge him food as he's very skinny but growing very, very tall (5'10" at just turned 13). He clearly needs to eat that much right now, I just hope it slows down a bit as he stops growing as fast!

And the PP is right thatthey get lovelier. He was a grumpy, grunting sod about 18 months ago and somehow a charming young man seems to have emerged from the sweaty, spotty chrysalis.

Very glad to hear this, as DS is currently in full 'Kevin' mode much of the time. I know there's a lovely young man in there somewhere waiting to reemerge! He's also developed the 'Yellow Man Syndrome' that I used to read of MNer's husbands having - don't know what he does to pillows and sheets but it's revolting! Testosterone sweat, I think?

Just stick a @ in front of the name @lightlypoached!

I have a 16 nearly 17 year old that ate like this till he was 13 then he was terribly ill for two years and could barely ate ( I prayed for the day I d see him eat me out of house and home!) ... he’s nearly well now and it’s a relief to watch him eat his two breakfasts - lunch - second lunch while asking what’s for dinner - eating dinner and then know he’s coming down at midnight for a snack because he can’t sleeo because he’s hungry??!!! He eats a massive pizza to himself while 3 of us share similar sized one!! When he was 6 he was doing the same!!
He’s a 6ft bean pole!! I could watch him eat all day long x

thanks @PhilomenaButterfly

@Fairyhill smashing, good to hear your DS is back on track

Having a teenage appetite is one thing

but selfishness needs to be reigned in

And i have to remind him that the 2kgs of strawberries/blueberries (expensive fruits) are actually for SHARING and not all for him to eat whilst standing with the fridge door open

My 14 year old is 6’2 and played sport 5 times a week. He just eats the weekly shop as it arrives.

my dd was born prem by 6 weeks and i thought shed be a delicate little thing no such thing shes in her 30s now and the amount she can and does eat is staggering. her oh is a big 6ft strapping lad but she even out eats him yet she remains a size 6 not fair!

I get where you're coming from OP.....we went in an all inclusive holiday a few weeks back. DH and I laughed as we saw DS15 revisit the all-you-can-eat buffet for about the seventh time! ......he's built like a rake btw. Course, on that occasion it wasn't my fridge supplying the food and I do know the stress of watching him starting on the next nights meal, which is not so funny!

@lightlypoached thank you 😍 watching him eat us out of house and home is one of the best things ever! .
But we have chickens for eggs and grow as much of our own veg as well - and he helps out with it all - he’s a super star that deserves to eat like a hobbit 😍🤣 x

Tight budget fill ups we use are: Eating out is TOBY INN! fantastic fixed price, healthy, all you can eat! Also Tortilla - again healthy massive burritos. I also keep crumpets handy, eggs, cornflakes, apples. Soreen malt loaf is a cheap filling and healthy scoff too. Plain natural yogurt and stacks of milk.

I have a rake-thin 6" 16 year old who rows, so I get you OP. My boy can eat 6 eggs with 2 bagels in one sitting.

I wish my DS would eat like this. He's 13, about 5ft 3 and so skinny. He is incredibly fussy and has a few sensory issues, but is always on the go and does a different type of sport 5 days a week (football, Futsal, volleyball etc).

The one meal he will eat plenty of is his Sunday roast. Probably the only time he clears his plate. Maybe I should just give him a cooked dinner every night!

I remember a few years ago my friend's 14 year old son making himself 'some' sandwiches. How many? 12 rounds (24 slices). He had eaten a good dinner about 2 hours previously,as well!

Jock: “Three good meals a day, and sometimes a couple of slices of toast in the evening if he fancied something”

Maybe that’s the reason, sounds like they had a filling breakfast. Both my DSs don’t have much of an appetite at 7.15am, and I don’t have time to make them a cooked breakfast anyway. A toasted muffin or piece of toast and a glass of fruit juice and that’s as much as they can manage.

Elvinsboys: doesnt sounds like you are instilling good eating habits yourself if your 12 year old appears to be still hungry after a meal and you deny him more food

I dont have any experience of eating disorders so not sure how they start but neither of my teens are bothered about how they look, and we don’t have masses of junk food in the house anyway. I was brought up to eat balanced meals with not really anything in between, to stop eating when full and to listen to your appetite when it comes to the amounts you eat eg fine to eat more if you actually feel hungry as opposed to, for example, eating a second piece of cake just because it tastes nice and you fancy it or “it’s a treat” because you’ve been on a diet.

I don’t believe in diets or restricting yourself, just eating the right things, eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full.

Teens just seem to need to eat a lot to feel full!