Annoyed at DS (17) ‘snacking’ before dinner

[InAQuandry2019]

Came into kitchen to cook 45 mins before regular dinner time to find DS making himself a ‘snack’ : 4 eggs, 2slices bread, milkshake and a banana

Him: (whiney voice) but I was hungry...
Me: couldn’t you just have had the banana and waited?

This isn’t the first time he’s done this. AIBU to be pissed off?

I understand why people are saying let it go, but I think there's a multitude of things here making it more complicated than people are picking up.

People are saying just let him reheat it later - OP has said he won't eat leftovers (so anything not eaten at the meal is wasted with a perspective of him eating it).

People are saying OP shouldn't have to be on vegetables duty - she SHOULDN'T have to at 17, but if he doesn't eat veg, do you seriously suggest she just stops encouraging him to? I know he's nearly an adult etc but surely you still encourage good behaviours in your adult children (in a non pushy way), let alone when they still live at home and you're cooking for them?

I don't have any issue with him making a snack. I have an issue with the size of the snack. If he'd had a banana, or a banana and a piece of toast - fine. Tide yourself over til the meal then eat the meal. You can always have more food afterwards but in my eyes it's just rude to not eat what's been made for you (barring illness etc). He's (nearly) an adult but he's living with other adults and therefore part of this is learning how to not be rude!

A PP raised a point I fully agree with: people have forgotten how to be hungry. It's GOOD to be hungry before you have a meal!

I'm genuinely interested so many people think differently.

Could he be focusing on particular foods to go with whatever he's doing at the gym?

Hes 17 not 7 !
At this age I still cooked but often DS would be meeting friends etc and we had an arrangement that if it was something like casserole I would put a portion in the fridge to eat later or he took it for lunch the next day.
Honestly you need to unclench a bit, he will be at Uni next year .
Insisting he eats his veg

Are people ignoring the OP saying he only ‘picked’ at his dinner later? 4 eggs=solid protein, possibly he’s focussing too much on building muscle? Some boys at school ate only chicken for months, they were all about building muscle, thought they looked great, but were actually eating very poorly.

Cherry
Im not surprised he picked at it.
Why is the OP insisting he eats dinner as well
At this,age mine had sport,friends,parties etc to go to plus PT jobs.
They often made their own food as they would be out at dinner time.
Next year he will probably be at Uni doing his own thing.
Mine had dinner at home a couple of times a week particularly if I did a roast
Op needs to let him do his own thing and stop enforcing a "must attend dinner"
Nice if they do eat with you but honestly its a bit controlling for a 17 year old particularly the veg thing

I have two teen boys who would definitely eat this and then a full dinner!

We get through an extortionate amount of milk, bread and cereal in this house...

Teenage boy in eating like a bin shocker

And to a previous poster: Greedy sod. Nobody needs four eggs

Nobody needs to eat a lot of the things we eat. At least it was eggs and not a packet of biscuits or a huge thing of crisps. But, fwiw, I lift and I would eat 4 eggs.

DS does this occasionally. He has a cupboard all to himself that I fill up, he can help himself to anything except meat that’s for dinner. This rule came about as he cooked a packet of belly pork for his friends once with rice and stir fried spinach for lunch when he was about 14. As much as I can be pleased he can cook that had been for dinner that night.

Both DH and DS are very slim, almost skinny and eat huge amounts of food. I think they have ridiculously fast metabolisms. Both of them become unpleasant if they don’t eat often. So I have no problem with DS snacking. Both do a lot of sport as well. We do eat dinner together most days and I do value that time.

He's a 17yo boy. He's meant to be constantly starving. Be grateful he can cook.

I can't see the problem, he was hungry and made his own food, good that you've raised him to fend for himself.

Mine does this then has his tea later. And yet he’s still like a rake. He also has cereal at midnight.
It’s hard to balance everyone’s dietary needs. I need to lose weight, so try to cook healthily, my youngest is prone to putting it on, so I avoid having too much snacky stuff in as he’ll eat a full pack of biscuits. Hence my oldest’s cereal habit.
I just get cross about the amount of washing up he leaves.