DS sneaks food at night

[Protorq]

My DS1 is 16. Our house is 3 stories. On the bottom floor we have the living room and the downstairs toilet.

The first floor is the kitchen, Ds1s room and another toilet. The top floor has, mine and DPs room, DS2s room and the bathroom.

DS1s room is next to the kitchen and he always sneaks into the kitchen at night and makes himself cereal or he eats a packet of biscuits to himself. We don't realise until the morning as me and DP are either in bed or in the living room.

He eats a lot for dinner. This never used to be a problem as he used to share a room with DS2 but obviously now he's older he has his own room.

We've asked him not to eat the whole packet of biscuits as they're not ‘his’ and its unfair on DS2. At times he ate the rest of the cereal that's left and that means DS2 refuses to have breakfast (he's only eats one kind of cereal). But he just ignores us and carries on doing it.
He also doesn't clean up after himself, this morning I went in the kitchen and there was cereal all over the side, he didn't wash his dish up after he used it and he left the cereal out.

Any advice on how to stop this?

You really can’t see how?
Wake up at a reasonable time.
Busy during the day.
Tired so sleep.
It’s not about forcing. It’s about encouraging healthy routines. OP says they are bothered by this behaviour.

I’m guessing you might not have a teenage son wolfiefan

Sounds perfectly normal - just buy more (healthy) snacks for him, teenage boys do tend to eat a lot!

@Wolfiefan You sound very naive - good luck trying to force a teenager to go to sleep early.

Sounds completely normal. Buy more cereal/biscuits one for one son and one for the other, is DS1 runs out he shouldn't have DS2s

Gosh, teenage boys can eat a lot. They get the munchies at odd times. The normal and healthy teenage boy is not especially consequential. They don't think about whether their midnight snack is healthy or balancing their diet, they simply open fridge doors and see what is in there. Then they eat it.

@Wolfiefan

You really can’t see how? Wake up at a reasonable time. Busy during the day. Tired so sleep. It’s not about forcing. It’s about encouraging healthy routines. OP says they are bothered by this behaviour.

How old are your kids?

Sounds really normal. My teenagers went through a stage of late evening grazing. Drove me mad. But just realised they need food. A lot. Across the day.

They are both rake thin, by the way.

If he is hungry he will have difficulty sleeping.

Another vote for it's normal. I had two teenage boys at the same time. Keeping food in was almost a full time job. I used to come home from work and find every cupboard door in the kitchen open as they had been searching for snacks.

The used to eat an entire box of macaroni cheese (the kind I would not buy now), in one sitting, and then eat dinner an hour later.

They turned out fine. It's fuel for growth.

Oh, and putting a lock on the kitchen door is, respectfully, the kind of authoritarian parenting that I would suggest often leads to outright rebellion. Keeping teens onside is the best way to help them learn to make good choices. I don't mean let them do whatever they want. I mean being empathetic and understanding whilst setting reasonable limits. Like clean up after yourself.

@CandyLeBonBon between 11 and 18.
Mine eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks if they want them through the day. 18 year old eats much more as he goes to the gym. But they don’t eat overnight. They’re sleeping. Yes. Even the 18 year old!

@snowcobra my 18 year old goes to sleep when he’s tired. Normally about 10pm ish. There’s no forcing.

[quote Wolfiefan]@CandyLeBonBon between 11 and 18.
Mine eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks if they want them through the day. 18 year old eats much more as he goes to the gym. But they don’t eat overnight. They’re sleeping. Yes. Even the 18 year old![/quote]
That's marvellous for you, as you can see your 18 year old is the exception here. Like I said, you can't force people to sleep no matter how much you encourage good sleep hygiene.

Hell I sometimes eat late at night too!

The not cleaning up is a different story; lazy and you need to take him to task on it.

But the eating? He's a teenage boy. Let him eat!

Only suggested ideas as OP clearly isn’t happy. If you wake him for breakfast he will be less hungry later and more likely to sleep. I would’ve thought that much was obvious.

@Wolfiefan

Only suggested ideas as OP clearly isn’t happy. If you wake him for breakfast he will be less hungry later and more likely to sleep. I would’ve thought that much was obvious.

If he isn't a breakfast person, waking him up early won't solve that. Mine are perfectly capable of getting up early. They just don't want to eat straight away. So will eat when they're hungry. Provided everyone agrees to dine ground rules (clearing up/being quiet/leaving enough for others etc), I don't see the harm in allowing food autonomy.

What works for you and yours won't work fir others, as people are wildly different.

I would've thought that much was obvious.

@Wolfiefan

Only suggested ideas as OP clearly isn’t happy. If you wake him for breakfast he will be less hungry later and more likely to sleep. I would’ve thought that much was obvious.

But that doesn't necessarily work.

I can easily get up early when I have to, but I don't want to eat for a good few hours.

I also can't force myself to sleep. If someone tried to make me go to bed at 9pm I'd just lie there getting more and more frustrated at not being able to sleep.

Personally I would put a lock on the kitchen at night

@FortniteBoysMum

Personally I would put a lock on the kitchen at night

Jesus. He is 16 years old and he's hungry, it's quite normal. Does he have a job, OP? I had a part time job and that age and I was able to buy myself snacks etc if I wanted them. But my mum didn't have an issue with me eating so would probably just have bought more..

@FortniteBoysMum

Personally I would put a lock on the kitchen at night

🙄

Same here @cupsofcoffee

@FortniteBoysMum

Personally I would put a lock on the kitchen at night

Are you proud of being so controlling?

He IS eating breakfast- just much earlier than the rest of you. 😁Unless he is overweight- it is just one of his meals.

Cater accordingly. Steer him towards what he can grab and teach him the basic law of the kitchen (clear own mess or the cook/tiger will eat you!)

They do suddenly get an appetite at this age.
My brothers and now my son were either hungry or eating all the time for a few growing years.

Wouldn’t be bothered about the food, just buy more. Leaving a mess though would give me the rages.

@Teessider

God just buy a pile more biscuits or cereal or cheese and biscuits. Honestly don't make this the hill you die on.

Supply plenty of food and let him eat it

This