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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

DP eating everyone else's snacks

301 replies

DonnyBurrito · 28/02/2022 12:10

DP has a habit of eating other people's snacks. To be honest he doesn't respect that things can belong to other people in general, and feels entitled to use/borrow other people's stuff until it's either broke, lost or damaged because he's held onto it for so long, or used it well past it's shelf life. That kind of stuff is a bit of a pattern, although it's more infrequent than his snack theft.

He has habit of eating a full pack of biscuits, then rooting around in the cupboard for mine or his daughters snacks/sweets and then eating them, too. I don't eat a full bar of chocolate or pack of biscuits in one sitting like him, I tend to just have a bit here and there when I really fancy it. His daughter is only here at weekend and she isn't allowed to scoff entire packs of haribo anyway, but when she comes back the next weekend all of her sweets will have been eaten. He ate all her Christmas chocolate, too. He said it's too hard not to eat everyone else's stuff when it's just sitting there in the cupboard...

So anyway, last night I went to the shop and treated myself to a bar of chocolate, and bought him some of those chocolate pretzels. He finished his pretzels almost immediately, and then asked me if he could have a strip of my chocolate. I said no (because once I give him a bit of whatever I have he decides we are sharing the whole thing and eats at least half of it, when I actually didn't want to share the whole thing or at all). I said no anyway, and then went to bed.

Came downstairs this morning, he'd opened my bar of chocolate and had a couple of strips off it. I was SO ANNOYED. I decided to find something of his that he enjoys and would look forward to, and just chuck it away. Obviously there was nothing in the cupboards or fridge of his cause he eats everything straight away!

So I threw his pack of cigs away. He's been trying to quit smoking, but occasionally has one in the garage late at night here and there. He's promised not to buy any, and hasn't for quite a while (mainly because he can't afford to), but his friend gave him half a pack a few days ago. The bin men were coming this morning so I fed them to the wheelie bin. He has noticed, but he thinks I've just thrown them away to help him quit. Decided not to come clean about the actual reason I chucked his cigs away, and kept my petty revenge secret.

Do I need to chill out about this? Or would you be annoyed at this constant snack thievery?

OP posts:
Odile13 · 28/02/2022 13:00

I would be annoyed. DH and I both have specific snacks that we like and keep in different drawers. We don’t eat each other’s snacks.

Sausagedogsarethebest · 28/02/2022 13:00

I used to hide snacks and treats in our house to stop my husband pinching more than his share, or stuff I'd bought for myself. Left him last year so don't have that issue any more Grin.

GettingStuffed · 28/02/2022 13:00

This is me, if there's nice food in the house I'll eat it, whoever it "belongs" to. It's a compulsion. And not something you can just stop. It's an eating disorder .

WorraLiberty · 28/02/2022 13:00

Then again it's nearly Easter, when the yearly "AIBU unreasonable to eat my DC's Easter eggs" threads will start and all the replies saying "Tee hee, YANBU because you're doing their teeth a favour....tee hee hee" 🙄

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 28/02/2022 13:01

OMG I feel like I've found a secret society of the cupboard police.

Decided not to come clean about the actual reason I chucked his cigs away, and kept my petty revenge secret

Do realise how deluded/manipulative you sound?

As for locked boxes and cupboards... if the food is gone, it's gone. Stop buying/replacing it! Send him to the shop instead.

WorraLiberty · 28/02/2022 13:02

@GettingStuffed

This is me, if there's nice food in the house I'll eat it, whoever it "belongs" to. It's a compulsion. And not something you can just stop. It's an eating disorder .
Do you have kids? Do you eat their nice food, leaving them without?
GiantHaystacks2021 · 28/02/2022 13:02

Greedy arsehole.

Does he have worms or something?

Get a lockbox.

ExtraOnion · 28/02/2022 13:03

We have a rule “is your name on it” - if your name is on it, nobody else can have it. If your name is not in it, it’s open house

TheChronicalTales · 28/02/2022 13:03

I also second the people said said growing up with this damaged their relationship with food. My parents used to eat all of my snacks even if it was a fancy birthday or Christmas present and it definitely contributed to my binge eating disorder because I knew if I didn’t eat everything immediately, then it wouldn’t be there in the morning. I really struggle to just put a bar of chocolate back in the cupboard and I am restless if I know there are unopened snacks in the cupboard. This needs nipping in the bud ASAP.

MyNameIsAngelicaSchuyler · 28/02/2022 13:05

awful. Greedy, selfish and rude.

I'd start by telling him enough is enough, follow it up with HIM replacing every single thing he eats.

I actually don't think I could be in a relationship with someone so selfish.

SpinningTheSeedsOfLove · 28/02/2022 13:07

He sounds like a massive greedy cunt.

Bagelsandbrie · 28/02/2022 13:08

@GettingStuffed

This is me, if there's nice food in the house I'll eat it, whoever it "belongs" to. It's a compulsion. And not something you can just stop. It's an eating disorder .
Yep I’m the same.

I feel almost embarrassed replying because I can see myself in the op and how awful it is.

I’m like the dh. I can’t just leave stuff. For example, if I make some brownies I will eat 2/3 of them when they’re first out of the oven and then I’ll tell dh I’ve made some and he’ll say he’ll have his tomorrow etc. But then he might forget and they’ll just sit there (how can anyone forget about brownies anyway but still…!) and then I’ll get desperate to eat them and think he’s not eating them anyway so I’ll eat them and then he’ll be annoyed as he just doesn’t eat things as fast as me…

I can’t have just one bit of chocolate. I eat a whole family sized bar in one go. Most days actually.

You’d think I’d be 2000 stone from all that but I’m actually not. I just have no self control when it comes to chocolate and cake whatsoever. Blush

But yeah it must be extremely annoying for dh and everyone else.

The one saving Grace is that I do replace whatever I’ve eaten the very next day I guess and I’m the only one who does the shopping so I can usually replace stuff before dh notices - often anyway.

Booboobibles · 28/02/2022 13:09

I’m pretty rubbish at not eating chocolate if it’s in the cupboard but I would never steal my son’s chocolate - that would be totally unacceptable.

I’d find it difficult to have any respect for someone like this but then I’ve been single for most of the last twelve years and I’m not used to dealing with annoying men.

jay55 · 28/02/2022 13:10

@ExtraOnion

We have a rule “is your name on it” - if your name is on it, nobody else can have it. If your name is not in it, it’s open house
So if your kids don't write their names on their selection boxes or Easter eggs fast enough anyone else can take them?
WorraLiberty · 28/02/2022 13:12

But yeah it must be extremely annoying for dh and everyone else.

If the 'everyone else' includes children, it's more than extremely annoying, it's dangerous.

Beachsidesunset · 28/02/2022 13:13

How unbelievably unattractive.

Bagelsandbrie · 28/02/2022 13:14

@WorraLiberty

But yeah it must be extremely annoying for dh and everyone else.

If the 'everyone else' includes children, it's more than extremely annoying, it's dangerous.

How is it dangerous?
Gilly12345 · 28/02/2022 13:15

He is acting like a child so you are going to have to treat him as a child and hide and lock things away as he is a greedy pig.

Also make him pay and replace everything he has eaten that is not his.

Eating his daughters Christmas chocolate is really mean.

Ionlydomassiveones · 28/02/2022 13:16

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn at the poster's request.

WorraLiberty · 28/02/2022 13:17

How is it dangerous?

Have you not read the posts on this thread from people who are saying having their food taken before they get a chance to eat it, has caused eating disorders?

Kids are really quite good at learning to self-regulate but knowing if they don't eat something immediately, it'll be taken by an adult, can really fuck that up and cause binge eating.

whoruntheworldgirls · 28/02/2022 13:18

I'd be really pissed at this, he's bloody selfish, who steals their kids/partners treats?! Has his daughter said anything? If not maybe she should!
I agree with the suggestions of a lockable box seeing as he can't be trusted

TheOrigRights · 28/02/2022 13:19

Helping himself and finishing his DD's sweets and chocolates?

That's horrible, and greedy and selfish.
What sort of role model is he setting for his DD

Bagelsandbrie · 28/02/2022 13:20

@WorraLiberty

How is it dangerous?

Have you not read the posts on this thread from people who are saying having their food taken before they get a chance to eat it, has caused eating disorders?

Kids are really quite good at learning to self-regulate but knowing if they don't eat something immediately, it'll be taken by an adult, can really fuck that up and cause binge eating.

Hmmm. But that’s really extreme. I don’t take stuff from my son as he likes things I don’t like (nutty chocolate that sort of thing) so it’s mainly dh I pinch stuff from but we have had things we laugh about like this - like when we were on holiday and dd then aged 7 ate all of dhs yum yum doughnut before he had a chance to eat it - she’s 19 now, no eating disorder whatsoever, and we still laugh about it now. Mumsnet makes everything so doom and gloom but life isn’t really like that for everyone.
mrsm43s · 28/02/2022 13:22

I don't really understand the whole "my snacks", "your snacks", "her snacks" in a family situation. Surely snacks are bought and whoever fancies a snack has a snack? And when they're gone, they're gone. And then more snacks are bought in the next weekly shop? I guess something like an Easter Egg or a box of chocolates given to someone are "theirs", but in our family we'd probably share those anyway. I can't imagine sitting down and eating biscuits or chocolates or crisps without offering them round.

I suppose its not a problem in our family because no-one hoovers up all the snacks (although I have teenagers who eat their own bodyweight in cheese toasties and cereal). I definitely am the least snacky in the family, so I eat the least snacks, but that's OK because I don't need or want them as much as DH or the teens.

Assuming money isn't so tight that you can't do so (and this hasn't been mentioned so I guess not) then just buy enough snacks so that anyone can have one as and when they want. If your DH is a big snack eater, then that might mean buying more snacks than other families.

I couldn't get too wound up about fair shares of snack food tbh.

WorraLiberty · 28/02/2022 13:22

I don’t take stuff from my son as he likes things I don’t like (nutty chocolate that sort of thing)

He won't always like stuff that you don't like though, so what are you going to do then?

And who is the 'everyone else's' food you're taking then?

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