I have two DDs age 18 and 12. DD1’s best friend is a boy age 17 (who thinks he’s a girl as appears to be the modern way, but his metabolism doesn’t agree). When he visits he stays for about a week usually, and I cannot believe the difference in terms of what he eats vs my kids. He’s not overweight or greedy, he just needs a lot more food.
I get that it’s obvious, teenage boys need more calories than girls, but good lord, as much as I like him, if I had to feed him all the time I’d be destitute! It got me thinking about how I would manage as a single parent if both of my DDs were boys, I reckon my food bill would be double what it is now.
I know girls need sanitary products, which boys don’t, but a 50p pack of sanitary towels hardly breaks the bank.
There must be a massive disparity in the cost of bringing up teenage boys vs teenage girls, and I do genuinely feel for families who are struggling, and perhaps controversially I believe there should be some kind of supplement for very low income/single parent families if they are raising boys, once they get to a certain age, as they need to eat so much more. AIBU?