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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

The snack requests are going to kill me off.

177 replies

3AndStopping · 25/07/2023 16:57

One week into the summer holidays and if I hear ‘I’m hungry.’ One more time I might actually bang my head against a brick wall!! Helppppp!
(light hearted(ish) of course.)

OP posts:
Catspyjamas17 · 26/07/2023 12:37

DDs are 18 and 14 and I still get "There's no food! There are no good snacks!"

Hmm, why is that I wonder? At least my big girl can drive now and I can send her off for supplies!

Catspyjamas17 · 26/07/2023 12:39

FormerlyPathologicallyHappy · 26/07/2023 12:08

When I was small a snack was an apple or a carrot. If it was a meal time soon you didn't even get that you'd have to wait.

If you didn't want an apple or a carrot you were deemed not that hungry then and sent off.

80's moms didn't have all this.

In the 1980s I used to have all manner of crap - chocolate, crisps, Kia-ora, cola, and still eat all my dinner. Which was probably processed crap too.

Catspyjamas17 · 26/07/2023 12:45

I have never restricted food or snacks with my DDs (unless dinner is imminent, perhaps) or made a big fuss about whether or not they eat their dinner. They are both really active, really good eaters, always have been, in spite of fussy phases, and need a lot of calories and have a good appetite - sometimes I underestimate it. As a 47 year old I don't tend to need to eat as much as growing children/teenagers. Also my 14 year old is now three inches taller than me and still growing (and I'm 5'7"). They are both slim, healthy and fit with good dental health also, and slimmer and lighter than I was at their age.

Yogazmum · 26/07/2023 12:48

OMG… I feel your pain. My kid had 2 friends round the other day and I felt like I was just emptying my cupboards at their feet!
I treat myself to a can of Diet Coke randomly so had some stashed away…& they drank it all!!!!
I felt like I couldn’t say no incase they told their parents I was a horrible mother!!
I read a Meme that had a sticker on the fridge saying ‘if you’re hungry, use your school stomach..’ or words to that effect. I’m thinking of getting it tattooed on my forehead and just pointing to it 🤣

FormerlyPathologicallyHappy · 26/07/2023 13:22

Oh we had full on healthy eating in our house @Catspyjamas17 cook from scratch & brown bread as standard. Huge jars of red lentils in the pantry.

Grandma served mini pizza & frozen strawberry mousse. And I'd get cheese and biscuits with cocoa as a light supper after dinner.

Catspyjamas17 · 26/07/2023 13:27

Heh, excellent. I got coffee and biscuits as supper at my grandparents' house - weak, milky, sweet: Mellow Birds. Probably didn't keep me awake that much 😆

AutumnCrow · 26/07/2023 13:31

Catspyjamas17 · 26/07/2023 13:27

Heh, excellent. I got coffee and biscuits as supper at my grandparents' house - weak, milky, sweet: Mellow Birds. Probably didn't keep me awake that much 😆

Our equivalent at the great aunt and uncle's, when we stayed with them after they moved to London for work, was buttered Tuc biscuits for a 'light children's supper'. (Two each.) I think was around 1970 so it would have been considered very sophisticated.

I think they came with a glass of milk or cup of tea.

Hufflemuff · 26/07/2023 13:58

3 options -

Make meals a bit bigger than normal and if they don't eat it leave it in microwave or fridge and when they ask for a snack that is what they eat.

Make up a snack box and leave it in the fridge, they can eat it all within 5 minutes or 5 hours but absolutely do not cave in if they do the former... otherwise they will continue to nag. Explain they are for the whole day and it's up to them to regulate it if they're older.

Dont hand out any snacks but adjust meal times to suit hunger. If they are hungry at 11.30 make them lunch rather than just giving them another snack.

CrystalPalaceAlice · 26/07/2023 14:22

Snacks, is this something that MN invented? Don’t encourage it they’re just bored kids, I’d tell them to do laps round the garden.

Although the £5 thing’s a great idea, if desperate.

The pet feeder’s a good one too.

I’d stick to the ‘I’m thirsty’, ‘I’m Friday’.

Or ‘I’m hungry, ‘I’m Dad’.

😆

Doone21 · 26/07/2023 15:27

Why do you let them snack then?

Dinopawus · 26/07/2023 15:29

Savemesos · 25/07/2023 17:35

I used to tell mine to have a drink instead. They soon got fed up with that! Chances are they’re not hungry, just bored.

Yup. Me too. Are we the mean mummies?

BabyUxX · 26/07/2023 16:13

Hi everyone! So glad I'm not the only parent feeling this way. I'm about to cry 🤣

I have 4 kids at home and dare I say, I am going insane. Boyfriend comes home from work and asks why am I looking so stressed? I can't think why! Nopeeee🫠🙃🤣🫣

Gin1982 · 26/07/2023 18:58

I’ve purposely not bought biscuits this year. Biscuits seem to be my kids go to but they were eating far too many! Instead, I’ve bought loads of fruit in which the kids can help themselves to.

FormerlyPathologicallyHappy · 26/07/2023 19:07

You used to be able to buy bran biscuits. Even when I was desperate I was never that desperate.

Dm ate them with ovaltine.

Greenpin · 26/07/2023 19:37

Children only keep asking for snacks because they know they will be given them.
If the answer is mainly no they will stop asking within a few days.
I'm not against snacks but it's ridiculous to let children keep on and on asking making everybody cross and frustrated!
Have snack rules and stick to them.

Meeko86 · 27/07/2023 10:03

The snack box didn’t work for us, it would have been fine if we just had 6 yo Dd as she left hers alone just taking one snack….however I have a 4 yo ds who is an animal he ate all his within half an hour then started on hers…then a fight broke out!! Carnage! The pet feeder sounds good 😅😂

WhatNoRaisins · 27/07/2023 10:33

Mine can have a mid morning one and mid afternoon. Other than that I've had to really hold my nerve when saying no, meaning it and and dealing with the fall out. They don't eat meals otherwise.

LaMaG · 27/07/2023 10:40

Maybe try setting an alarm mid morning or mid afternoon and it's snack time, any other time you have to wait for snack time. My kids drove me mad too, I think it was a bit attention seeking. Do they suddenly get the urge to snack when you sit down/look at your phone etc?

GingerIsBest · 27/07/2023 11:10

3AndStopping · 25/07/2023 17:03

It’s not just the constant requests, it’s the refusal to eat anything they don’t really fancy at that precise moment.

Yes, this. I feel I have failed as a parent. My parents would just point me to the fruit bowl or, when I was a bit older, the bread bin and that was it. I have clearly NOT managed to implement this solution.

FormerlyPathologicallyHappy · 27/07/2023 12:54

We had less to keep us occupied pre-Internet too.

They're going to need some snack because kids grow so fast but it’s becoming I’m awake so why aren’t I chewing?

Namddf · 27/07/2023 13:42

cinnamonfrenchtoast · 25/07/2023 17:05

If I ever said "I'm hungry", my dad would just say "Hi hungry, I'm dad" and that would be the end of that Grin

Brilliant response, love it.

Kids saying “I’m hungry” or “I’m thirsty” instead of asking for something to eat/drink please is one of my pet hates. It’s so rude.

(Appreciate that isn’t the point of the thread!)

Mumsday · 27/07/2023 13:43

Greenpin · 26/07/2023 19:37

Children only keep asking for snacks because they know they will be given them.
If the answer is mainly no they will stop asking within a few days.
I'm not against snacks but it's ridiculous to let children keep on and on asking making everybody cross and frustrated!
Have snack rules and stick to them.

This.

We don’t need to snack all day. They don’t do it at school so why do they need to do it at home?

Just say no, sorry, it’ll be dinner time soon.

Easy.

Lastnightschips · 27/07/2023 21:29

3AndStopping · 25/07/2023 17:03

It’s not just the constant requests, it’s the refusal to eat anything they don’t really fancy at that precise moment.

@3AndStopping oh the ‘not fancying that’ thing, I had a meltdown with my three on that topic about an hour ago.

Nannygoat151 · 30/07/2023 07:56

They do this when they are bored some of the time . Also make a box of snacks each for the day and they can eat when they like , throughput the day but when it’s gone , it’s gone . Plus they have to eat all their meals . If they don’t snack box goes

Mrsgreen100 · 30/07/2023 08:27

Get them cooking , flapjacks , whole meal bread ,don’t give them processed food
crisps ?? Aren’t food ,sandwiches if the bread is good ok but sounds like they need so
real food , start their day with oats , not air and sugar filled cereal. If they won’t do oats whole meal bread and eggs ,
sounds like there’s masses of hidden sugar in their diets , so they will constantly be hungry .
cook with your kids
and I don’t mean cakes !
its beyond me why do we still keep filling our kids with sugar !