Frustrated, kids & groceries

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-30-2004
Frustrated, kids & groceries
14
Sat, 09-10-2005 - 12:56pm

I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought over $100 worth of groceries, the second time in less than a week! I got up this morning to find all the little wrappers from the snacks I bought for school all over my teenage daughter's room. Those packages were enough for them to have their school snacks for the rest of the week. Now they have NOTHING. I have a bag of apples and cereal that they will have to take with no drink. They drank all the juice boxes too.

I am so frustrated because now they won't have anything to eat for after school either. I may make some cookies and hide them and leave out what they can have after school. It just really upsets me because I HID the stuff and they knew I was hiding it and ate it anyway. My daughter is overweight and does not need to be eating all that at once and she knows it.

what is really going to cause problems is that they will go to their father and say I'm not feeding them. He knows better, but he will feed into it.

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Avatar for eatatmoms
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 09-10-2005 - 1:21pm

If I were you, I'd tell their dad exactly what happened before they had a chance to. I'd just drop an FYI to him

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-17-2004
Sat, 09-10-2005 - 3:06pm
I agree with the last poster.
Sanguine
Avatar for susieyippin
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-07-2003
Sat, 09-10-2005 - 6:13pm

My kids do this as well... I bought fruit snacks for 9 y/o-- 2 boxes of 8 each. In less than a day, he'd plowed through both boxes. I also belong to a shopping club, and I buy several boxes of items at a time. A week ago, I bought 4 boxes of cookies to stock up, because they were a great price, and I wanted them to last a while. Didn't happen. 9 y/o went through them like a swarm of locusts. He waits until I'm out of eyesight, then he blitzes the kitchen pantry.

So, I can either lock up the snacks and just put a few out at a time, or DS will have to suffer without snacks in his lunch.

Good thing they haven't discovered the 8 boxes of ice cream in the freezer in the basement! ;-)

I'd say alert their dad to what they did-- it's very common, I remember shopping day when I was a kid, and snarfing down all the yummy treats.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-30-2004
Sat, 09-10-2005 - 6:22pm
Yes I remember those days as well and not having anything by Friday. lol. It's just frustrating to me because I end up doing the lion's share of the grocery shopping for the kids. After school they come to my house until he picks them up at 8:00 (on his days) so they have their after school snacks here. Heck alot of times my two older kids don't even go to his house just because it's easier to stay here since he won't pick them up earlier than 8. My ex has a tendency to tell me how to do things from his girlfriend's house.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2004
Sat, 09-10-2005 - 7:15pm
ITA with the other posters. They chose to go through all of that stuff, so they chose to not have anything for the rest of the week. They can go without juice
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
Sat, 09-10-2005 - 9:45pm
My 12 yo did the same thing. I laid it on the line for him. I told him I could not afford any more snack food so he was going to have to do without until pay day. He seemed to understand and I haven't had the trouble since. Hugs, Brenda

Hugs, Brenda 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-30-2004
Sun, 09-11-2005 - 5:45pm
My mother brought some stuff over today and I baked some cookies and hid them on toop of cabinets!! Tomorrow I'll lay them out so they'll have some for when they get home.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-20-2004
Sun, 09-11-2005 - 7:46pm

i wish i had some wonderful advice, but all i can think of is having the conversation with your daughter letting her know that she has deprived other family members from the snacks. what else can you do? is she just overweight or could it be an eating disorder. you know, when i was growing up, we used to (my brothers and sisters and i) used to sneak the snacks all the time. we all did it and i don't think anyone considered it any kind of disorder. these days, though, food is such a hot button issue. you would know best.

anyway, you've just got to forget what your ex will say or think. and i think maybe replacing the snacks is probably in order, afterall, the other kids shouldn't suffer because their sister had a bad food day.

good luck.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
Sun, 09-11-2005 - 10:15pm
Good for you! I wish I had had someone around to help me out. My Mom would if she were here. God, I miss her. She is so far away. I hope your new solution works. Good Luck!
Take care of yourself! Hugs, Brenda

Hugs, Brenda 

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-06-2005
Mon, 09-12-2005 - 2:44pm

Try changing the snack foods to items like:

saltines and peanut butter or cheese
fresh fruit
celery and peanut butter or cheese
P and J sandwiches
bottles of water
bologna sandwiches
hot dogs
popsicles made of kool-aid with only 1/2 cup of sugar to 2 quarts of water or half water half juice -- still cool and refreshing but less fattening.
pickles -- but put a label on the jar -- gone in a day or last through the week, but you aren't getting more till next payday.

Basically don't buy the junk food for snacks. Cookies are high in calories and sweet, so of course they plow through them. Juice boxes are high in caloric content as well.

If you replace what they ate with the same kind of thing, they are learning there is no consequence to pigging out. If you replace what they ate with healthy snacks, they learn the junk food train only comes by once in a while.

You could also try just splitting up the junk food items. Say you have three kids and a box of eight fruit roll-ups. So give each of the kids two fruit roll-ups and save the other two for you. (I don't eat them, but I save them for the weeks when I can't afford any snacks -- and occasionally I use them as rewards as well -- or I eat one. SIGH). Then if your daughter eats her whole share in a day one of the siblings is bound to be a saver who will torture her with their snack while they eat it later in the week. Cruel? Maybe but it is amazing how quickly the one who likes to pig out learns to save something -- so they can eat it when the other kids do. And if they all eat the junk food in one day -- always have the healthy food for them instead.

You will be amazed how quickly they become hoarders and traders amongst themselves.

GT I can't be me.

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