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Is this normal?

tankh21's picture

Is it normal for teenagers to eat every hour? SS literally wants to eat every hour. DH says that he is just growing. I get it the kid is growing but holy crap he is going to eat out of house and home.

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Cooooookies's picture

I don't know about hourly but they eat a lot.  And  usually the easiest and quickest things they can shove into their irritating mouths.  So say goodbye to chips, muffins, cookies, etc.  I've literally resorted to hiding anything I want to last longer than 24 hours.  Problem is, if your DH doesn't put boundaries in place regarding what they can graze on, you're in for an uphill battle.

I recommend hiding your stuff....

tankh21's picture

I do hide stuff I don't want them to eat but if I leave it in the pantry they will eat it. My DH doesn't put any boundaries on the skids either. His excuse is well "it's their house to". I told him well they don't work or pay bills here so there's need to be boundaries and limits set on your kids.

Cooooookies's picture

Well do they eat cheap stuff?  Like a poster said below, ramen noodles are cheap as and fill them up.  If your DH doesn't put any boundaries in place then the best you can do is either disengage OR take over the shopping and buy the cheapest of the cheap to fill the shelves of the pantry.

Simpleton21's picture

It is really hard when your SO won't set any boundaries.  I have this problem in my home also.  I slightly solved it by going to the store AFTER SD visits so my family still has snacks to eat the remainder of the week as well.  I also hide stuff in my purse if I don't want it found and devoured.  I swear SD can sniff out snacks/junk food/etc from miles away.  

ProbablyAlreadyInsane's picture

So, I'm not a teenager (obviously), but my metabolism is fast and I go to the gym a lot... So I eat about that often (proabably closer to 1.5 to 2 hours in-between), not huge amounts. But I'm probably close to like 3500-4000 calories a day right now. My little bro is the same way, but he's up to about 5000-6000 a day. We're both super athletic though. High calorie protein shakes are a lifesaver and so are "complex" carbs (brown rice, quinoia) they just stick longer. If I eat regular ones I'm normally hungry 20 minutes later.

As long as he's not overweight, it could be a combination of growing and metabolism, and if he's athletic, that burns a lot, and then can continue to burn for another day or two (depending on the work out)

tankh21's picture

This kid eats nothing but carbs and junk food. He eats ramen and mac n' cheese every hour.

TwoOfUs's picture

Yeah. They're gross. 

When they aren't eating everything in sight, they're putting the leftovers back incorrectly so that they go to waste. I can't tell you how many times SS in particular put the cereal back open or chip bags or crackers back completely open, allowing them to go stale. He also, more than once, put most of a block of good cheese back in the fridge without wrapping it...leaving me to discover a dried, shriveled up block the next day. Maddening. And don't get me started on the 3/4 full cans of flat soda everywhere in the house. Good Lord, the soda! 

I would also routinely find stashes of food I'd bought in their rooms - dressers, closets, under their bed...all kinds of stuff went missing and I'd find it rotting or going stale in their rooms...this was mostly a problem with OSD, who was also bulimic. So not only was I paying for her binges, I was also dealing with puke flakes around my shower drain when she left. 

Ah, the joys of stepparenting.  

 

Simpleton21's picture

OMG, I almost made a blog about this the other day after SD visited b/c I was so irritated with her carelessness about perserving the remainder of foods after she has helped herself to all she wanted.  How hard is it to roll the top of a bag and put one of the billion clips on it that are right there on the fridge or on the bag before you started shoving your face full?!?! Or if you rip the bag all the way down the side put it in a big ziploc bag!?!? Or put the little zip tie back on after you get a bun out of the bag?  Nope, just leave them all wide open and act dumbfounded when I confront you on it and tell you that you need to put it back properly so it doesn't go to waste!!!! Ugh!!!!!!!  

TwoOfUs's picture

Yes.

All of my skids were really so careless and disgusting with food...it was a real challenge for me. They also 'played' with their food at dinner, pushing it around their plates, absent-mindedly crumbling up the bread. (SS did this...his spot at the table always looked like a tornado had hit when he got up.) 

Leaving huge globs of grape jelly all over the countertop after making a PBJ (gotta feed the roaches, ya know!), pouring cereal into their bowls from way up high, making a good percentage of the cereal wind up on the counter or floors to be crushed underfoot, throwing away leftovers they hadn't even touched...I could go on and on.

Once, as an experiment, I swept as soon as they left and waited 2 weeks to sweep again...right before they showed up for their weekend. I then swept when they left and compared. The pile from their weekend, 2.5 days, was at least 4X bigger than what DH and I left on the floors for the entire preceding 2 weeks. And this was when they were pre-teens and teens...not young children.

I grew up in a frugal household with clear boundaries concerning food, and it all drove me up the wall. DH did try to correct the embarrassing dinner table behavior. I think partly because they'd also do it at restaurants. But his attitude about everything else tended to be: "Well, it's their home, too." or "I'm not going to tell them they can't eat!" 

I mean. Come on. Is it that hard to ask your kids to be more respectful of our home and the money we spend on food? 
 

Simpleton21's picture

Must be a skid/entitlement issue!  I swear SD does the same thing.  Always leaves messes behind.  The playing with the food thing also.  I find that really annoying.  She mainly does it when she doesn't like whatever it is so she just picks around at it forever and slowly eats....like dragging it out will make it any better!  Ugh!

I have 2 kids of my own and both of them are with me full time and they still ASK before just going in and devouring everything.  The older one also knows how to put things up so they don't go stale.  My younger one is 3 so I don't expect that much out of him yet but I definitely will when he is getting his own food!

LOL, I bet your DH was still acting like they were innocent and didn't know any better or whatever lamo excuse you can come up with for that!

I also grew up in a frugal household.  We didn't have snacks all the time and if we did it wasn't chips or cookies or junk foods like SD wants/expects.  Also, we didn't just help ourselves to anything and everything our little hearts desired.  It is basically a lack of respect/sense of entitlement problem.  

witch.hazel's picture

My high schooler is driving me nuts with the same thing. Will not stop talking to me about food! What's for dinner, when are we going grocery shopping (two days after I went already)....and only wants certain things (the 2.79$ pot pies instead of the $1.00 kind). He's getting a job and paying for this stuff himself.

Peridwen's picture

Yup. I remember my brothers and cousins were constantly eating. SS11 is starting to be the same way. DH and I have now put together a veggie/salad drawer in our fridge. The rule is that if you are hungry, you may eat anything in that drawer. No junk food until you've eaten at least two separate snacks from the veggie drawer. No seconds at meals unless you've already also eaten a salad.

It's amazing how much less SS11 is 'starving'. Though I have seen SS11 go through phases where he'll eat two salads and three helpings of dinner, then go back in for an apple or some carrots.