ICK! Skids are greedy vultures when there's food to share

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My skids act like little greedy vultures when they have to share food from the same container... like say we have a bowl of popcorn or something like that for everyone. Each of them stuff their faces and try to rush to eat as much as they can before the others. They hardly breathe and just STUFF their faces until whatever food it is, is gone. Oh and they fight and yell at each at each other too, "you're eating too much, my hand was there first...etc." It REALLY disgusts me.

We can't put appetizers out at parties or on holidays, because one of them (or all of them) will park themselves next to the food and stuff themselves it until it's gone. They don't get the concept of eating some and sharing, nor breathing and eating. My oldest is the worst, if it's something that girl likes she'll eat and eat it, not stopping until it's gone... disgusting amounts if you let her (such as an entire cantaloupe or box of mac and cheese).

BM did not feed the kids regularly or on a predictable schedule when they were younger. I think it stems from BM's neglect but I'm not sure.

How can I teach them to approach food differently? This doesn't seem normal to me, is it????

My Skids used to do that too.

My Skids used to do that too. They'd come over after I had just done groceries and would open EVERYTHING and eat EVERYTHING. It was as if they felt they needed to eat it ALL because they didn't have it at home. Eventually, I just stopped doing groceries before they came and instead waited for Sunday when DH left the house to take them home. It was the only way to guarantee the food would last for more than 15 minutes. It got to a point where I would have to HIDE the snacks I would buy my BS because if THEY saw them, they'd wolf them down in 5 seconds flat. They've gotten much better as they've gotten older, but I still do the shopping when they aren't there.

My FSD does this too!!! She

My FSD does this too!!! She goes between wilding things down in two bites to taking 30min to eat half a pb sandwich!

The other two behave like other posters have commented,.... Eating like they just got out of prison,...sad but true...
FDH has custody, but BM gets eowe visitation and she restricts their food, two meals a day, no snacking, they are always able to have healthy smacks when they want them over here,....so I don't understand,...

Once I bought soda that was (I guess) different and special for the kids, we woke up and it was all gone, one of the kids got up in the middle of the night and drank ALL twelve bottles! FDH talked to them about it, saying "if you guys like a certain kind of food, we can but it more often, but when you sneak around and eat our drink it all so no one else can have any, that makes me sad that you think I wouldn't care about you enough to buy you the things you need, our even something you want. We are never going to buy that soda again because no one will admit that they wee the one to drink it all"
We always have to tell all the of them to slow down and not choke...

But getting to the meat of the problem,... I think it has to do with psychology: just like anorexia and bulimia, people restrict their food to at least have control over one area in their life when they feel like everything else is out of their control,... I think kids behaving this way is their one way to control some aspect of their lives....

^^^And Again, SHE'S right

^^^And Again, SHE'S right ^^^^

exactly, they do this with

exactly, they do this with anything that is not divided up and served to them. LOL @ mauling. That's exactly what it is. I remember my parents putting out snacks or cutting up fruit and putting a bowl out and my siblings and I being able to share it or eat a reasonable amount. These skids can't do that, it's disgusting and odd the way they approach food...

my SD15 is obsessed with

my SD15 is obsessed with Pillsbury Cresent Rolls. She'll eat two tubes of them if I let her. The kids are better now that they're older, but I just started making them ask permission for snacks.

maybe they'll outgrow it

maybe they'll outgrow it too... until then we'll have to continue to divvy up food. It's pretty exhausting I have to say... once my oldest said that she was at a friends bday party and they had cantaloupe and other snacks out for the kids. my SD said she ate ALL of the cantaloupe. No one else had any... that's pretty embarrassing for her and for us! it's bad manners and it's gross.

My ss-almost 15 is also like

My ss-almost 15 is also like this. He's had food issues from a pretty early age-5 or so and they are still there. Now we did not have to worry about the communal bowl or any of that as quite simply noone else would ever eat of a bowl he already had his hands in, same for a bag of chips or anything. But he would gorge himself constantly. For breakfast in the morning he would eat two very large bowls of cereal-the only reason he would stop is he had to get on the bus. Then he would stick 5 cheese sticks in his backpack to eat on the way to school. If a bought two boxes of poptarts-which is what a total of 8 pkgs of two on a Monday night-They would all be gone on Wednesday morning and he would be the only one that had any. He could eat 12 packages of those peanut butter cheese crackers in a day and a half-a thing of bananas in a day. This sort of stuff happened every day. I attempted to address it constantly for so many reasons. It was selfish and unfair to others in the house that they could never have a snack, or fruit, or cereal. He didnt care. It wasnt good for him to eat like that-it really isnt normal and one day when out on his own trying to support himself I dont believe he could afford to eat like that. I was at the point in which I could no longer afford to feed this kid. The other 5 of us all put together ate less than the kid.

When I'd try and tell people about it they'd say things like, "oh, those teen boys-eat everything in sight". NOOOOO. That's not the issue here-this is abnormal, unnatural. Not to mention this kid is 85 lbs soaking wet and is the size of a 3rd grader. It was a compulsive behavior that was out of control for him. Eventually I started limiting the "snacks" I bought and I'd hide them in my room. Then he started doing things like eating a bag of frozen vegetables that was for our dinner. Although he didnt gorge on them, hed eat a couple of bites and then throw the entire bag away. Asking him to stop had no impact. I actually got to the point in which I stopped buying food. I'd bring things home for my kids or I'd take them out and I let dh take care of ss. Figured I'd turn the problem over to him since I wasnt getting anywhere.

SS moved out not long after. My mil swears he doesnt do this at her house-but she is a big fat effing liar so I dont believe her. Hes done it since he's been very young. He'd eat a whole box of little debbie snack cakes in the middle of the night, a whole large package of nutter butters, hed take the jar of peanut butter to his room at night and scoop it out with his hand eating a whole jar of it-then he'd go vomit.