<p>—“Do any of you have a rule about food in the house, such as…There are X number of people in the household, so when a cake (pie, ice cream, whatever) is here, only take your fair share?”</p>
<p>LOL I have TRIED to make this a rule. We have 9 people in our family. I always tell everyone to visually survey (or count, if it is countable) the amount of food and divide by 9 (or however many people are there–if at a party or potluck, etc.) and if they take more than that, they are stealing someone else’s share. </p>
<p>H eats to the bottom of whatever container there is–bag, bowl, etc. Doesn’t matter how big or how much. We once had an epic fight on a family trip. I had a bag of “special” cookies to snack on in the car. H was driving and the bag was in reach of his hand. There were about 20 large cookies and by the time I noticed, he’d eaten about 18 of them!! This fight ended with him getting out of the van on a bridge somewhere in rural southern MO. And I drove away! (Well, I did go back and pick him up after a few minutes. . . )</p>
<p>Atamom, sounds like my dad. I remember a few years ago my mom was making up baggies of Halloween candy, and she had bought like one bag of like 4 different kinds of candies, and she got through like 4 trick or treat bags and was out of snickers. She was like okay guys, who is the snickers thief… and my sister and i were like it wasn’t us we don’t eat that… and she turned to my dad and he’s like i may have eaten a few… Lol</p>
<p>When I used to do “long term subbing” at my kids’ school, I often had to have “the talk” with the students when someone would bring in food for a birthday or whatever.</p>
<p>If there were 30 kids in the class, and the mom brought in - say 33 cupcakes - you would have a few kids trying to get a second cupcake before everyone else had even gotten a first cupcake. And when there were a few cupcakes left, I actually have some kids go into whining fits about how “THEY” should get a second cupcake where there obviously wasn’t enough for everyone to have seconds. </p>
<p>H eats to the bottom of whatever container there is–bag, bowl, etc. Doesn’t matter how big or how much. We once had an epic fight on a family trip. I had a bag of “special” cookies to snack on in the car. H was driving and the bag was in reach of his hand. There were about 20 large cookies and by the time I noticed, he’d eaten about 18 of them!!</p>
<p>My H does this, and I blame his mom for poor parenting…LOL</p>
<p>My D3 is a very slow and picky eater, but she loves her sweets. Her Halloween candy would often last until Easter, when I made her throw out whatever was left. It got bad with all of us (me too, ooops) swiping little pieces of candy from her room. Finally, she asked for and received, a small, locking file cabinet to hide her goodies in. It was the only way to keep the rest of us in line!</p>
<p>I think her untouched, but precious, Easter bunny is still in there!</p>
<p>D was our resource hog, both in terms of time and money, but it wasn’t really intentional. </p>
<p>Her older brother just didn’t have expensive habits, except for skiing, and he only skiied a few weekends a year. He also didn’t do things that really had audiences - skiing and Boy Scouts aren’t really spectator sports. He played CYO basketball, and we watched, but that was about 1 - 2 games per week for 2 or 3 months a year.</p>
<p>D, on the other hand, danced competitively. I can’t complain too much - I was the one who started her in dance because I knew she’d love it. But the last 3 years she danced we spent over $4000/year just on tuition, costumes, shoes and competition fees - that doesn’t even count travel expenses. She also played both varsity and club volleyball (different seasons). After her brother left for college, it seemed like H and I spent all our free time either watching D at dance competitions or watching her in volleyball games and tournaments. Somehow our world revolved around her schedule in a way it never did with S.</p>
<p>Mom2–#16–Same as the family I grew up in (4 boys/3girls–very close in age). We had enough food, but not much extra. Often when there were 3 teenage boys at home, I’d get to the table and the food would already be gone! That made me so mad–which is why I worry about counting items and portion control. (H and I have 3boys/4girls)
H also grew up in a family with 4 boys/3 girls. However, his family was poor and often didn’t have enough food to go around. Instead of sharing fairly, H and his sibs took an “every man for himself” approach. (In his case it was a complete lack of parenting!)</p>
<p>My H is an absolute food hound@!. If there is anything remotely in the carbohydrate family, he will eat it! </p>
<p>I have taken to hiding food- all potato chips are in my undies drawer! He is a stress eater- so I try to minimize his stress. It doesn’t always work though!/</p>
<p>I guess I’ll count my blessings. The kids are both electricity hogs. They have their computers on pretty much 24/7 when they’re home & our electric bill is about 33-50% higher when they’re home than when they’re away. Both are otherwise pretty considerate. </p>
<p>Everyone in the family is pretty thoughtful about being sure that everyone at least gets to taste whatever food is in the house and asks whomever is around before they eat the last of whatever it was.</p>
<p>I came from a household of 9–3 brothers & 3 sisters, me, mom & dad. People always made sure everyone got to eat every meal, but there wasn’t much in the way of leftovers. Mom to this day is a martyr and won’t eat unless you put food on her plate & until she’s POSITIVE everyone else present has had enough to eat (she often waits until food is cold & unappetizing–kids have made us promise not to follow her lead & they assure us that they do not hold back as they were raised “entitled” as millenials).</p>
<p>S1 is just a general household item hog. When he comes home to visit, glassware leaves the kitchen cabinet and ends up all over the house. I found three glasses in the bathroom yesterday, one in his bedroom and one in his truck. I put fresh towels in the bathroom for S1 and S2. S1 used both before S2 even got home fr. college. After showering I looked for my facial moisturizer…not there…it was in S2’s bathroom. He borrowed my fingernail clippers. Two days later I asked where they were…he said the were in the kitchen drawer (not my bathroom where they should be).<br>
After less than 24 hours here, his room looked like a volacnic eruption of all his stuff.
He is a force of nature that can’t be stopped. He doesn’t blow in very often so we just grin and bear it.</p>
<p>I am outnumbered four to one by boys in this house…now all with huge appetites! To make sure there was food for ME, DH designated an entire shelf in the pantry that’s only for me. I can now buy a bag of specialty cookies and know they will be there the next day…or week. They don’t touch a thing on that shelf. They also learned to serve my dinner first, before they demolish everything.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, I dated a boy with 5 kids in the home. The first 3 were sons and the other 2 were daughters. </p>
<p>At dinner, the food always went to the girls and mom FIRST, so that they were sure to get some food, before food got passed to the dad and then to the boys.</p>
<p>My H has a huge appetite. When we were dating I called him the King of Side Orders because he never only ordered a meal at a restaurant, he’d also order several side orders. He’s very tall and athletic, so he would just burn the calories. (ugh, don’t you just hate those people…LOL) However, age has caught up to him, so while he’s still in good shape, he’s not as slim as he was. </p>
<p>Anyway…H came from a family of 8 kids but his mom never had any “food rules” so kids just mowed food without any concern for others (his mom went to the grocery store EVERY afternoon- which somewhat limited the “mowing” to a “days-worth” of food.). Seems like it would have been easier just to enforce a rule or two…but she wasn’t a disciplinarian in the very least… :(</p>
<p>It’s been an issue over the years in our home, but H did have to (somewhat) learn to not hog food (he still has to be reminded occasionally). He did get a blistering reprimand when he mowed through a whole “slab” of cream cheese that was needed for a Christmas Day recipe many years ago. </p>
<p>My dad (who lived to be 90) was always amazed at this sort of thing. He grew up during the Depression. He and his siblings knew better than to touch ANY food without their Italian momma’s permission. They didn’t even dare open the icebox or cupboards without permission.</p>
<p>One of my best friends’ H refuses to be limited in any way about food in the house. He just makes a nasty comment that he earns most of the money, so he shouldn’t be limited at all (even when he’s mowed through the stuff that was for the kids’ school lunches). </p>
<p>I think with greater affluence comes this bad habit.</p>
<p>My H was a med student, then resident, when the kids were young. When he was on-call, he had to wolf food down, because he never knew when he’d have to go attend to something dire. When he was home, he’d eat fast, partly out of that situation, and partly because he was so danged tired. Kids learned to take big helpings fast, or no food would be left on the table. He still eats too fast.</p>
<p>H and grown son who lives with us have learned that as far as groceries, if it looks like it’s planned for a meal or a holiday, don’t touch it. I don’t allow “I wasn’t sure, so I took a chance.” If you’re not sure, don’t touch it. They’ve gotten really good about that.</p>
<p>If it is something I want to last for me, I either get what they don’t like, or tuck it back on the shelf.</p>
<p>If my mom had bought something she was saving for a special reason or to use in a recipe, she’d draw a skull and crossbones on a piece of paper and tape it to the package! We all knew better than to touch that food!</p>
<p>When I was growing up, I thought EVERYONE went grocery shopping every day–I knew I did for my family & made dinner every night for 2 years in junior high when mom went back to school for her master’s. Somehow, we add did OK & as far as I know, none of us felt terribly deprived of any food.</p>
<p>In our house, S figures leftovers are fair game & if he likes them, they may disappear. It’s fine, except when it’s unexpected and I had hoped it would stretch to more than one main meal. If I communicate this ahead of time, he will find other things to consume. H mainly opens cans if he’s hungry & I’m not home. D does a bit of each.</p>
<p>No, and honestly I don’t get the comments about hiding certain favorite foods for certain family members and so forth. Food’s there to be eaten and enjoyed; what food is there that you can’t possibly obtain more of? If you like a certain brand of cookies and you know the whole family will eat it as well, why not just buy multiple packs of the cookies and then problem solved?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, “treat rationing” is a foreign concept to someone who did not grow up in a family with multiple children and very limited resources. I grew up in a two-kid, solid middle class family, so there was plenty of everything in our house to be peacefully shared among everyone; my best friend who had 4 sisters and one voracious brother… was not so fortunate. No matter how much food their mom bought, it all seemed to be consumed in minutes by the only teenage male in the household. Due to very tight finances, multiple packs of sweets was not something this family could afford, so the mom had to make sure everyone had their share of a special treat when she bought it. :)</p>
<p>We grew up rather poor–dad was a state government employee, supporting all 9 of us with his one salary. We still understood tho I don’t remember being explicitly told that everyone was supposed to be sure that there was enough to go around. It was a very special treat when we would go out for ice cream–everyone would get one frozen treat that we would all make last as long as possible. Our parents led by example, making sure that everyone was served before anyone was offered or allowed seconds. I can’t imagine having one or more family members gobbling everyting to the exclusion of the rest of us–then or now. </p>
<p>Every once in a while, S does request & get a special treat that he devours on his own (e.g. a bag of gummy bears or dried mango), but those instances are quite rare. In college, D is learning to segregate & prepare her own meals and treats–it is a different experience for her.</p>
<p>There were just three kids in my family but we weren’t well off. My Dad passed away when I was eleven. My older athlete brother was a food/snack eating machine. My Mom would hide stuff from him. At one point she even put a lock on the snack cabinet door to keep him from devouring all snacks. I knew where the key was and remember being a very smug twelve yr. old who would not tell her eighteen year old brother how to get into the cookie cabinet.</p>
<p>I was an only child and my mother was on a perpetual diet, so I never had to fight for food.</p>
<p>Now that I have a husband and three kids, it’s a different story. S will mow through stuff when he’s home from college; the D’s will devour any qty of snack product before they move onto the healthy alternatives.</p>
<p>My older D especially would probably have a serious weight issue if I stocked the house with multiple packages of snack foods. She has little self control and my talking to her about portion control and healthy choices falls on deaf ears.</p>
<p>Diet Coke is my addiction, and I will let them have a limited amount. It keeps them up if they drink much of it at night; if I leave an unsecured supply, I will find half consumed cans all over the house :mad:</p>
<p>I like to have a little something sweet at night, and that requires me to hide a package of something in an upper cabinet. I suppose I could just designate that cabinet as mine, but I haven’t.</p>
<p>And I often leave the diet coke out in the garage - not really hiding it, but no one can be bothered to go out there to pilfer it.</p>
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