Do you hide food from your family?

[thechickenchick]

My son and husband are pretty good about not cleaning us out of any type of food all at once. The only thing I do once in a while is strategically place something where they will not look for it. Such as candy bars in with the canned goods. The reason being, I buy these as surprises to tuck in my husbands lunch. If he doesn't know I have them then it is a nice extra for his lunch and he won't be tempted when he is up in the middle of the night.

I do totally understand those of you that have ration it out to your family though. I just have the one son so there is nobody else to have to worry about. I have had BF in the past that I had to hide my sons treats from or they would just take them all. I even had one that could not keep his hands off of my sons Pop Tarts of all things. I worked an early shift and this is what DS was to have for breakfast on some days. He would call me crying because some dummy had eaten all of his Pop Tarts!

 

[chicken_china_mom]

Yes, I absolutely DO hide food from my kids, and from my mother as well since she lives with us. First, let me explain about my mother. She is a fantastic person, I love her to bits, but she is morbidly obese and has absolutely NO will power when it comes to food. Example? I came home with a couple of family size bags of Doritos. She spotted her favorite flavor, which happens to be my younger DD's favorite flavor as well. She took it to her room and ate the ENTIRE bag. Yes, just sat down and ate the whole thing. I remember as a kid she would try to get me take part in her late night overeating binges. I was skinny as a rail back then, so I guess she figured I wasn't at risk of getting fat? I dunno, but we had this absolutely HUGE tupperware bowl back then, and I do mean HUGE. Big enough to use in a restaurant, THAT kind of huge. Well, my mom would fill 2/3 of the way up with pudding. Enough pudding for a family of 6, easily, and she would serve me a larger portion than I could possibly eat, but still not really making a dent in the bowl, and then she would sit down and eat the rest all by herself. I used to get sick on the pudding after a few bites, so she would take mine and finish it. I spent my entire childhood and early adulthood watching her do this, and hating it. She will readily admit that she has no willpower. But, I don't feel that I should be punished just because she can't control herself. So from her, I hide things that we both like, cause it sometimes takes FOREVER for me to finish treats.

Now, my kids? They just don't understand the meaning of the word NO. I hate that. For example, Schwann's came 2 weeks ago. Great, it was a 90 degree day and I wanted some ice cream or frozen treats in the house cause we have no air conditioning. So, I bought a 24 pack of ice cream sandwiches, a 24 pack of bomb pops, and a 24 pack of these creamy fruit bar things. The fruit bars were for my mom, I can't eat any form of sugar alternatives, not even Splenda, as they make me sick as a dog, so it has to be REAL sugar, or corn syrup for me, lol. Anyway, I allowed each kid (I have 2 girls) an ice cream sandwich since in the time it took me to rearrange my small freezer, they started to melt in the heat of my kitchen. I enjoyed a bomb pop. Later that night I had an ice cream sandwich. Less that 3 days later, everything was gone, except about 4 bomb pops buries at the back of the freezer that the kids missed. Seriously, EVERYTHING was gone. Did they ask permission? No. Am I mad? Absolutely! The plan is, to get a freezer with a lock. We had one a long time ago but we didn't bring it with us in the move since it was on it's way out at the time. Once I have that freezer you can bet that all frozen goods will be put on lockdown. Only if they ask will they get something. They eat my ice cream, even though it isn't really one they like, eat my chips, drink any and all pop in the house if I bring it in, all candy, etc. So I started hiding some of it in my room. The kids usually know where it is though, and they will ask to get some, but when my back is turned, they STILL clear me out. I don't have a lot of money, the kids know this, and having any treats at all is special, but being that they are kids, they are in the constant mindset that there will always be more. My weakness is Lindy truffles. Those things are $5 a bag and that bag may have only 10 pieces in it, if I'm lucky, but I love them, and I will buy myself a bag so that I can have a truffle a night, or every other night. Last time I bought truffles, they found them. That was it, no more truffles for me. A few weeks ago I found the really big, thick Hershey bars on sale, and I bought 3. My mom discovered first that I had them, so I had to change my hiding spot as she finished off a whole bar by herself. I had bought them to use for smores when my friend comes down this weekend. Well, my younger DD is a Hershey's addict. I swear she has a radar and just KNOWS when I enter the house with it. Well, she figured out that I had it, and asked for some. I allowed her two blocks since they are so darn thick and huge. That's almost as much as a full normal sized bar. She relished it of course, but she wasn't done. I moved my hiding spot to the top of my entertainment center, where my mom wouldn't think to look, but I guess my DD caught me hiding it because 2 days later, BOTH BARS WERE GONE! I didn't get any at all, and now I have graham crackers and marshmallows, and no chocolate!!! So I told her, that's it, I'm not buying it anymore. At least, not until I get a locking cabinet of some sort. Maybe when I finally get my first guns and I buy my first gun cabinet , I'll store some off limits without permission treats on the top shelf with the bullets.

As I type this my older DD is throwing a fit in the kitchen because she wanted to make a PB&J sandwich, but she couldn't find either of the 2 jars of PB that I had bought. Yup, grandma took them into her room and ate them. Sigh* See, here there is a reason to hide foods. I love my family, but I feel like I get taken advantage of all the time. I have to invest in a freezer and locking cabinet SOON...

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Honey, you need to not invest in anything but free dicipline! Both Mom and the kids need to learns some manners. Not easy, but you can do it!

ETA, I will hide a sweet couple of things from DH - because it's fun to have him open his lunch bucket and find a treat!

 

[Tala]

Yes. Because if I buy a 24 pack of Dr Pepper and a box of snacks, I expect to wake up in the morning and grab some of each on the way to work. Not getting any of what I bought ane expected to eat is not fun, so I take measures to ensure that I will have whatever it was that I bought.

DH is one of those who will eat an entire bag of chips (or at least 85% of it and leave the rest out to get soggy) in one setting, and he has the weight to prove it. Need I explain further???

No we dont hide anything. That is pretty selfish to do that, would you want them to do the same to you?

It's a matter of survival around here.
The only things that I don't have to hide are veggies and meat/food that requires cooking. DH is lazy, so he's looking for the first thing he can grab and stuff in his mouth without leaving his computer game.​

 

[PineappleMama]

Quote:
That's it precisely! They know they can have all the ice cold water they want (we keep a spigot jug in the fridge) but if they want tea, soda, etc then they ask. But with food they'll wake me up in the morning to ask if they can have toast... well of course you can have toast, it's breakfast time... sheesh... sometimes annoying, but glad they do ask... it really boggles the Grands, Aunts, etc though. And, it wasn't something we set out to do... DS just started doing it... I guess because he was too short to reach things? And it stuck ... and then when DD came she just got into the same habit. Guess we're lucky on that front.

There's a cupboard with all the junk in it... Gatorades and Crackers and Chips and Cookies... more often than not they totally forget about it (DH too) since it's way up high and not used much... but now and again one of the kids will ask "Can we have two cookies?"... because two is how many I would pack in their lunch for school... again, came up with that on their own... that asking for the 'typical portion' is the way to go.

Now DH... HIM I had to train a bit... he'd go in and snarf ALL of something, and not bother telling me we were out, so that when I went to make ____ for dinner I didn't have any of ____ and had to make a trip to the store or completely replan the menu. Since he loathes stores, really 7-11 is a stretch for him, it didn't take too many trips for "The Thing You Ate!" for him to quit doing that... now he'll say "Hey do you need these raisins for anything?" just to be on the safe side... he really does HATE shopping. Hehe.

 

[StupidBird]

Maybe hiding my food isn't fair, but I don't think it's fair for me to scrimp one special treat for me to savor over a week or two between specialty shop runs (lots of food allergies and otherwise medically prohibited foods) and have DH scarf up my treat when he has a whole cabinet of things I can't eat - and just tells me to go out and buy some more. Yeah, so there's more going on than just food troubles.

 

[PineappleMama]

I hear you SB... I get rather peeved when I get sweaty, dehydrated and reach into the cabinet for a Gator/Powerade to find that ALL the Yellow, Blue, Purple AND Clear (since I only buy them when on sale for .50-.75c when you buy 10) are GONE and all that is left is one measly Fruit Punch... which EVERYONE in the house knows that I can't drink due to the red dye.

That doesn't happen often, I just don't buy much red stuff, but it is pretty darn annoying when it does. I was considerate enough to buy you the Fruit Punch that you love, but you weren't considerate enough to drink it rather than the other 9 that I'm NOT allergic too. If you don't want the stinking red then don't beg me to buy the darned thing... I'll stock flavors we can ALL enjoy... then this wouldn't be an issue. Of course, DH hasn't done that... but the kids have... not in a couple years I think, but since you brought it up... I do hear wherre you're coming from on that one. *growl*

 

[agnes_day]

i sure do! my oldest is an inconsiderate lout who will anything and everything and not care about anyone but himself. so glad hes almost an adult.

 

[1_FnkyFrm]

I can see hiding things to keep people from being obese or health reasons, but hiding it to keep from other people is lack of teaching good eating habits! Buy healthier snacks!

 

[agnes_day]

thank you for the lecture, dad/mom.