Teenager constantly eating all the food in the house
Teens eating household groceries faster than families can afford creates severe financial strain and leaves other household members going hungry. Parents are left feeling trapped between locking up food like a totalitarian or watching their entire grocery budget disappear overnight.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Trying suggestions from therapists and other parentsDid this help you?
- 2Calling her while driving home to ask if she got into any foodDid this help you?
- 3Considering locking up foodDid this help you?
- 4picking battles and accepting it as a normal part of childhoodDid this help you?
- 5giving children food freedom so they do not feel the need to sneakDid this help you?
- 6letting children experience the natural consequencesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I can’t keep anything in the house that she MIGHT get to.”source ↗
“I’m actively going hungry because I can’t keep food in the house and I can’t afford unlimited groceries.”source ↗
“I just can’t keep doing this. I don’t want to be a totalitarian parent that locks up food but I don’t know what else to do.”source ↗
“Three kids here, and somehow they become expert candy smugglers the second the lights go out.”source ↗
“Sent the kids to sleep, I check how is that going 10 min later... found out their candy stash in the open.”source ↗
Where this came up
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