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Curious if people are observing an increase of similar (food stealing/ inappropriate snacking/ non-mealtime hoarding) problems with children at home during this pandemic...
Some kids, especially going through growth spurts, and life changes, eat like bottomless pits.
I've been babysitting my two grandsons from the start of the quarantine (March) and well into the summer. Both (6 and 3) eat a LOT...as reflected in their parents' food bill. Oldest eats hugely (usually two plates) at meals, and sometimes asks for a midafternoon and bedime snack. He's not the "grazer" his little brother is, but going to school has helped him establish an eating schedule. It's been a novelty for him having me here every day to make home cooked meals for lunch, instead of cold food out of a lunchbox. They eat healthy (vegetarian, and organic, no processed or "junk").
Youngest eats 8 or 9 times a day...but smaller amounts. An hour after meals, he'll say, "I'm hungweee!" I make enough food to give him a second (sometimes third) breakfast, lunch and supper, and there are always healthy snacks like moz'la cheese sticks, yogurt, apples, bananas, etc. available. Neither boy is overweight (oldest shot up two inches during the quarantine and is skinny).
Children who live in their parent's house, the children's home, are not "stealing" food.
They're simply accessing food that's there. That they didn't actually pay for it themselves is immaterial. They're kids, and very young kids.
Parents have a moral obligation to provide for their children.
So what if they took bites out of some chicken. They're eating, that's what kids are supposed to do.
I see you posted this in 2013. I’m just wondering if you ever got any real answers or solutions? I am going through the EXACT same thing with my 10 year old.
Don't know what to do! We have a 7 y/o girl, 5 y/o girl, 3 y/o boy, and 1.5 y/o boy.
The problem mainly lies with my 3 year old boy. Just this morning, I walk into the kitchen and notice a dining room chair in front of the fridge, with the stool on it. He took the brand new loaf of bread from the top of the fridge and brought it in his room, where he and his little brother were just munching on all of it. The bread was ruined, slobbered on, ripped, squished etc. He also went into the fridge and ate 6 of the 8 cinnabons we baked last night. Why was the bread on top of the fridge and pushed so far back you may ask...? Because just yesterday morning all 4 of them managed to get a DIFFERENT loaf of bread, and ate the entire thing.
This past Friday after getting out of the shower to go check on the girls doing their homework in the dining room, I hear the oldest one scramble from the kitchen and run back into the dining room. They stole candy from the fridge (and lied about it). About a week ago, after the kids had finished eating (myself and their mother hadn't ate yet, we were doing homework) and when we went into the kitchen to grab our chicken, one was missing and the other piece of chicken had bite marks all over it.
These are just a few of many examples. We have tried putting them in the corner and time out and talking to them, taking away TV, taking away toys, we have even spanked them about it. It is still happening. It is wasting our money like crazy. We are at a loss on what to do. Please, suggestions! Cheap suggestions. We are not a wealthy family by any means. So buying locks for cabinets/fridge will have to be a last resort, and only after a few more paychecks come in. Please! Going crazy.
Oh, and by the way, they are teaching the 20 month old baby that this is okay. I know this because he stays at home with his mom while I'm at school, and I guess she fell asleep today because when I got home there were crackers all over his room.....
These kids are not starving at all. I love food, so I cook a lot of good and healthy meals that everyone enjoys. They eat plenty. Yes the dad is the main cook here, lol.
Are you feeding then enough? Have you tried consequences?
What's available at the school cafeteria, for extra food? In elementary school, they had ice cream bars and I remember, much to my shame, of stealing from the lunch money jar to buy them. I suppose other kids were doing it, so I picked up the habit (of course, to complicate this, are there vending machines now?).
Maybe they can't buy the extra at school, so they are compensating, either mentally or in claims ("Well, I can't buy here but at home, I can get food anytime I want!"), at home.
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