Do your kids have to ask for food?

[myturn]

Yes my kids need to ask. The answer is generally yes anyway depending on how close it is to a main meal, but if they don't ask and help themselves then I won't know what they need. I am not one to check cupboards LOL I go from memory.

same here.... I want to know how often DSD is eating as well, cause then I know if she hasn't been eating enough at her main meal to get her through the day.... fruit is always okay, though even that much fruit is a lot of natural sugar to be eating through....

we always had to ask as kids - until we were teenagers pretty much, and even then if it was something special or different in the fridge we still asked - but I recall going through whole bags of grapes in a day - and even now, some fruit always tastes better the same day!!

[Phteven]

They can help themselves to anything they want. We don't keep any food in the house they can't eat and if they finish it I just go and buy more.

[AnyDream]

My kids have to ask but the answer is usually yes. I grew up in a very food-scarce household too, and we usually have more food than we need BUT it hasn't always been that way and there have been recent times when the grocery budget has been limited. There isn't usually an endless supply of treat food here so I do tend to limit that to shared family snacks/meals or when we have guests rather than letting the kid(s) go through it like locusts. But I do try to provide a variety of everyday snack type things so even though my DD will tell you it's an unjust hardship to have a choice of eating a toasted sandwich or a mini pizza or crackers & cheese & snacky bits or one of several types of fruit, it's really not

[Floweryfields]

My kids have to ask but the answer is usually yes. I grew up in a very food-scarce household too, and we usually have more food than we need BUT it hasn't always been that way and there have been recent times when the grocery budget has been limited. There isn't usually an endless supply of treat food here so I do tend to limit that to shared family snacks/meals or when we have guests rather than letting the kid(s) go through it like locusts. But I do try to provide a variety of everyday snack type things so even though my DD will tell you it's an unjust hardship to have a choice of eating a toasted sandwich or a mini pizza or crackers & cheese & snacky bits or one of several types of fruit, it's really not

MD what a cruel mother you are!

[~Kim~]

Mine are a bit shorter that yours I'd say (well DS is) but they are allowed anything on the bottom shelf/crispers of the fridge. I only say that because we have to keep most stuff in the fridge. Of a morning I leave DS who's a very early riser a yoghurt and a spoon there too so he can get that. They also have a shelf in the pantry with rice crackers etc they can have.
We only have stuff they are freely allowed to eat and anything contraband that appears is put up where I have to get it....though when you are blessed with amazon children that generally means somewhere I need a chair for lol.

Though...that is a lot of fruit in 24hours.

[MrsFabuloso]

Yes, they do, but that's more due to the fact that they're only 3 and 4 (and 1!). When they get bigger I am hoping I have taught them enough that they will choose good foods to eat (although we rarely have really junky stuff int he cupboards) like fruit and veg before the package snacks. I am trying to get them to do this now. We go through alot of fruit and veg inour house anyway, and I can forsee that we will oonly be going through more as time goes on! If you think each child might eat 2-3 bits of fruit a day, for us, with 3 children that's 15 peices of fruit a day, plus me who wil go through 3-4 (DH won't eat much fruit!) So all up about 18 bits of fruit a day...woah baby!!!!!!
But I would say if you don't want them eating so much, put a limit on it to two bits of fruit a day. Specially while they are home at the moment on hols!! Once they go back to school, you will probably find you fridge and cupboards won't be raided so badly every day!

[Arimeh]

Yup mine do, they also have set times for eating.

With so many (and all being very young) if I don't have that in place they will take whatever, eat a bite or two, see their sibling take a different thing that looks better than what they are eating, drop food on floor and go get what their sibling has. This can happen multiple times a day so yup my kids have to ask, they do get told no if it's not at a food time because otherwise I have 3 kids running in and out all bloody day asking continuously for food. So we have breakfast, lunch and dinner and our morning tea and afternoon tea all at set times with set amount of food given out to minimize waste and cut off at 4pm or else they won't eat any dinner.

If that's mean or whatever - so be it. But I detest wasting food when so many in this world are starving.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Growing up, I had to ask for food and didn't mind being told no. (Although I was anorexic in my teens, so being forced to eat up to one meal a day wasn't appreciated.) DH was only allowed bread and jam as a snack - MiL complained a few times to me years after the fact he'd go through a whole loaf of bread in an evening!

Liebs is allowed to help himself to fruit, as I buy in cheap fruit for him to snaffle. Everything else he has to ask. Because I can't just pop to the shops the next day and if he eats tomorrow's lunch then I'm pretty much stuffed for his lunchbox.

[Girl-23]

DD1 is allowed to eat whatever she wants. Sometimes she does ask for food other times she gets it herself. I encourage her to help herself with snacks. She isn't allowed to snack near dinner time. After dinner she can go for it. DD2 is only 14 months, DD1 does give her food. Adorable that she thinks about her baby sister.