It’s the house kids flock to. You know the one. Opening the pantry door is like walking up aisle 16 at the grocery store. Shelves loaded with Nutella snack packs, fruit snacks, individual bags of Doritos and packages of Keebler cookies. It’s the house with a garage fridge loaded with sodas, Sunny D’s, and Capri Suns.
It’s “the Snack House.” Growing up, if your house was the snack house, you probably had a bunch of friends, mainly because they were using you to get access to the snacks. Not hating, just the truth. Kids are drawn to the snack house. They can’t help it.
My house is not the snack house.
First off, I don’t like free loaders. Lol, joking…but not really. I don’t buy food to feed the neighborhood. Not running a soup kitchen here, kids. If you’re hungry, go home. I’ve actually said that to some of the children who wanted to raid my cabinets. They literally walked in my door and went right to the pantry. (Recall, that I don’t really like kids…right?)
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, Scar had a few friends over the other day to swim. Note, that I said to swim, not to come and eat food. This wasn’t a party.
So the kids swim, and then decide they want to come in and eat. Good luck kiddos, there’s slim pickins. Her one friend decided to eat a slice of bread and a candy cane. Those were his chosen items. If that doesn’t say desperation, I don’t know what does.
In those moments, I do feel somewhat bad. But I always tell my girls, “eat an apple.” If you are truly hungry, you would eat an apple. If you don’t want an apple, you aren’t hungry. They are horribly annoyed at my motto, but I’m sticking to it. Apparently, this child was hungry….but he chose a slice of bread and a 5 month old candy cane.
To each their own.
Freeloading children are not the only reason we don’t really ever have snacks. I’m not that cheap of a person. Another reason is if it’s here, Vince will eat it. Zero self-control with this one, folks. I have to hide candy, and the girls have to specifically write their names on things or else he would eat it. A package of Oreos last 1 hour in my house because he would devour at least two sleeves by himself in one sitting. I don’t know why he can’t hold himself back.
Here’s the thing….anything you shove in your pantry is usually bad for you. It’s manufactured crap that you don’t need to eat. So I consciously try to limit what snacks I buy, because my husband has no self-control and because they are unhealthy. But it’s really, really hard with kids. They love the grab and go stuff. Snacks are what make the world go round with kids. Everything is more enjoyable with snacks. Movies. Sporting events. Car rides. Reading a book. You add snacks to those experiences, and they are instantly better.
Being constantly on the go with all their activities makes the fact that we do not really have snacks even worse. There’s very little they can grab and go with. I mean, they aren’t STARVING by any means. We have fruit and dairy products. There are some options. I need to give myself grace and know that I am not starving my kids. They just aren’t finding happiness in food.
Guess what. Kids still come to my house. Gianna‘s friends love to hang out here. Maybe it’s because I allow soccer balls to be kicked around. Maybe it’s because we have a pool. Maybe it’s because I have a sparkling sense of humor.
Who knows. This house isn’t the snack house. But it’s a home that kids like coming to. Sure, they might stop at the snack house first on their way here. But that’s a win, win in my book.