Got a tween boy or teenager living in your house?
I have a 12-year-old and he probably eats more than pretty much anyone else in the house – including fully grown adults. Sound familiar?
Little did I know when he was a toddler, and I thought I was spending an unholy amount of money on fresh berries every week, that I would long back to those days and giggle at my own silliness for having believed our berry budget was high.
Grazing and gorging – the eating habits of tween boys
Nowadays, I am spending a second mortgage on keeping us stocked up with Weetabix and sourdough bread, which he will eat in between our actual meals.
Yes, tween boys are bottomless pits – and their eating habits can best be described as a chaotic mix of endless grazing, perpetuous hunger and food combinations so odd and bizarre they can only really be described as scientific experiments.
My beloved kitchen, where I lovingly prepare our family meals, which he also eats in full, by the way, is also now seemingly an all-you-can-eat buffet with 24-hour access
And sure look, I know he is a healthy, growing boy – he is active and fit and happy – and the food I feed him at home – and indeed the food that is in our house in general (we are vegetarian) is healthy.
I just was not prepared for the transition from child with normal amount of hunger and food-intake to this ravenous lion who roams the kitchen and pantry looking for something, anything, to eat.
But I know I am not alone in this – in fact, all my boy mum friends with kids the same age tell me the exact same thing: Their tween boys and their eating habits has sent their grocery bills skyrocketing.
‘Watch me batch-cook for week’ one mum friend confessed. ‘And watch him scarf it all in one, single sitting.’
Another mum from my son’s class said she will do a weekly food shop on a Monday, and then wonder what the heck has happened, as by Wednesday morning, the fridge is scraped clean, leaving nothing behind but a bunch of sad-looking carrots and a tub of butter.
‘I guess I should be glad he didn’t eat the butter as well, I guess,’ she laughed.
Another mum revealed that she could not even keep butter, as her teen son would literally almost eat a tub of it spread across an entire load of bread that he would eat – just in between the other meals she whipped up for him.
Yes, tween boys and their eating habits is not something the parenting books prepare you for – but that you should be made aware, I reckon. At the very least so that when they are still just toddlers, and you worry about the money you are spending on fresh berries and watermelon, you can stop worrying and just enjoy this era of your life. Trust me.
Because there will come a time, in the not so distant future, where you will find your son never without a bowl of cereal in his hands – even 10 minutes after you fed him dinner. Or, indeed, in your kitchen, cooking himself a whole second dinner at 10pm.
Honestly, tween boys and their eating habits are the stuff of biological marvel – but take it from me – start a Weetabix savings account when he is still a toddler, you will thank me for it someday!
