Snack Snack Snack!

A strawberry the size of a small peach!

Delicious!

"I'm hungry can I have a snack?" "Mami, snack time?" "I want a snack." "Snack mami, I want a snack." "I'm hungry." "I'm hungry. " I'm hungry."

Just writing the above annoys the crap out of me!!! I hear it ALL DAY LONG (or at least I used to). When the boys were babies I was told or I read somewhere that toddlers need to eat more frequently because they have little stomachs that can't hold much at any one time. Ok, so I stock piled what I figured were healthy-ish snacks like granola bars, graham crackers, gold fish crackers, fruit/fig bars, fruit leather and of course we always had fruit on hand. Somehow, fruit was never enough. Immediately after successfully steering them towards fruit I'd hear the dreaded "but I'm still hungry can I have another snack." They would wear me down to the point of two or three snacks inbetween meals. I mean how can I tell a child that is hungry "sorry you have to wait till dinner" and who knows when that will be because I'm trying to get all sorts of crap done while I'm cooking. And you can guess what happens to their dinner...that's right it goes almost fully uneaten because they've been snacking so much! Ugh, the struggle is real!

Well things started to go down hill even more a few months ago. I started finding wrappers behind beds, in trash cans (which I had previously emptied so where did it come from?). And sometimes I'd find a boy in the corner stuffing his mouth with a snack! Thieves! This just set me off, OH NO, something needs to change, this is ridiculous! I'm spending a small fortune buying this stuff! Then I thought, I didn't have all this growing up. All we had was cereal, peanut butter, jelly, bread, and fruit. That's all, and I didn't starve!

That's when I decided to stop buying snacks cold turkey. And let me tell you, it was the best decision I've made in a long time. All those annoying quotes I listed up top, GONE! I don't hear them hardly at all now. They know it's not in the house so no point asking for it (insert mad scientist laugh). And guess what happened to their dinners? They are actually getting eaten, and many times they ask for seconds! Now don't get me wrong little kids do need snacks and need to eat more frequently but I'm guessing somewhere between toddler-hood and 6 years they stop needing this as much. I was just a little late to pick up on this, ha! What a relief, I'm spending less on groceries and the kids are eating more real food. I don't know what it is about kids but they could seriously just eat granola bars and graham crackers all day long if you'd let them. I'd be sick to my stomach eating so much of that stuff!