I keep seeing these posts about kiddos wanting to eat all day while they are home. This was my solution! Each child has...
Posted by Jen Hallstrom [0] on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 [1]
Who knew that one of the hidden benefits of sending your child to school is that you aren't the one having to field their 1,387 snack requests over the course of a day?
But now that parents are homebound with their kids – who may or may not already be whining about being bored – it feels like they are raiding the pantry on a new-constant basis.
Jennifer Hallstrom noticed from her Facebook feed that she wasn't the only one dealing with this problem, so she shared an easy-to-implement solution [2].
"Each child has their own coloured basket," she wrote alongside a photo of her kitchen counter bin setup. "In the morning, I put their snacks in it for the day, and when those snacks are gone, they don't get any more. It makes them stop and think, 'Do I really need a snack?'"
Her hack has merit! As nutrition experts will attest, kids shouldn't be allowed to get food handouts whenever they ask [4] – or worse, whine – for them. They often ask for food when they are bored or upset, not when they are actually hunger, which can lead to emotional eating issues. Additionally, they should only eat snack foods that have been designated for them [5]. Although the ideal setup would be providing each snack at a specific time, for overworked parents in need of an assist, this method certainly gets the job done.
Plus, she puts each of their freshly cleaned cups in their bin "because I'm not washing 50 cups a day!" Preach, mama.
Although some commenters worried that such a setup would leave them hungry, Jennifer insists her three children are "well fed." And in these uncertain times, when it's safest to avoid repeated runs to the grocery store, it should even keep families' inventories in check. She added: "I just don't have the luxury of spending $400 on just snacks for a week."