In-laws and their kids eat all our food

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, read the entire thread ! The OP is putting out tons of food but the in law kids are emptying out all the snacks and stuff for her kids lunches and games instead or in addition. There is no reason for them to slurp down all the go go squeezes when there is tons of food available to them for the party. They just like go go squeeze and have absolutely no manners.

1. Stop them, redirect them to all the food for the party and bluntly tell them it’s rude to do this at someone else’s house. You would be doing them a favor as their parents are setting them up for extreme embarrassment later on.

2. Get a plastic bin, fill it with the pantry foods you don’t want them to take. Close it, put it in the attic or your bedroom closet. If they ask where it is, redirect the greedy little monsters to all the food that is out for the party.

3. Stop hosting these people

Agree. Finally! The voice of reason!

Never change, DCUM. Hide your food in the attic before guests come and then insult them before insisting that's the last time they'll ever set foot in your house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ESH. The nieces and nephews for raiding someone else's pantry without permission, bro and SIL for showing up empty handed to a cookout with a pack of ravenous teens, and OP for being judgmental and inhospitable.

I have teens. I can't imagine showing up to a potluck or cookout without a pretty substantial contribution.

Adults shouldn't need to bring food to a family member's house. Grown ups don't potluck.

Personally if I knew she was stingy I'd stop to eat before going. Or, not go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a military family, and well just an American…I just can’t with your “problem”. Don’t host or put your food away. This isn’t hard. You clearly don’t like the kids.

What does you being a military family have to do with this thread?

Did you seriously just ask what military has to do with Memorial Day??

No. What does a military family have to do with ops issue of rude guests that eat her out of the house? Rude.

Agree. This thread is discussing hosting and rude/not rude behavior….not the actual meaning of Memorial Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tend to forget how WASPy this site is until a food/hosting thread. A holiday cookout is not the time to police how much your guests are eating. You're not supposed to guess how much people are going to eat and then make exactly that much food and hide the rest. It's a Memorial Day cookout, you should expect neighbors to wander over and people to tag along. You're supposed to make a huge spread of food, make sure everyone has enough, and send people home with plates. You should be thrilled if people go back for seconds and thirds. If you run out of food you figure out how to fill the gap right now and make a mental note to make much, much more of whatever went fastest next time.

I stg my DH would commit seppuku if our guests had to resort to eating cereal to fill up after he shut the grill off. The fact that this has happened in your house and you've decided the guests are the problem is bizarre.

This exactly. I am as WASPy as you can get, but I was raised in the Italian culture of North Jersey. If there aren't leftovers after you have people over, you haven't made enough food. I ALWAYS want to make more than people can eat.

OP, it's very simple. If your guests are raiding your fridge, etc. after the cookout, you aren't preparing enough food. Since it has happened n the past, now you know, and you can make more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't they bring stuff too? We are hosting another family at our vacation place for Memorial Day and they always bring food and we all share. It would never occur to me to ask, but then any time we all hang out, we bring stuff too. If one of us is doing dinner, then the others bring dessert. If it's family, ask them to bring stuff too.

This is different and they should bring food. OP is just doing a day visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here! I am enjoying this, even for those who are slamming me. Believe me, we have more than enough food: six racks of ribs, 6 pounds of 80/20 burger meat, packs of Nathan's hot dogs, fruit salad ( well we will have it) , potato salad, beer, wine, soda, juice, Fried chicken, watermelon, the works. I am telling you though, these kids are bottomless pits and what generally happens is that they start eating like cups of applesauce or yogurts, or fruits, chips, etc that we don't even put out and are meant for school lunches. We also have one kid who is an athlete in training and likes to have certain things around- rice cakes, quinoa in cups, peanut butter, chocolate milk etc, and all of that gets annihilated too. I just think it is kind of rude to watch your kids sack someone else's pantry family or not .

Just tell the kids to stay out of your pantry. Or lock it or put up a sign.

Add some cheap apps/sides for them to much on, and point out to them. Pretzels, chips and dip or cheese & crackers, fruit- whatever is on sale and doesn’t require much prep work on your end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must not have teens.

Sadly, OP could have teens, based on the number of times my boys came home hungry. I remember going to a playdate for lunch and the mom served two carrots, and handful of grapes and a thimble of cheese. I took one look at my 5-year old and said we had to leave immediately after. At parties they would come home ravenous because there was one pizza for 6-7 tweens. Or, they'd go to dinner with (a well to do) family who made them order off the kiddie menu at 13. Granted, they were in the 85% and 99% for height, but active kids need food and many people aren't willing to provide it.

Aren’t willing or are not accustomed? Our DS was active through HS but only started consuming food in large amounts till college. I’m sure I “underserved” on play dates because I only had our 2 kids as a data set and prepared enough based on their consumption patterns x # of guests.

I'm pp, and that's definitely fair. However, my kids at 12/13 were taller than many adults, so forcing a kids menu seemed unreasonable. Either way, it's unfortunate because my kids avoided those houses because they were always hungry.

And I’m sure those houses appreciated it.

I'm sure the extra $5-10 was worth it to them to avoid having their kids friends over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a military family, and well just an American…I just can’t with your “problem”. Don’t host or put your food away. This isn’t hard. You clearly don’t like the kids.

What does you being a military family have to do with this thread?

Did you seriously just ask what military has to do with Memorial Day??

No. What does a military family have to do with ops issue of rude guests that eat her out of the house? Rude.

Agree. This thread is discussing hosting and rude/not rude behavior….not the actual meaning of Memorial Day.

Right? We wouldn't want to bring that into the discussion. Tis the season and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a military family, and well just an American…I just can’t with your “problem”. Don’t host or put your food away. This isn’t hard. You clearly don’t like the kids.

What does you being a military family have to do with this thread?

Did you seriously just ask what military has to do with Memorial Day??

No. What does a military family have to do with ops issue of rude guests that eat her out of the house? Rude.

Agree. This thread is discussing hosting and rude/not rude behavior….not the actual meaning of Memorial Day.

Right? We wouldn't want to bring that into the discussion. Tis the season and all that.

Haha
People lost their lives but let’s focus on OP’s snackies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a military family, and well just an American…I just can’t with your “problem”. Don’t host or put your food away. This isn’t hard. You clearly don’t like the kids.

What does you being a military family have to do with this thread?

Did you seriously just ask what military has to do with Memorial Day??

No. What does a military family have to do with ops issue of rude guests that eat her out of the house? Rude.

You seem dense. Remember the reason we celebrate Memorial Day. A few snacks seems trivial, doesn’t it?

The thread is not discussing the meaning of Memorial Day you moron. It is discussing a hosting issue. Read the thread.

[Anonymous]

There is no way you are serving enough food. 3 teens can eat a lot yes- but even they can only put away so much- if they are still hungry you absolutely aren’t serving enough.

If they go into the pantry for chips and junk, just set some of those types of items out somewhere for them ffs. It is a party. At least a giant bag of chips from Costco is cheaper than a bunch of individual packaged stuff. Or get some store brand stuff and dump in bowls.

[Anonymous]

Weird they wouldn’t offer to pay for groceries. When we go to our friends house for the weekend with our kids, I take them grocery shopping and foot the bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no way you are serving enough food. 3 teens can eat a lot yes- but even they can only put away so much- if they are still hungry you absolutely aren’t serving enough.

If they go into the pantry for chips and junk, just set some of those types of items out somewhere for them ffs. It is a party. At least a giant bag of chips from Costco is cheaper than a bunch of individual packaged stuff. Or get some store brand stuff and dump in bowls.

These teens sound like they were raised in a barn. Teach them some manners. They will survive and not starve to death in one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a military family, and well just an American…I just can’t with your “problem”. Don’t host or put your food away. This isn’t hard. You clearly don’t like the kids.

What does you being a military family have to do with this thread?

Did you seriously just ask what military has to do with Memorial Day??

No. What does a military family have to do with ops issue of rude guests that eat her out of the house? Rude.

You seem dense. Remember the reason we celebrate Memorial Day. A few snacks seems trivial, doesn’t it?

The thread is not discussing the meaning of Memorial Day you moron. It is discussing a hosting issue. Read the thread.

I did. She addresses renaming it “Memorial Day” in memory of her missing food. No joke. I’m sorry you can’t see how tacky and petty the original post is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ESH. The nieces and nephews for raiding someone else's pantry without permission, bro and SIL for showing up empty handed to a cookout with a pack of ravenous teens, and OP for being judgmental and inhospitable.

I have teens. I can't imagine showing up to a potluck or cookout without a pretty substantial contribution.

Adults shouldn't need to bring food to a family member's house. Grown ups don't potluck.

Personally if I knew she was stingy I'd stop to eat before going. Or, not go.

Grown ups don't potluck? That's news to me. It's pretty standard at just about every cookout I've ever attended for the host to provide the meat and the guests to provide sides, chips, drinks, etc.

If I had 3 teens who each are eating 3-4 times as much as a regular person, then yes, I'd bring food. It's not reasonable to expect the host to provide 12+ servings of food to feed a family of 5. If members of your party are going to go back for thirds and fourths, then you need to contribute something.