How to stop other travellers eat your food supplies?

[Anonymous]

It is okay to say no to a child.

Say sorry no, us parents decided we would only share dinners! Maybe your mom/dad can buy this for you when you get home.

[Anonymous]

When a kid wanders into the kitchen and asks for some food, tell them to go talk to their mom because she brought food for them. Why is this so hard? If your family is the first one up and eating, tell parents to show their own children to their food corner if they want to self serve before parents come to the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

It’s not about money. Really!
It’s just I don’t want to bring groceries for 10 people, I just want to bring enough for our family of 3. We are already sharing dinners.

Why do you assume that you'll be bringing all the groceries? Aren't the others bringing groceries too? If all of you bring groceries for 10 people, you'd be able to feed 30 people in that place. Obviously there's no need for that. Just bring a little extra than you usually bring.

Yes, but let’s imagine the situation that we all arrived and I brought groceries for my family for 3 days, but the other kids eat all our breakfast supplies on day 1. Then I have nothing left. I don’t want to eat their food, neither do they have enough for us.

Go to the g*d damn store and buy more bagels?

You are being ridiculous, OP. There’s not some magic way to ensure other kids don’t eat your breakfast except saying “no.” If that makes you feel like a jerk, it’s because it’s a jerky thing to say. So you are back to either bringing more bagels or buying more when you run out.

[Anonymous]

So this has happened before more than once? You know the answer because you know the dynamic, If you really want to travel with these people, bring more food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When a kid wanders into the kitchen and asks for some food, tell them to go talk to their mom because she brought food for them. Why is this so hard? If your family is the first one up and eating, tell parents to show their own children to their food corner if they want to self serve before parents come to the kitchen.

No, that’s not how it happens. The kids are in the kitchen eating their breakfast. We cook our breakfast and start eating it a bit later. They want to eat ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it the type of thing where you’re making omelets for your kids and other families brought Cheerios?

If it’s something like that, you need to bring similar foods. There’s no way around it. If the other kids see a mom cooking something that smells good they’re going to ask for some.

No, they ate all our bacon and cereal and bread. So it’s not like we bring gourmet breakfast.

Never bring bacon. It smells too good and everyone will come sniffing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Go to the g*d damn store and buy more bagels?

You are being ridiculous, OP. There’s not some magic way to ensure other kids don’t eat your breakfast except saying “no.” If that makes you feel like a jerk, it’s because it’s a jerky thing to say. So you are back to either bringing more bagels or buying more when you run out.

Hello? There are no groceries stores in the state park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When a kid wanders into the kitchen and asks for some food, tell them to go talk to their mom because she brought food for them. Why is this so hard? If your family is the first one up and eating, tell parents to show their own children to their food corner if they want to self serve before parents come to the kitchen.

No, that’s not how it happens. The kids are in the kitchen eating their breakfast. We cook our breakfast and start eating it a bit later. They want to eat ours.

But same principle: "are you still hungry. This food is just for our family, but I bet if you go ask your parents they will get you something."

[Anonymous]

If you wanted to cook one pack of bacon for your family, but then chose to cook all three to feed the other kids, that's kind of on you. It can be awkward to say no to a kid or have a conversation with a parent, but if you want things to change...

[Anonymous]

OP, if you can't tolerate someone else's kids eating your supplies, I don't think you should participate. There isn't really a way to enforce it without seeming ungracious. And I understand it can can grate on you to feel taken advantage of. If you've shared a rental before, it's the parents who are at fault anyway. If the kids are 12 or under, there is no way to make these distinctions without seeming ungenerous.

[Anonymous]

This is so weird, we'd always bring more food to share and hate to say no sharing of food especially to kids. I don't know anyone who does this. Maybe the best solution is just to plan for food to share and then split the cost.

[Anonymous]

"I explicitly said that I’m bringing breakfast and lunch food for our family only and don’t intend to to feed others for breakfast and lunch."

This is your first problem. Why not just decide on an appropriate amount/type of breakfast food, and divide up who is bringing it?

They must realy like your husband and kids, OP. Because if you'd already acted like this once, there' no way I'd go away with you again. People like you create so much unnecessary tension and stress.

[Anonymous]

Option 1: stick with the plan of individual family breakfasts and lunches. Then you will have to occasionally reinforce this with potentially uncomfortable conversations - "sorry, we only brought enough for our family, talk to your parents about what they have for you"

Option 2: new approach - all three meals shared. If you want more control over what you are eating - plan more of the meals and then share these plans and divvy up the grocery list so you aren't bringing food for 10 for all the meals. Or in advance say, I was planning to serve x for breakfast for my family, is that what you want too? If so, I will bring x for 10, you bring y for 10.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I can't imagine sharing a house on vacation and not being willing to sharing food. Truly bizarre.

We handle this in one of two ways when traveling with others:

1. We use a shared Google doc to set a grocery list, one person buys everything and other send that person money via venmo.

2. We use a shared Google doc to set a grocery list and divide it to split the shopping and transporting to the vacation home.

If there are special foods for special dietary needs, that family would buy that on their own and it is marked as such (e.g., Gluten Free for Larla) so no one would ask for it. Doesn't seem like that is the case for you though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I can't imagine sharing a house on vacation and not being willing to sharing food. Truly bizarre.

We handle this in one of two ways when traveling with others:

1. We use a shared Google doc to set a grocery list, one person buys everything and other send that person money via venmo.

2. We use a shared Google doc to set a grocery list and divide it to split the shopping and transporting to the vacation home.

If there are special foods for special dietary needs, that family would buy that on their own and it is marked as such (e.g., Gluten Free for Larla) so no one would ask for it. Doesn't seem like that is the case for you though.

Well, I don’t want to cook 3 times a day for 10 people on my vacation. Neither do I want to haul this amount of groceries.

What’s wrong with just sharing dinners and keeping the other meals to our family only??