Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is eating fruit outside some kind of regional thing? I have never heard of this practice of taking a piece of fruit from the kitchen and going outside to eat it.

It’s not a regional thing. It’s a healthy thing. Most normal and healthy people have a piece of fruit as a snack in between meals. They don’t need fatty junk food like pizzas and bigmacs in between nutritious homemade meals. People on this thread should try it.

I like how the world is fruit vs. Big Macs to you. Like there's no middle ground?

My go-to snacks (and I don't snack every day) are fruit and a small piece of cheese (GASP!) or hummus with carrots or pita chips (OMG!!!!!)

I'm sure you would survive if all you had was a banana or an apple as a snack. If you want to clean up pita chip crumbs and wash off plates and utensils after your little snack in your own home, feel free to do so. But do not assume that your hosts want to deal with crumbs and dirty dishes in their kitchens.

Grab a piece of fruit, go outside and eat it.

WHY DO THEY HAVE TO TAKE IT OUTSIDE? There are no crumbs from apples. Bananas aren't shooting juice across your freshly mopped floor. Unless you are offering up pomegranates or grapefruits, I fail to see any mess that a grown, human person could make with a piece of fruit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is eating fruit outside some kind of regional thing? I have never heard of this practice of taking a piece of fruit from the kitchen and going outside to eat it.

It’s not a regional thing. It’s a healthy thing. Most normal and healthy people have a piece of fruit as a snack in between meals. They don’t need fatty junk food like pizzas and bigmacs in between nutritious homemade meals. People on this thread should try it.

I like how the world is fruit vs. Big Macs to you. Like there's no middle ground?

My go-to snacks (and I don't snack every day) are fruit and a small piece of cheese (GASP!) or hummus with carrots or pita chips (OMG!!!!!)

I'm sure you would survive if all you had was a banana or an apple as a snack. If you want to clean up pita chip crumbs and wash off plates and utensils after your little snack in your own home, feel free to do so. But do not assume that your hosts want to deal with crumbs and dirty dishes in their kitchens.

Grab a piece of fruit, go outside and eat it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is eating fruit outside some kind of regional thing? I have never heard of this practice of taking a piece of fruit from the kitchen and going outside to eat it.

It’s not a regional thing. It’s a healthy thing. Most normal and healthy people have a piece of fruit as a snack in between meals. They don’t need fatty junk food like pizzas and bigmacs in between nutritious homemade meals. People on this thread should try it.

I like how the world is fruit vs. Big Macs to you. Like there's no middle ground?

My go-to snacks (and I don't snack every day) are fruit and a small piece of cheese (GASP!) or hummus with carrots or pita chips (OMG!!!!!)

Why don't you ask to define kitchen rules prior to arriving. Then once they are explain to you, present your rules of eating.
If the two collide then negotiate the middle ground. One of them would be to respect not touching the host's food if that seems to be a case as some people are doing it out of money concern so either offer to contribute or to buy your own food that you will be eating between meals as you fancy and promise to clean the countertop afterwards.
There is no law in the world prohibiting you from arriving with sliced chees and cold cuts and jar of mayo and mustard and one loaf of bread. Ask kindly where you can stash your stuff so you and your kids can have a sandwich in case you guys get hungry between the meals. If anyone will try to deny the right then you should renegotiate the whole idea of visit at such place.

At home though it seems to borderline with abuse to restrict food from a child that is growing and who's needs are not only greater but also kind of nonlinear. The kid can get hungry at any given time regardless of what they just ate because when they hit a grow spur which btw... can be anytime until they are fully grown. Restricting kids from free access to healthy snacks and food can lead to growth restriction and other developmental problems.

I am not talking about free access to bowls of jelly beans and goldfish and sneaker bars. I am talking about having
in the fridge healthy amount precut and ready celery sticks, carrots, radishes. Some healthy small sandwiches that are loaded with veggies or grilled veggies and cut and wrapped long sticks so kids can grab when hungry. Also some bowl of salad here or there.

I think it is very fine line between restricting food and being cruel. Many adults can not relate to the fact that kids
have smaller stomachs and they usually don't fare well on three square big meals, let alone two.. because they can not load up so much. Also, they just don't operate like this. Their system does not support digestion the way adults do.
Kids who gets hungry, their stomach release tons of acid and this is not good for a kid. It is really bad for the digestive system.

One thing is to reasonably feed a kid, another is to starve a kid between meals. There is definitely a middle ground.

Anonymous wrote:is eating fruit outside some kind of regional thing? I have never heard of this practice of taking a piece of fruit from the kitchen and going outside to eat it.

It’s not a regional thing. It’s a healthy thing. Most normal and healthy people have a piece of fruit as a snack in between meals. They don’t need fatty junk food like pizzas and bigmacs in between nutritious homemade meals. People on this thread should try it.

14:31 -- Are you my long-lost sister?

Last time I visited Mom, her fridge contained the following:

- 1 small container of blueberries (to top her morning bowl of Special K)

- 10 "Balanced Bites" (little plastic containers with a few cubes of cheese, a couple of almonds and some dark chocolate) -- these are lunch and dinner for the next 5 days

- 1 large box of wine

I offered to go to the grocery store and she said "Oh I don't need anything. I just went shopping."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was newly pregnant one year during Thanksgiving. We were staying with MIL, but she was not hosting the family feast; nearby SIL was. MIL had no food, no snacks in her house. She normally eats like a bird anyway. We brought a huge pot of soup, so that's all we ate for breakfast and lunch before the evening family gathering. I've never known hunger like that before or since, being in first tri. H and SFIL took the car for most of the day and I was shut up in the house with MIL and no food. MIL eats very little, so she wouldn't understand that a pregnant woman needs a lot more than she does.

Please have mercy on your guests, people you presume to like since you're hosting, and recognize that what fills you does not provide enough nourishment for them.

I'm sorry your MIL is a horrible host...but, what? Being pregnant rendered you incapable of ordering Pizza Hut or taking an Uber to the grocery store or CVS?

People, grown-ass adults are responsible for feeding themselves. "Brad, before you and Jane take the car and leave me here, you need to go to the grocery store and get me some food. This is ridiculous."

It's not that easy. When you're out of your element, you don't have the foresight to predict how long DH and FSIL will be gone with the car, how hungry you'll actually get, when the next meal might come. I've been in the exact situation, and I've waited awkwardly (so as not to offend anyone) thinking "well maybe they'll be home soon" or "oh looks like we'll be eating shortly". By the time you realize those things are gonna happen, you're starved!! After that first trip/experience, you gotta wisen up and make your own meal plans. I will either go out and pick up food or I'll call DH to bring food home.

Domino's delivers.

I'm the poster with the mom and the brother. I am laughing my head off imagining my mother's reaction if he ordered a Domino's pizza and brought it into her apartment. If I bring a bottle of water into her house, I get an entire conversation about how I don't really need to drink that much, and how it was "messing up" her otherwise empty counters.. The other day, I brought some berries as a contribution to dinner, and she asked me many times to make sure that I was taking the left overs with me, because she didn't want them filling up her fridge (note: a full fridge means 2 or 3 things on the same shelf). I don't have the issue of being starving, because I don't live there, so I just limit myself to short visits, but it's a

The "grab a piece of fruit and go outside" thing wouldn't work, because there is no extra food that is not wine or diet coke. She goes to the grocery store and buys exactly 21 meals worth of food. She might have a little extra of a staple like some uncooked rice, or of something that comes in a size that doesn't exactly fit, but not of any of the kind of things you'd grab for a snack without messing up her kitchen. For example, she has a banana for (not with) breakfast every other morning, so she buys either 3 or 4 bananas depending on whether she ate one that morning. You can't possibly eat one of them, because then she'd have no breakfast!!!! (Note: she's very active goes all over the place. She lives within walking distance of several stores that sell bananas. So, there are some possible solutions to this issue.)

It's not that we don't agree that your mom is crazy. She sounds like a nutbag. I'm sure that's hard.

But guess whose decision it is to keep coming back for more? YOURS. YOU are responsible for you. If you choose to accept her "hospitality" and visit her in her home, and play by her rules, that is on YOU. YOU need to own that, and stop complaining about her.

She's in charge of her household, crazy though she may be. If you don't like the way she runs her house, DON'T VISIT. Point blank period. Stay in a hotel and meet her for meals and outings. And if she can't accept that, then why on Earth would you continue contact with such a toxic, controlling, crazy person.

Make your choices, own your choices, live your choices.

Okay, stop the fat shaming. This is about control. Own it. The kitchen-is-closed people are control freaks, period. There are plenty of thin, fat, and in between people who do not like what you cook, or only take small portions but eat throughout the day, or kids who're in a growth spurt. Don't have any guests if their eating habits do not align with your own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was newly pregnant one year during Thanksgiving. We were staying with MIL, but she was not hosting the family feast; nearby SIL was. MIL had no food, no snacks in her house. She normally eats like a bird anyway. We brought a huge pot of soup, so that's all we ate for breakfast and lunch before the evening family gathering. I've never known hunger like that before or since, being in first tri. H and SFIL took the car for most of the day and I was shut up in the house with MIL and no food. MIL eats very little, so she wouldn't understand that a pregnant woman needs a lot more than she does.

Please have mercy on your guests, people you presume to like since you're hosting, and recognize that what fills you does not provide enough nourishment for them.

I'm sorry your MIL is a horrible host...but, what? Being pregnant rendered you incapable of ordering Pizza Hut or taking an Uber to the grocery store or CVS?

People, grown-ass adults are responsible for feeding themselves. "Brad, before you and Jane take the car and leave me here, you need to go to the grocery store and get me some food. This is ridiculous."

It's not that easy. When you're out of your element, you don't have the foresight to predict how long DH and FSIL will be gone with the car, how hungry you'll actually get, when the next meal might come. I've been in the exact situation, and I've waited awkwardly (so as not to offend anyone) thinking "well maybe they'll be home soon" or "oh looks like we'll be eating shortly". By the time you realize those things are gonna happen, you're starved!! After that first trip/experience, you gotta wisen up and make your own meal plans. I will either go out and pick up food or I'll call DH to bring food home.

Domino's delivers.

I'm the poster with the mom and the brother. I am laughing my head off imagining my mother's reaction if he ordered a Domino's pizza and brought it into her apartment. If I bring a bottle of water into her house, I get an entire conversation about how I don't really need to drink that much, and how it was "messing up" her otherwise empty counters.. The other day, I brought some berries as a contribution to dinner, and she asked me many times to make sure that I was taking the left overs with me, because she didn't want them filling up her fridge (note: a full fridge means 2 or 3 things on the same shelf). I don't have the issue of being starving, because I don't live there, so I just limit myself to short visits, but it's a

The "grab a piece of fruit and go outside" thing wouldn't work, because there is no extra food that is not wine or diet coke. She goes to the grocery store and buys exactly 21 meals worth of food. She might have a little extra of a staple like some uncooked rice, or of something that comes in a size that doesn't exactly fit, but not of any of the kind of things you'd grab for a snack without messing up her kitchen. For example, she has a banana for (not with) breakfast every other morning, so she buys either 3 or 4 bananas depending on whether she ate one that morning. You can't possibly eat one of them, because then she'd have no breakfast!!!! (Note: she's very active goes all over the place. She lives within walking distance of several stores that sell bananas. So, there are some possible solutions to this issue.)

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why everyone is criticizing. I also close my kitchen after meals. I make hearty meals - there’s no need to go into the kitchen every couple of hours. I agree with the previous poster who said this is why there’s an obesity problem in this country.

Crazy people never realize they are crazy, lol

I think 3 meals and a snack or two in between is sufficient. Another family came over and they didn't eat together or have a meal, the food was on the table for 5 hours and they would constantly come and graze, one by one repeatedly. It drove me nuts.

Totally appropriate thing to say to your five year old who wants a cookie after not eating their dinner.

Totally inappropriate thing to say to literally anyone else.

The kitchen is closed fatties!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:is eating fruit outside some kind of regional thing? I have never heard of this practice of taking a piece of fruit from the kitchen and going outside to eat it.

No, it's just one crazy poster here. Heaven forfend you visit her on a rainy day.

Anonymous wrote:is eating fruit outside some kind of regional thing? I have never heard of this practice of taking a piece of fruit from the kitchen and going outside to eat it.