By Elizabeth Magee, LRD
There are currently three teenagers (and a 10-year-old who will be upset she’s not mentioned: Hi!!!) in my house. That’s a lot of teenagers under one roof. A lot of schedules, a lot of preferences, laundry, snack wrappers thrown anywhere but the garbage, and a lot of opinions – about everything. I’ll let you come up with a list of your own. Not everything is negative about teenagers, but the most annoying thing for me is meals. Snack. Really, any eating opportunity. Here's why:
- There’s never any food. We don’t have anything to eat. This grinds my gears. Why am I constantly at the store spending what feels like thousands of dollars while buying the requests that are made? (I mean not all the requests. I’m not that nice).
- Yet, when I ask people to come with me to grocery shop and pick out things they want, no one wants to.
- Mealtimes are all over the place. I’ll admit this isn’t always their fault when activity schedules are numerous and ever-changing. But when you are eating dinner at 10 p.m. because you weren’t hungry at 6 p.m. because you had a huge snack after school because “school lunch was gross” is when it’s annoying. Not only are you not eating the leftovers from the meal prepared for you, now you’re making a whole new meal.
- What on earth happened to eating the meal you are served at the normal dinner time? I didn’t think it was such a neat idea when I was younger, but I get it now.
- Eating in their room. This is another thing that was just not ever allowed growing up in my house. The dishes are there for days to weeks, which leads to totally gross (and avoidable) outcomes! WHY?? Eat in the kitchen. Bonus points if you talk to others in the kitchen!!
- Needing to try the latest TikTok food trend and it ends in a fail. These are entertaining sometimes, and sometimes I’m hopeful that this will be what gets them to make a healthy choice or decide to eat something offering nutritional benefits, but it seems like that never happens. So many times, the end product is “gross”.
- With these “trends” it’s really more of the wasted money that gets me. Especially when I try explaining this probably is not as phenomenal as the reel promises.
I think I’m being too negative. I do love the kids, I swear. No one is going hungry here. It’s just more frustrating than I ever thought it would be. I don’t remember having a say in what was for dinner or what groceries came in the house. I’m sure I thought my parents were as lame as my kids think we are – I’ll count that as a win.
If you are hoping for a solution, maybe I should have stated that earlier: I don’t have one. At this point, I’m hoping that when they are off on their own, they will realize these diets are not a long-term solution to living a healthy, balanced life. I imagine salads being ordered by choice, making sure the fridge has fruits and veggies, but still enjoying those foods of the teen years when there doesn’t seem to be a care in the world when it comes to snacks and meal. Lucky ducks.
My wish for them all is that they find a love for fueling their bodies with the right stuff!!
The benefit for me is that I just don’t make meals anymore. Ha! In the end, we all really just want our children to understand that we have their best interests at heart. So, whatever your meal-time struggles are, know that you are not alone!
Elizabeth Magee is a licensed registered dietitian. Her posts appear monthly on OYT.
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