A lady took to Mumsnet complaining that her stepdaughter was taking too much fruit out of the fridge, costing the family lots of money.
Many parents complain that their children are eating too much junk food, but not this stepmum.
A lady took to the parenting forum to express her annoyance that her seven-year-old stepdaughter is eating too much fruit, asking her fellow mums if she is being “unreasonable” for caring so much.
She is the higher earner of her and her husband, currently on maternity leave with a five-month-old baby, while he does part-time work.
Her stepdaughter moved in with them full-time in January and her biological mother is not contributing towards her living expenses while she lives with them.
The frustrated stepmum explained that they are on a “tight budget” while she is on maternity leave.
But one thing that is “driving [her] crazy” is that her stepdaughter is eating “all” of their fruit.
Their fridge is filled with two bunches of bananas, a few punnets of berries, peaches, melon, grapes and tangerines weekly.
On one school day alone she might eat a punnet and a half of raspberries, three peaches, four tangerines, some grapes, a slice of melon and a few bananas.
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Her excessive fruit eating means she is often “reluctant” to eat her dinner, and she has even had “a couple of accidents with loose stools” – which her stepmum blames on the fruit.
What makes matters worse is that she takes from the fridge without asking and does not leave any for the grown-ups.
When she brought it up with her husband he did not agree, stating that she is a “growing child and at least fruit is good for her”.
The stepmum believes the amount she is eating is “greedy”, and “beyond what is necessary for a healthy child”.
She thinks should stick to melon and banana with cereal and yoghurt for breakfast, a bowl of berries and grapes along with a tangerine and banana at lunch and another piece of fruit for dessert.
She argued: “I want her to learn that food costs money, we don’t have a bottomless pit of it and you don’t just gorge on whatever you want because you are bored/tired/didn’t eat your dinner, you ration portions in a family so everyone gets a fair share, and sometimes eat less tasty things to maintain a healthy diet.”
The family provide a “substantial breakfast, lunch and dinner portions” and the stepmum said she “tries to accommodate her tastes – though she can’t just have fish fingers and strawberries as a diet, which would be her preference.”
Looking to handle this in a “compassionate” way, she asked the forum if she was being “unreasonable” to stop buying fruit until her husband agrees to a sensible ration for his daughter.
The forum was divided, with some deeming the stepmum unreasonable and others agreeing her stepdaughter was in fact eating too much fruit.
One parent said: “Not unreasonable at all. That’s a ridiculous amount of fruit to be eating in one day, and like you say, never mind the cost, she is going to end up making herself ill. You can have too much of anything, no matter how healthy it might be!
“The cost would be annoying me too – that’s easily £5+ worth of fruit in a day.”
Another advised: “I’d just encourage her to eat more of the cheaper fruit (maybe sub some apples and pears for some of the berries which really add up) and yes work on dinner but I wouldn’t restrict it and definitely not stop buying it. She’s 7. Fruit is good for her.”
However, another quipped: “Unpleasant to call a 7 year old eating fruit “greedy”. But it’s reasonable to expect her to eat her evening meal before snacking her way through fruit.”
One commented: “She sounds like the hungry caterpillar!”
Some Mumsnet users encouraged the stepmum to take the little girl to the GP to find out if there are any underlying issues.
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