You are here

If ya can't teach em...lock everything up

Cooooookies's picture

Yep, that's where it's at right now.  Honestly I'm loving it because it saves SO MUCH HEADACHE AND MONEY.

SS16 hoards/steals/gorges on food.  JUNK food to be precise.  The last straw was the other night.  He put two sandwiches in the food bin that were only 40% eaten.  Also thrown away out of his lunch bag were THREE packets of hot cheetos, one packet of crisps and two packets of chocolate swiss rolls.

SoOoooOOOooo the next morning I show him all the wrappers and asked why he threw away most of his sandwiches.  "I wasn't that hungry for them I guess."  WELL maybeeeeeeeeeeeeee you'd be a bit more hungry if you hadn't gorged on 4 packets of salted junk food and two packets of sugary junk food before you ate your sandwiches, perhaps?

*Dumb blank stare*

Yep so I found a small adjustable cable lock meant for locking up your bicycle.  However it fits nicely around the handles of my 1940's vintage Ercol welsh dresser.  It's dark wood so the lock is hardly noticeable and now the little fecker can't steal a dang thing.  Every night I take out a few packs of whatever for his lunch and a pack of breakfast biscuits for his breakfast.

Honestly?  So worth my piece of mind.  The lock was cheaper than mental breakdown therapy and more legal than choking the every loving useless shyte out of this snowflake skid.  Already have a lock on my bedroom door, where his remotes for tv and ps4 are kept while I'm not home and sleeping.

Win/win/win/win.  Merry Early-StepHell-Sucks-A-Little-Less-Now Christmas to me!!!  Share your stories of how small changes made your stephell more peaceful.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand go.

Dirol

Drinks

Biggrin

 

Comments

tog redux's picture

My solution would be just to not buy the crappy food for him anymore.  He can take healthy food for lunch and buy crap at school with his own money.

But congrats on your win. Smile

Cooooookies's picture

Well, that would be my solution too...if it were my own bio.  However, Disney DH would never go along with that.  Soooooo I found my compromise. Smile

tog redux's picture

No - I hope he goes shopping! Otherwise, I would just *oops* forget the junk food every week.  Sorry, DH, you'll have to make a run for it.

Actually, what I would really do is let the kid eat whatever the hell he wants and let DH deal with it. Not my monkey.

 

Cooooookies's picture

DH does go shopping.  I don't drive here so he does the shopping.  Even if I do the shopping, I just order online and have them deliver.  Grocery delivery is very common and cheap here since a lot of people don't drive in England.  If I do online shopping, it comes out of DH's money.

I can't leave this to DH because he would just replace and replace and replace.  It stresses me out too much waiting for DH to see the light.  So I just don't even tell him anymore how I handle things...I just do it.  As DH never notices what SS is or is not doing, he doesn't really notice or follow up on how I solve the problems.  So I pretty much have free reign to do whatever...just like SS USED to.

Dirol

Winterglow's picture

Key or code?

If it's a key, make sure you have it on you at ALL times Smile

TrueNorth77's picture

This is great! I've been tempted to do something similar, trust me. SS goes in waves, sometimes he will just eat all the snacks and it makes me so mad. A brand-new package of something will be gone in 1 day. I buy most of the groceries, so it's even more infuriating.

2 nights ago I bought a package of Oreos for skids lunches and for my SO. I brought it into the house at 6:30pm, when I got home from the gym. The next night at 6pm, I looked in the cabinet and noticed the package was partially open, because that's what skids do- open cookies, crackers, cereal, and leave it WIDE open in the cabinet to immediately get stale and old, like a bunch of savages. Anyway, I glanced in the package and 2 of the 3 rows were already gone! In 1 day, and skids were at school during the day! Which means someone snuck them at night, or after school. SS was there and I said, wtf, who ate all the Oreos?? He said, I only had 1, just now (Mmm, sure SS). I assumed it was my SO, but I mentioned it to him last night and he said he hadn't had any at all. So you're telling me SD9 ate 2 entire rows of Oreos herself, in 1 day? She's not like that, she usually asks if she can have a snack, and even asks how many she can have. I told my SO that SS had to have eaten most of them, and that it pissed me off that he lied to me. Skids came in the room and my SO actually asked skids, Ok, what happened to all the Oreos? (this is huge progress, typically he wouldn't even ask, but he has been trying to be better about addressing things with skids that bother me). It wouldn't even be a big deal, but this ALWAYS happens when I buy cookies, someone eats the entire package in 1 day. SS denied, said he only had 2 cookies, SD said she only had 3 for lunch. Someone is lying, but I just said, look, I'm not even trying to make a big deal out of it, but if we have snacks like that, you only eat a normal portion size, not 2 rows...and because of this, I won't be buying cookies anymore.

So that's my solution, I'm just not buying them anymore. I'll buy chocolate for myself and continue to hide it in nondescript boxes on the top shelf where they won't even look. Did that work out the way you wanted it to skids? Nope. Hope they enjoy their new cookie-less existence.

 

Cover1W's picture

Yep - I stopped buying a LOT of things because SD14 would eat a whole bag or box of junk. She never ate ' real food ' - and who cares who didn't have any left?

If DH wanted to please her, he darn well could get it for her.

If it was something I really liked, I found hiding some things under the bed worked, or locked into the laundry room cabinets.

thinkthrice's picture

SD would and still does eat Oreos by the sleeve; and doritos, reeses peanut butter cups.  To this day I can't even LOOK at a dorito!

Aniki-Moderator's picture

Cooooookies, I had to hide the junk food in a locked room. I no longer bought junk prior to skid weekends - I bought it the following Monday because I'm evil like that. It was so bad, that DH started moving the junk food to the locked room before the skid invasion. This is what happens when kids are addicted to sugar (and salt).

Siemprematahari's picture

Aniki! the StepKid invasion LOL.....Goodness that is spot on and such a shame that things have to be locked up so the Gremlins don't get to it.

Aniki-Moderator's picture

We were finding wrappers stuck between couch cushions and in the recycle bag (used solely for plastic bags). DH confronted the skids about it, following with "You need to ask me if you want something; not just take it." The skids were all over "I didn't do it" as an excuse (our house is obviously haunted by sugar-addicted poltergeists). So DH solved the problem by no longer having the treats ANYWHERE. When he drove the skids home, I retrieved the goodies from the poltergeist-proof room.

TrueNorth77's picture

We must have the same poltergeist! That explains the missing Oreos.

grace8205's picture

I learned to lock things up within the first year of step life. Skid24 moves back today and I already have installed a keyed lock on my bedroom and the furnace room where my deep freeze and beer fridge is located. Anything I don’t want him to touch will got into the furnace room. 

I don’t care if DH doesn’t like it but it helps keep the peace since Disney dad sometimes has issues saying anything to his kid. 

Gucci's picture

My SS14 is a food thief. So much so that I had to put zip ties on our pantry and fridge. We don't buy any junk really. But after coming down one night for water, he was busted in a big tub of raw cookie dough with his nubby, nasty fingers. We had bought it for Christmas cookies from a wholesale store and I threw the whole thing away. 

StepUltimate's picture

... save your money folks, and just hide the goodies under the veggies in the fridge veggie-drawer.

Worked like a charm for me when SS18 still lived with us. 

TrueNorth77's picture

Yes! I do similar things with some food- hide it in veggie drawer, bottom shelf of the freezer, top shelf in pantry in nondescript box. Turns out skids aren't that smart. Unknw

Cover1W's picture

Locks are the answer!

I locked up stuff (makeup / bathroom things) from SDs when SD14 (then 10/11) couldn't keep out of my stuff when explicitly told not too - then SD12 (then 9/10) and her friend got into my things.  DH didn't care ("they're just kids"!  Me:  destroying $20 eyeliners...you now owe me about $50 for new makeup!) and SD12's troublesome friend's mother just said, "Oh, she does that."  WTF?

I also have two large cabinets in the laundry room that I installed locks on.  I haven't had to lock them up since SD14 stopped coming and SD12's troublesome friend hardly ever comes over any longer.  But those locks on the cabinets saved me a lot of $!

CLove's picture

Made my life so much better!!!!!! It was a small change in action and a big change in attitude. Reading Steptalk and learning how others are coping. Another small change in action and big change in attitude!!!!

Sharing what I have learned with others about Narcissistic children-who-then-become-narcissistic-adults has made a big difference. Once I learned about this, it was a "game-changer". Because now I can anticipate better, protect myself and DH better. Be a better SM to Munchkin SD12. 

Cooooookies's picture

Disengagement doesn't work for me...not full disengagement anyways.  DH would just continue to buy stuff, SS would continue to eat it too quickly, DH would buy it.  DH wouldn't notice that SS isn't finishing homework, studying, etc.  DH wouldn't notice that SS hasn't showered, had a poo, brushed his teeth.  Meanwhile, I'd be stuck living with a fat, smelly, failing skid until the end of time.

No. Thank. You!!

One £8 bicycle lock and a £10 door handle lock saves me a bundle on groceries just in one week alone.  Locking his remotes saves me a skid who failed his GCSE's (US equivalent of getting a high school diploma) and watching him repeat his final year in 2 years at the local community college.  I save my nose the offense of his uncleanliness by making sure he washes.

This is all for MY investment and peace of mind.  This damn skid WILL move out before he's 25!!!  Whether DH knows it or not.

Wink

notasm3's picture

It can get worse. SS34 entered our home without permission and either drank or absconded with 5 1.7 liters of booze.  All of the bottles were unopened (we don’t drink hard liquor) and all were left with 1/2 inch.   We’d been planning to entering which is why we’d stocked our bar.