Mom-Of-Three Shares Her Snack Hack, Goes Viral
While families all over the world have been practicing social distancing, some were even homebound during our collective fight against the coronavirus pandemic. During this difficult period, we all have been getting bored. But it’s not the extra free time that’s the problem, rather what we do(n’t) do with it. Many kids, for example, have just been snacking all day, every day.
Mom-of-three and parenting blogger Jen Hallstrom, however, got fed up with her kids munching so much and decided to put a stop to it.
More info: Facebook
Image credits: Jen Hallstrom
Image credits: Jen Hallstrom
It worked!
The mom developed this clever trick after seeing a similar idea on Pinterest some time ago. “My two girls are complete bored snackers,” Hallstrom told Bored Panda. “I am also guilty of this! So this really helped us in the weird downtime we were in! My son is a fairly decent eater but ‘wants’ 4 snacks at a time. We loved how this eliminated that over the top snacking.”
Image credits: Jen Hallstrom
“It worked really well,” Hallstrom said. “We are now back into a normal routine so there is not really a need for it now. But long breaks and summer break next year I will bring them back for sure!”
An additional rule was no stealing from the siblings’ baskets, but substitutes were allowed. “An example being ‘I don’t want an apple today, can I trade for a banana?'”
Hallstrom had usually put 3-4 snacks in there for the whole day and often found that they wouldn’t even eat all of those. “If it was a refrigerated snack like yogurt or veggies, it was stored in a certain bin in the fridge. They also only got one cup a day which really, really helped with my constant dishes problem.”
People absolutely adored the simple yet brilliant hack
Since everyone loved it so much, the mom decided to share more quarantine hacks as well:
Image credits: The JEN Life
Image credits: The JEN Life
Image credits: The JEN Life
Image credits: The JEN Life
Image credits: The JEN Life
Image credits: The JEN Life
I love this idea but those children seem well-behaved. My siblings would complete their snacks and jump on mine in the first 3 hours ( TBH I would be the first to do that ) ;D
Alternative suggestions: make snacking dependent on nutritional value. My children will get anything with added sugar only after a full meal as desert or if anyone has something (like getting ice cream on a hot day). Healthy snacks such as fruit bars only come at times not close to the meals. A plate with sliced fruit and raw produce (cucumber, bell peppers etc.) will be restocked whenever they ask for it. Little quarrel as the result, and if they occasionally ask for an extra I am easy.
ooo I love that
I wish this worked for my kids. I tried this a couple of times but with both my kids having almost no impulse control, being oral sensory seekers they ate the whole lot in the morning. My daughter coped fine without snacks for the rest of the day as she is 14 and understands consequences. Even though my son is 6 and should understand the consequences, the fact is he doesn’t, he has a significant speech and language disorder so is quite difficult for him to understand especially with poor impulse control.
You could divide it up into three allotments throughout the day, that come at set times. After a while your son would get used to the pattern, I'd wager.
That’s a good idea, thank you. 😊
That's a great idea, Martha.
Yeah - I'd love to try this with my 3 boys. However ... all 3 have ADHD and so their impulse control is sometimes non-existent. But still, it's a good idea - I may try it this weekend!
Chez, see Martha's comment above about dividing it up.
I just learned about oral sensory seekers this year. It explains a lot of what I witnessed from kids when I was growing up. There are pill dispensers for people on serious doses that must be controlled -- everything taken on time, no doses missed or doubled. A snack dispenser would work great for everyone! It would help people like me who have "snack amnesia" -- we easily forget that we just stuffed our face and keep throwing goodies into our mouth.
Same. We tried it too. Both my kids ate it within minutes then still drove me mental all day for snacks haha.
After a while they should get used it to it though. I remember throwing tantrums when we had to come in for the night, but my mum gave us a watch and taught us that we had to come in when the alarms went off. Within a week we were completely used to it. Is this something you could do? Set alarms and that's the time for snacks? You'd only have to put up with the whining for a few days or so and they'll be used to it and in a routine!
I get this image of a Robin with hatchlings, stuffing their upstretched beaks all day.
Catherine Hankinson haha
Divide it up into three baskets.
I love this idea but those children seem well-behaved. My siblings would complete their snacks and jump on mine in the first 3 hours ( TBH I would be the first to do that ) ;D
Alternative suggestions: make snacking dependent on nutritional value. My children will get anything with added sugar only after a full meal as desert or if anyone has something (like getting ice cream on a hot day). Healthy snacks such as fruit bars only come at times not close to the meals. A plate with sliced fruit and raw produce (cucumber, bell peppers etc.) will be restocked whenever they ask for it. Little quarrel as the result, and if they occasionally ask for an extra I am easy.
ooo I love that
I wish this worked for my kids. I tried this a couple of times but with both my kids having almost no impulse control, being oral sensory seekers they ate the whole lot in the morning. My daughter coped fine without snacks for the rest of the day as she is 14 and understands consequences. Even though my son is 6 and should understand the consequences, the fact is he doesn’t, he has a significant speech and language disorder so is quite difficult for him to understand especially with poor impulse control.
You could divide it up into three allotments throughout the day, that come at set times. After a while your son would get used to the pattern, I'd wager.
That’s a good idea, thank you. 😊
That's a great idea, Martha.
Yeah - I'd love to try this with my 3 boys. However ... all 3 have ADHD and so their impulse control is sometimes non-existent. But still, it's a good idea - I may try it this weekend!
Chez, see Martha's comment above about dividing it up.
I just learned about oral sensory seekers this year. It explains a lot of what I witnessed from kids when I was growing up. There are pill dispensers for people on serious doses that must be controlled -- everything taken on time, no doses missed or doubled. A snack dispenser would work great for everyone! It would help people like me who have "snack amnesia" -- we easily forget that we just stuffed our face and keep throwing goodies into our mouth.
Same. We tried it too. Both my kids ate it within minutes then still drove me mental all day for snacks haha.
After a while they should get used it to it though. I remember throwing tantrums when we had to come in for the night, but my mum gave us a watch and taught us that we had to come in when the alarms went off. Within a week we were completely used to it. Is this something you could do? Set alarms and that's the time for snacks? You'd only have to put up with the whining for a few days or so and they'll be used to it and in a routine!
I get this image of a Robin with hatchlings, stuffing their upstretched beaks all day.
Catherine Hankinson haha
Divide it up into three baskets.