The amount of fruit eaten by a child has sparked a huge debate after a woman said she was insisting her stepdaughter stops taking fruit from the fridge 'without asking' as it's too expensive.
The woman took to the popular forum site Mumsnet to pose the question to other users about what she should do in relation to the matter. She took to the site to ask for advice and her post sparked a huge reaction - with mixed views of some supporting her while others criticised her for speaking out.
Since sharing her thread, the woman's post has raked in hundreds of responses, with Mumsnet users flooding the comment section to discuss the situation, the Mirror reports.
She explained: "My stepdaughter moved in with us full-time back in January. Our situation is that I am a higher earner and breadwinner on mat leave with my five-month-old baby."
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She continued: "My husband does some part-time work that doesn't bring in much (he runs our family vehicle and contributes towards household costs such as shopping etc). My stepdaughter's mother does not contribute towards her expenses while she is living here (indefinitely for now).
"At the moment, we are on a tight budget due to my mat leave - and one thing driving me crazy is my stepdaughter eating all our fruit. We will buy a weekly shop with two bunches of bananas, few punnets of berries, peaches, melon, grapes, tangerines, etc, and she will eat her way through the lot in two days.
"For example, yesterday she ate a punnet and a half of raspberries, three peaches, four tangerines, some grapes, a slice of melon, and two bananas. This is on a school day (so she eats this at breakfast and in the evening).
"She is then obviously reluctant to finish a proper evening meal or try anything she dislikes. She also has had a couple of accidents with loose stools (in my opinion this is from bingeing on fruit). She takes it from the fridge without asking and leaves nothing for my husband and I.
"I've spoken to my husband about this and he says she is a growing child and at least fruit is good for her - fair enough I buy fruit partly for her to eat, but the amount seems greedy to me, and beyond what is necessary for a healthy child. I think reasonable is a small bowl of berries and grapes along with a tangerine and banana after school as a snack and then one piece for dessert.
"She can also have melon and banana for breakfast along with cereal and yoghurt. 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."
She added: "We provide substantial breakfast, lunch, and dinner portions, and I try to accommodate her tastes (though she can't just have fish fingers and strawberries as a diet, which would be her preference)."
Seeking advice, she questioned: "Want to handle this in a compassionate way, would I be unreasonable to stop buying fruit until my husband agrees to a sensible ration for my stepdaughter?"
One person wrote: "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."
While another said: "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."
another said: "My kids would do this if I let them but they don’t, as I wouldn’t. They have to put berries in a small ikea plastic bowl (I did it for them when they were little). We can’t afford it and it is a lot of sugar. Offer carrot sticks instead. my kids aren’t allowed to help themselves to anything though I’d rarely say no (Mumsnet version of crueelka) I’d be bankrupt."
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