Food for 2 weeks for lazy 18 year old!

pmcg01

mae wrote: »

Hi what would you stock up on for 2 weeks food for a lazy 18 year old.

We are going away on holiday and our son will be at home. He is a typical 18 year at the moment and the world revolves around him and he has no concept of the effort people put in for him.

Last time we went away I filled the cupboards with 'easy' food for him, which cost me a fortune.

I would have done this again but his attittude of I'm not getting a part time job 'its the holidays' had made me start to begrudge it!!

So I will fill the cupboards but of food he has to cook, is that peevish? Don't see why I should spend a fortune when he has the attitude of not needing/having to work over the summer.

He can cook IF he puts his mind to it.

So how much food and what kind of things would you stock up on?

I did think about just leaving him some money so he could shop for his own food too but I think he will just buy himself 2 weeks worth of supernoodles and cereal!! And maybe some beers and also if I did do this I would make sure it was a strict amount of money.

Thanks

Just give him a set sum, if he wnats to waste it on supernoodles and beer then fair enough - but as long as he knows once it is gone, it is gone and if he wants any more he will have to find the money.

Butterfly_Brain

Have you any friends or relatives who will give him a meal?
Or just leave him a basic student diet like pot noodles etc - I did this to my daughter just before she went to uni and it was surprising to find that when we got home how much she appreciated a home cooked meal - after that she asked me to teach her how to cook good cheap basic meals.

MindaJ

Is this the first time he's been left home alone for a significant time? If so, then he may surprise you! I'll admit to having been one of those lazy teens (although a girl). I resisted doing the washing up, tidying the family areas of the house etc., although I kept my own space relatively tidy and I did my own laundry. When I was home alone, the family space quickly became part of my space so I kept it tidy, and the kitchen was mine so I cleaned it too. I enjoyed it, actually.

Cooking was never a problem for me, I've always been able to do it and I've always enjoyed doing it. Mum never liked me in the kitchen though, so I usually couldn't try recipes I wanted or cook for myself at all much. When I was left alone, she'd try to convince me to stock up on microwavable meals as she apparently didn't trust me using the stove unsupervised, nor did she trust me to clean up after myself. I resisted and cooked from scratch anyway. Difference is I had a job and so had to pay for my own food (although mum and dad did leave me some money - compensation for all the take outs my brothers would be getting while they were with them), and there was no way I was paying $100 plus a week when I could manage on around $40.

The point of my long winded reminiscing: talk to your son. Make it clear what he will have to buy while you are gone. For instance, does he realise toilet paper doesn't magically appear when needed? Do you have any pets that need caring for? I would suggest making sure he has whatever laundry and dishwashing detergents he'll need, maybe toilettries, basically whatever he doesn't buy for himself. Foodwise, see what he wants to do. Tell him you won't be buying ready meals (if this is what you've decided), so he can decide what he wants to eat. Maybe plan out a menu together; not necessarily a strict mealplan, but a list of things he'd eat and cook. Take him shopping for the ingredients. If he does end up needing to go shopping again to top up on things, it might help if he has some ideas of prices and where things can be found in the store.

If you can't get through to him, then you decide what he'll eat, buy the food, and leave him at it. Don't leave him any money, leave it with relatives as suggested, but leave them instructions that they are not to hand it out to him if there is still food in the pantry.

I'm not blaming you here at all, but you could find he'll be less lazy when there is no one around to do things for him. I certaintly was.

*vamps

Hi, If you leave him some money and he spends it all on takeaways and beer in a few days he will still cope.

Thats life, you have to learn to budget and sometimes learn by your mistakes. If he wants to spend two weeks eatting noodles so he can have beer what of it?

At 18 you say he can cook so try not to worry too much. I don't think your being mean at all. He is an adult and should consider himself lucky that his parents support him going to uni and aren't insisting he goes out and gets a job and helps with the bills. He'll soon change his mind about summer work when his mates keep asking him to do stuff and he relises he can't because hes got no income. (Just make sure mom and dad don't top up the pocket money).

Another thing to consider is at the moment jobs are more difficult to come across so if he does actually start looking cut him some slack on the finding one straight away.

Either leave him the money to shop for himself or the ingrediants (maybe a combination of the two). Make sure he has access to cookbooks just in case he forgets a vital ingrediant and maybe leave a couple of cheap and easy meal ideas written down for him just to start him off.

Most of all, enjoy your holiday!! two weeks isn't that long. At 18 i was married (to a useless twerp i might add), working and had a baby. It wasn't easy but i did ok.

Valli

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I have an 18 year old who can cook but is lazy and if I were you I would be more worried about the state of the kitchen and the rest of the house when I got back, than what food to leave! I only went to a hospital appointment one afternoon and when I came back DD1 had left the grill on making bacon and had gone upstairs with her bf and I came home to a burnt out kitchen and two fire engines in attendance:eek:

I would leave some money and some meal ideas and let him get what he needs that way. That way, if he blows it all in the first few days it's his lookout!

OP is going to have a really relaxing holiday having read THAT;)

Triker

Why don't you give him 3 options


1. That you'll buy some food and leave him enough money for bread, milk etc.

2. That you'll leave him an amount of money and he can sort himself out.

3. That you'll take him shopping beforehand and he can manage with what there is and as a surprise have an online shop delivery booked for halfway through the week.:D

We're doing the same really later on this year and I'll be doing a combo of number two and number three for my DD.

Spirit_2

This thread has made me think what we do when we leave our daughter home alone which we have done since 6th form. Pretty consistently it is :

Ingredients for her to make :
Chicken Fajita's
Chicken & chorizo
Sausage & Mash & beans
Caulifower cheese
HM Pizza

Shop bought:
Pasta & sauce
Ready made pizza
camembert (to bake & have with bread)

Five a day - Lots of fruit juice, Grapes, strawberries/raspberries, bananas, lots of peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots.

HM bread - if she makes it in bread maker -
HM cake - if she bakes it

Other essentials:
Muffins & crumpets for breakfast
Cheddar,Goats Cheese, Blue cheese.
Amodest amount of beers/wine/soft drinks

She will often invite friends over for a meal, and our quantities would have accounted for her long term bf being here (split up in spring -so not this year!).

We hope she:

• enjoys the extra privacy and has a break from us
• exercises her responsibility for the house and animals
• Eats well
• Enjoys and learns from the independance.

We have never had an issue about her earning her spending money as she has a strong work ethic, but we do not ask her for keep either as she is still at Uni.

I think your approach is right, in that you let him prepare his own meals, he learns that if he can't be bothered then he will 'make do'. When we return from hols we usually find some chicken/sausages untouched in the freezer and some other stuff unopened in the fridge, but that is fine it is not wasted and we can eat it.

Last point. Two of my nephews died together in a dreadful accident this year. Don't let this irritation over him not working this summer spoil too much, I am sure he is annoying but you love him, and life is too short.

Spirit

Gigervamp

Triker wrote: »

and as a surprise have an online shop delivery booked for halfway through the week.:D

The only problem with this option is that he'd have to know it was coming so he stays in to receive the delivery.

Triker

Gigervamp wrote: »

The only problem with this option is that he'd have to know it was coming so he stays in to receive the delivery.

Well done on spotting my deliberate mistake........I knew that.....:rotfl::o

Valli

Spirit wrote: »

Last point. Two of my nephews died together in a dreadful accident this year. Don't let this irritation over him not working this summer spoil too much, I am sure he is annoying but you love him, and life is too short.

Spirit

Oh Spirit how very sad for you and your family but thank you for the reminder.

***makes mental note to hug her own teenagers...***