The bottomless pits

What is it about hot weather, swimming pools and sunshine that brings out the food monsters in children? I go an entire winter and think "Wow, they ate a lot of food today", and then get to summer and think I have 20 kids instead of 9. They never stop eating...never! They eat twice as much in the summer as they do in the winter. I probably spend $300.00 a week on food in the summertime. They will eat their meals, they will eat snacks and I will wake at 2 in the morning to a random noise that ends up being one of the kids digging through cupboards stating they are "starving to death".

Now, in all fairness I will say that they are more active in the summertime. They do swim, ride bikes, hike, play ball and run from inside to outside back to inside again, just because. But active enough to rationalize twice as much food? Maybe...maybe not.

There are times when they are just bored. When kids get bored one of three things happens...they get naughty, they complain and whine to mom constantly or they eat. I wonder, do I do that when I get bored? Hhmmm...thats a topic we can explore another time. Naughty...yes! My kids are pros at this. There are so many things that I don't even want to know they have done. Things that should warrant a tattle tale phone call from a neighbor. Why don't we avoid that subject? Whiney and complaining...I try to block these moments out when they happen so let's not drudge that up. Food. There are so many reasons to eat. Stress, happiness, celebration, sadness, every special event possible involves food...and of course boredom.

My kids are really bad about eating when bored. They don't know what else to do, so they eat. They don't want to go outside cause it's too hot...so they eat. They are watching tv and need so be using their mouths...so they eat. They are hurt and need comfort...they eat. Friends come over and you guessed it....they eat. Good grief folks we could have fed a small third world country with everything they ate today. I need to either become a psychologist and drive them into the ground with therapy to solve this, become a tyrant and not let them near the kitchen or become Martha Stewart and get super creative about summertime so they are too busy to eat.

But before I do all of that I am going to sit here, finish writing this, pull out my journal, grab my bag of peanut m&m's and veg. I mean it is afterall summer...