I Feel Like I'm Feeding Kids ALL Day! | 5 Simple Tips to Tame the Kitchen Frenzy • Lovin' Life with Littles

Dear Mom Who Feels Like She’s Feeding Kids All Day, I hear you. You’re not alone. And while parenting is not easy, I hope you find a little hope and a small break from the kitchen frenzy in this post today. Whether you have multiple kids to take care of or one child that just seems to want to eat all the time, there are some things we can do to step out of the kitchen a little bit more. So here are five simple (and powerful) tips for the parent who’s a little tired of feeling like they’re feeding kids all day long.

I Feel Like I'm Feeding Kids ALL DAY! | 5 Tips to Tame the Kitchen Frenzy from www.lovinlifewithlittles.com.

When we signed up for this parenting gig, we knowingly signed up for a lot of things. I think we knew there would be diapers and late nights and worrying and feeding kids and even that it would all go fast.

But I know before actually being a parent, I had no clue about the depth of all of these things. I had no idea how many diapers there would be or how tired I could really get. I definitely didn’t know what it would feel like when the kids grew up way too fast. And I had no awareness that a day would come when it would feel like I’m feeding kids ALL day long.

Sometimes the depth of parenting is absolutely beautiful, like when we look our child in the eye and feel an overwhelming love for them.

And sometimes the depth of parenting is exhausting, like when we really want to do something besides feed kids all day.

So if you’re in one of those tired times and don’t really want to spend all day in the kitchen, here are a few helpful ideas.

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You’re Doing Your Job Well

Before we get to the tips, take one moment and imagine how you’d feel if you were feeding kids in an orphanage all day. You’d probably feel pretty good about all your good deeds. And you should. You should also feel pretty good about feeding YOUR people.

Sometimes the feeling that we’re feeding kids all day comes because we want to make sure our kids are well-fed. Providing physically for our kids is an important part of our parenting role, and we want to make sure they’re nutritional needs are met. It’s hard to say no to requests for food!

If you have questions about your child’s nutrition, you can find nutritional guidelines for kids here. Or if you’re worried about your child’s eating habits, nutritional needs, or development, talk with your pediatrician.

Chances are, you’re doing a great job meeting your kids’ dietary needs.

There are many ways to meet those nutritional needs, so there may also be other ways to meet nutritional needs and develop healthy eating habits without feeling like you’re feeding kids all day. I hope these tips help.

5 Tips to Tame the Constant Eating

Maybe it feels like you’re preparing food then feeding kids then cleaning up food only to start again on the next food time. Maybe it feels like your kid is ALWAYS hungry, grazing all day and your kitchen never gets a rest. Perhaps you have several children in different stages with various needs and schedules. Whatever the reason for feeling like you’re feeding kids all day, these six tips can help tame the constant eating.

1. Cherish the Seasonality of Life

If you’re in one of those seasons where you actually are feeding kids all day, like the kind where you’re nursing in the middle of the night, feeding three different shifts for breakfast, nursing again before lunch, after-school-snacking, dinner prepping (with one hand so you can nurse while walking around the kitchen), having three different dinner times to accommodate all the evening activities, and then doing it all again the next day…you’re a saint. And this is a season.

In tiring stages of parenting, there’s something reassuring about remembering that time continually marches forward. The kids are only going to get older and older, more and more independent.

Recognize the good you’re doing for your family, appreciate the good things about this stage, and hang in there. Life is made of seasons.

2. Simplify Snacks

Snacks can require little to no preparation and minimal clean-up. If you do like something that requires mixing ingredients (like energy bites or homemade muffins), make them in large batches and then freeze. It can be a good idea to have a snack list that kids can help themselves to when they’re hungry. This might be a cheese stick, fruit, or pre-cut vegetables.

So here’s a quick problem-solving action step: write out a list of low or no-prep snack ideas. Sometimes just coming up with the ideas is the hardest part. Once you have the list created, you can turn to your go-to simple snacks.

Be aware of common snack foods that provide little nutrition, such as chips and many brands of granola bars. These are fun to eat and taste good (of course!), so kids often want them. (And adults too. 🙂 However, these kinds of foods don’t fill us up with what we really need. They often are high in calories but don’t provide necessary nutrients. They’re also often low in protein so we don’t feel full. This leads to more frequent snacking, and the feeling like we’re feeding kids all day continues.

3. Only Prepare One Meal

It can be super frustrating when we feel like we’re feeding kids all day because every meal is actually making three different meals to cater to the different appetites at the table. However, the more we cater to “picky eating” by preparing multiple options for different kids, the more our kids will want and expect it. Instead, let’s help kids gain a gratitude for what’s served.

Prepare ONE meal, and that’s the choice. If kids don’t want to eat what’s served, they can wait until the next meal. (I can promise with surety that no child will starve if they have one scant meal instead of a large one.) We do want to be realistic with this expectation though. For example, if I’m trying a new and questionable recipe, I’ll be sure to put something on the table that I know the kids will eat. This is typically a simple side like a green salad or another veggie.

You can find more helpful and healthy mealtime expectations here.

4. End the Bedtime Snack

The bedtime snack is pretty much my nemesis. It’s really an awful idea when you think about it. Let’s have tired moms and tired kids meet in the kitchen for a snack that stretches into eternity because what kid really wants to stop eating to go to bed? Let’s make another mess right when all we really want to do is be done with the day. No thank you. It’s not for me.

Instead, eat dinner at a reasonable time and then ask before finishing, “Are you full until breakfast?” That signals the end of dinner. If no bedtime snack is new, there may be some complaints at first. But remember, it’s okay for all of us to feel hungry sometimes.

If a bedtime snack is needed rarely (maybe you had an early dinner), here are three tips for making it a smooth one.

Choose a non-messy snack. (No peanut butter, crumbly food, or saucy stuff.)
Make it fairly boring. (Bread and butter is a great example. Don’t make it an exciting option that kids will be begging for night after night.)
Set a timer. (Unless of course your children aren’t masters of putting off bedtime. In that case, congratulations!)

5. Close the Kitchen

Kids don’t actually need to eat all day, despite what some of them may think. As parents, we can help organize our kids eating habits. Organizing might be a funny way to talk about eating, but it’s been helpful for me. Just like we help them learn to sleep and be awake at different times when they’re younger, we can also help them learn to eat at certain times or organize their eating.

As parents, we decide what to offer and when to offer it. Kids get to choose how much of what’s offered to eat.

Determine what your family eating schedule will be. Three meals and two snacks works well for a lot of families.

Here’s a sample eating schedule:

Currently, our kids wake-up and go to school at different times, so we have a couple breakfast times between 6-8. The older kids eat snacks and lunch at school. Otherwise, this is our family’s eating schedule.

7:30am breakfast
10:30am snack
12:30pm lunch
3:30pm snack
5:30pm dinner

Between these scheduled times, the kitchen is closed.

With a schedule like this, nobody is going to go hungry. So if it’s not time to eat and someone feels hungry, we just let them know when the next eating time will be. You can say something like, “I’m so glad you’re listening to your body. The kitchen is closed right now, but we’re going to have a snack in only 30 minutes. Do you think we should have grapes or apple slices and peanut butter?”

You can even have a Kitchen Closed sign that you flip over when it’s not time to eat.

Adaptability is Real

Kids are super adaptable. When we’re consistent about eating times and kitchen closed times, when we simplify snacks and eliminate the bedtime snack, kids catch on really quickly and their bodies adjust. And if you’re in one of those crazy seasons, remember the good you’re doing. When we have these tips in place, it doesn’t feel like we’re feeding kids all day!

Do you feel like you’re feeding kids all day? Which of these tips will be most helpful for you? What makes it hard for you? Share in the comments!

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