You eat as much brownie-mix-straight-out-of-the-box as you want, sweetcheeks.

Perhaps you should engineer an insect infestation :)

I don't know about the US, but pet shops in the UK sell live insects to feed to reptiles. Stick a few locusts under her bed while she's at school and when she comes running to you in distress you can reinforce the message that candy wrappers bring bugs... Unless she's an insect expert she surely won't realise (and they can't live indoors without vegetation, so you won't get infested)...

But that doesn't get to the root of the problems and I admit I am an evil woman who will never be allowed to breed :)

Suck-up!!

SG, that is evil! I like it!

Is the amount of snacks she's eating also a concern, or is it just that she's hiding them? I would say the disciplining approach should be different depending on the answer.

My cousin's daughter does that, but my cousin is a horrible parent (which you aren't, sounds like), so there are some serious underlying issues with them. I'm pretty sure my cousin's kid uses the snacks for dependable comfort and security, rather than anything rebellious.

I understand that the rule exists in your house about not having food in the bedroom, and am totally for the enforcement of aforementioned rule. I'm interested to know what kind of infestations have you had in your houses from food etc. ants/mice/cockroaches?

All I've ever experienced are mice, who come indoors more for the heat and shelter in Winter, than the food (they don't like my mother's cooking-rude bastards). Also the house being 150 years old and not sealed very well means they get in easier than in newer houses.

I think it's a normal kid thing to want to have snacks in their room. When you think about it, the one place in the whole wide world a kid can call their own is their room, so it's where they like to do their 'relaxing' type stuff.

Think about when you come home and all you want to do is relax. What do you do? Do you have a place that just makes you feel relaxed? Your little place?

For most kids, because they don't own the house, and they have no really power, their 'safe place' is their room. What sort of food helps most of us relax? Whatever we view as comfort food. For most kids, that's lollies and chips etc.

I know it's annoying, but I don't think any parent has ever avoided this issue.

Actually, here's a confession. I still sometimes eat chocolate in my room. If I've had a bad day, I have a nice relaxing bath, then grab some chocolate and a good book, and go to bed with it.

Get dinner ready, help the kids w/ their homework, put them to bed, etc. :D

OK, I'm being a smartass, and you have a point. But while I sometimes enjoy a snack & beverage of my choice in front of the TV, after the third case of cheetos ground into the carpet it gets kind of old. (And yes we got her to clean it up, and it didn't seem to faze her much.)

funkykule, we have had ants in the kitchen 2 or 3 times since we've lived in this house. We've never had any other infestations.

Either;
1.- She's really stupid. I'm ruling that out from the git go.
or
2.- She wants to get caught. That leads to attention issues that I've no answers for.

Short of locking her room and requiring an airport style screening when she wants to go in, I think the solution will have to be searching out the root cause.




Or she's hiding a 21 year old male under the bed. :corn: