How do you keep your children out of the fridge?? Every time I turn around the

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   JillKostowposted 14 years ago

   How do you keep your children out of the fridge??  Every time I turn around the door is open...

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   Sweetsusiegposted 14 years ago

   Well I thought I had an answer for this years ago, but it failed.  I took all of the food out of the fridge and set in on the counter, so that way they'd leave the fridge alone.  It didn't work, they just wanted to use it as a place to play hide and seek, since all the shelves were empty at least 2 small children could fit in there quite nicely... 
   
   Unless I planned on drilling holes in my fridge for air, I figured it wouldn't be too good of an idea....
   
   So I put the stuff back in my fridge and continued yelling.... Since I was used to yelling and they were used to hearing it, it worked out well...

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   jesustubeposted 14 years ago

   Plz Lock You Fridge. Childrens always try to open fridge , because its their habbit. so lock ur fridge and if lock is not provide with fridge, Add extarnal lock on fridge door.

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   wychicposted 14 years ago

   I think the answer definitely depends on the age of the kids in question...for instance, I just explain to my 4-year-old that it's not time to eat right now and that he's not permitted to open the fridge without permission. If he does, then even if it's mealtime he has to wait another ten minutes before he can have anything out of it...and if it's not mealtime, he's definitely not getting anything out of it. For pre-teens and teens...my mom and stepdad provided three meals a day to me, my sister, and stepbrothers, and there were certain food items that were up for grabs to anyone who wanted them, at any time. Aside from that, if we wanted anything different to eat or wanted to eat at different times, we were expected to get a job and provide it for ourselves. It worked very well.

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   Anne Pettitposted 14 years ago

   School will start again soon and they will not be home to open the fridge.  If they are available to open it, perhaps they can clean it.

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   JillKostowposted 14 years ago

   Those are the words I love to hear "school will start again soon", I don't think I could convince them to clean it though....

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   TylerCappposted 14 years ago

   I'd like to say that you should just keep your children super well fed or keep nothing in the fridge. But both of these are either impractical or near impossible. Kids will get hungry fast and having nothing in the fridge defeats the purpose. Even then, I doubt those two things, or anything for that matter, can keep your kids out of the fridge. When I was growing up I'd find myself at the fridge even if I was looking for the broom. It's part of growing up.
   
   There is the upside to it though: Kids who are well fed tend to be happier and healthier and that's a good thing.

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   Lisa HWposted 14 years ago

   If they're big enough it goes without saying that setting a few basic rules about snack times and meal times should do it (I couldn't overlook the ideal option).  Telling them to stop and say or think what they want first, and say what it is (grapes?  peaches?) might help cut down the standing-and-looking.  Telling them that all the food will go bad, or that the refrigerator will wear out too soon, might help.  They ought to be understand that much and maybe work with you on the stop-and-think-first rule because of it.
   
   If they're really little there are refrigerator locks in the child-proofing section of stores.  Even if they're not little, you may want to put one on to encourage the stop-and-think-first behavior.
   
   Assuming that won't work, one thing that might help some is to buy snacks (like snack-pak applesauce, fruitcups, etc.) that don't need to be refrigerated before opening.  There are those little "juice box" milks that don't, and cereal, peanutbutter, breads, and crackers don't.  Neither do individual little cans of juice.   If it's water they're after you could try keeping it in something outside the refrigerator, with ice or a cold pack.
   
   Maybe even just buying those kinds of snacks and drinks for awhile would get them out of the habit - and then you go back to buying whatever you buy now.
   
   Other than that, I don't know...   Maybe you could do something like set "snack time at 2" and before everyone starts to head off after having their snack, do a check to see if any of them wants to take a juice box or apple with them once "snack time" has been taken care of.  That's all I have (that, and maybe baby gates at the entrance of the kitchen doors.     )   (Or, you could set an "ask me" rule and tell them no more getting their own stuff for now.  Have them ask you.  That's a pretty simple and memorable rule.  Maybe if you did that for awhile it would break the cycle of what's going on now, and you could start "clean" with new rules later.

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   earny123posted 14 years ago

   if your hungry you should eat your body wouldnt tell you to eat for no reason.
   
   Hope this helps, Visit my profile if you would like to see a variety of Hubs .
   Thanks Liam and Hannah

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