Wasting food

JJLemon18

I really don't know what to do. My family are wasting so much money worth of food and it upsets me so much, especially since we don't have much money in the first place. They buy way too much, way more than we can eat and then blame me for not eating it all in time. I'm not even the one who's cooking in the house at all, I'm not in charge of what we eat. I'm not even the one who's shopping for the food. I shouldnt feel responsible for not managing all our food properly. I told my parents so many times but it just makes them so angry whenever I mention it, and it doesnt change anything. Their excuse is always that we rather have more food than not enough, and that they're only buying stuff since they're in the store anyway so they might as well get more for later "just in case"... but they go to the store every other day anyway!

While I'm at it, they have a similar problem with normal stuff too. I don't want say my parents are hoarders, because its not that bad... but they definitely are hoarders. There are some days where the house feels like an obstacle course. But they are trying to keep it neat and are regularly cleaning the stuff. But I think its again the problem of buying more than they can 'chew'.

Its so annoying and I don't know what to do. Just a vent.

AnonymousToe

Aww, this reminds me of my mum. She also buys too much food and then it just gets lost and thrown away months later. I don’t get blamed for it though, it’s crazy that your parents are doing that.

JJLemon18 wrote: »

it just makes them so angry whenever I mention it, and it doesnt change anything.

This is exactly how my mum responds if I mention her hoarding. It was gradual too. Our house used to be clean, there used to be some space, it all just gradually got worse

Is there an obvious reason why they’re doing it? Like for example my mum moved a lot when she was young and was forced to get rid of things before she was ready, and her parents didn’t have a lot of money so she was taught to value physical possessions. It just makes me wonder if either of your parents maybe had difficulty with food security as a child, like maybe there wasn’t food available when they wanted it or something. I’m not sure.

This could be the beginning of a more serious hoarding problem but I really don’t know what we’re supposed to do. I think your parents maybe need some support like therapy or something but i dont know if they’d be willing to try that, willing to admit to the problems, or even if they know it’s a problem.

Anyway, sorry I’ve kind of made this response about myself, I promise what you’re going through is totally valid. I just don’t want you to feel alone and I’m doing a terrible job of trying to help

JJLemon18

@AnonymousToe yea I'm really worried it will get out of hand, which I'm hopeful it won't cause my parents are aware of it and as I said, they're 'trying' to do stuff about it, but unfortunately its not enough for now.

Sorry thats something you struggle with too, thats got to be so hard for you. Never apologise for sharing your experiences here btw! You're doing more than enough

There could be a lot of underlying causes of it, thats a great point. I think they put a lot of value into everything they own, but they live a life as if they had a massive house with space for everything, which they dont unfortunately
As for the food, maybe they're just so so scared about the possibility of running out of food that they just want to be prepared at all costs. Which is ironic as thats whats causing them to waste money which could end up being the reason they might not afford food one day... (knock on wood)