So after a blissful, kid-free week, SS12 is back (well, has been since Sunday). So far this week, I have found an empty Goldfish bag, an ice cream bar wrapper and a candy bar wrapper in his bed. I suspect when he gets up to get dessert in the evening, he sometimes slips another thing in his pocket. DH thinks he's also coming down sometimes in the middle of the night. That's the only way to explain the ice cream.

It's ridiculous. We've made it clear to him that if he wants a snack or wants seconds, all he has to do is ask. 99% of the time, we'll say yes. He's just not allowed to take it upstairs. Yet he continues to break the rule.

Dh also figured out SS has been sneaking out and getting his electronics late at night. From now on, he's putting them on the top shelf in our bedroom closet, where SS can't get to them. (Why he wasn't already doing this, I don't know.)

When SS gets home from school, DH is taking all electronics. He's also informing him that we will no longer stock candy, ice cream, chips, or anything of that nature. There will be sandwich makings and fruit and veggies in plentiful supply. But no junk food for SS. (We'll keep treats for ourselves in our closet.) He's also notifying BM that no food is to come to our house from hers.

He's sure this won't work, though. No way will BM enforce anything. Today, DH told me he knows a lot goes on at BM's that we don't know about. Last weekend he spotted SS and BM going into a new fast food restaurant while he was running errands. When he mentioned it to SS (in a "hey, I saw you going there -- how was it?" way -- not accusatory), SS was cagey, like he wasn't supposed to talk about it. On our way to church, we spotted SS and BM coming out of a bookstore with a big bag of stuff. Again, he was secretive when DH mentioned it. Normally he's chatty about what goes on over there. BM knows DH is against constantly buying SS things and encouraging bad eating habits. (We like pizza and burgers, too. We just moderate.) DH suspects she's told SS not to tell us about all this. She's done that sort of thing before.

At his latest ballgame, he had a brand new bat, batting gloves and fielding glove. His old ones weren't even 6 months old.

DH is getting more and more resigned that he's lost the war. I don't know if it's quite that hopeless, but, yeah, probably...