I don't know what to do or how to change my approach with my dad.

But something needs to change. Every time I say I'm done as his diabetic nutritionist, I end up being sucked back in, because nobody else is going to do it. Mom sure won't. I think at this point, she wants him to go a little faster.

And then today I told him again that I'm totally done.

Because yesterday, some Kraft macaroni cups arrived from Amazon. I thought nothing of it, and left the box on the kitchen counter. I've been over it with Dad that pasta right before bed causes his blood sugar to spike in the night, and I've demonstrated it with morning glucose readings after he did it.

So what did he do? Right before he went to sleep, he prepared and ate one. 30 carbs, nearly all of it starch, right before he went to sleep. I found it at 2:00 a.m., when I was going to bed. So I left a note on the kitchen door: "Macaroni and cheese cups are NOT for bedtime snackies!" (Yes, I'm sarcastic everywhere.)

He didn't notice the note when he got up this morning, or so he said when I asked him after he got up for the second time. (Yeah. He takes a nap after breakfast, like all good diabetics should. 🙄) He said he hadn't seen it, so I grabbed the note and slapped it on the kitchen cupboard so he could see it.

And he asked me why. Like this was somehow news to him.

I tried very hard to be patient when I explained it to him, and he tried to say he's never had one before. Which is a lie.

Then, when I told Mom he was saying he's never had a macaroni cup before, he said that what he meant was he had never had one before bedtime before. Which is also a lie. I've lost track of the times I've had this argument with him.

Then, when I finally got him to admit that wasn't true, he resorted to "Well, I was hungry!" To which I responded...
And then very sarcastically suggested that diabetes would hold off killing him in that instance because "I wAs HuNgRy!"

After all of that, which took a few conversations because I kept needing to go take a timeout, you know what he said?

"Well, you eat at night!"

After once again needing a timeout, I told him that what I do is plan for a meal of between 30 and 60 carbs at 10:00 at night, then stay up watching TV and playing video games for the next 3 hours. Which is not the same as stuffing his face with whatever he finds in the kitchen right before sacking out for the night.

The problem is, I'm going to have this exact same conversation again and again until he finally succeeds in kіӏӏіng hіmself.

But I don't know how to do it any differently.

All I know how to do is hide the things he shouldn't be having in the middle of the night, and pray that he doesn't go sneaking around looking for them and lie about it.

Which he always does.