To be shocked at the level of obesity of British children?

Er yes in some schools it has and where did I directly blame schools?
For some pupils PE at school is the only exercise they get.
We have a real issue with a generation of children doing little, or no exercise or activity. I am not blaming schools but I'm saying that any reduction in PE in the timetable (due to having to squeeze in the schools are targeted for) can be detrimental.

It's not guaranteed but there is a very strong correlation. A child with one obese parent has a 50 percent chance of being obese. When both parents are obese, their children have an 80 percent chance of obesity. Given they are eating the same food as their parents it's hardly surprising.

I always grew up with elevenses and tea (as in snack between lunch and dinner). We were always slim and healthy. I don't have a snack in the morning anymore although my DD (12) does at school not at home, though. DS (17) has no morning snack. But we do all sometimes have a small afternoon snack.

Agree it’s portion size. Quick meal night for me was a shop bought pizza and veg on the side. Kids would have a pizza each but would eat no more than half and the leftovers were my dinner!

I found portioning hard as my kids hovered around the lower end of the centiles and it took me a while to work out a reasonable portion and not stress they weren’t eating enough

sounds like senior school dinners are appalling,
they did away with proper meals when i was about 12, in 1978,
such a bad decision

I think we have all come to think that every meal should be a feast too. It's now totally normal to have fajitas with the tortilla chips, guacamole, dips, etcetc
also think curry with naan bread, poppadums etc

When I was growing up, having all the sides was probably just a christmas or special occasion thing

Basic meals like egg on toast, or beans and Jacket potato , soup, are seen as too simple or light, when in fact, scrambled egg on toast is the right amount of calories

That's not necessarily true. H and I are both overweight. Not hugely and definitely not obese but could definitely be healthier and we're pushing eachother to work on it. Combination of sloppy eating, poor sleep and bad choices to fuel us through the sleepless baby nights.

I'm back to work now after natbleave and the weight is falling off.

Point is ... while we are overweight our children are not. Dc1 in ordinary school is underweight for his height and age and fit as fuck due to sports training that he's in. The baby is a perfectly chubby 50 centile for weight and 98th for length. I'm sure baby will shed that puppy fat once more mobile and running.

We consulted the gp after the primary school bmi check as dc1 was charted as below the 2nd centile for weight. Gp dismissed us with laugh saying he was healthy and children are meant to be lanky and skinny. We've lost sight of what's normal for what children should look like.

Just because H and I are overweight doesn't mean we are raising unhealthy or overweight children. We've both made bad choices (and that's literally on us) as adults but ensure our children are fed and are having the right amount of exercise and very limited screen time.

I never seen that! It would be the size of their head! 😂 I'm probably not observant enough. But it was always a mini milk for a toddler when mine were small...and beyond, tbh. Me and my friend's teen kids always joke now how we only ever got them mini milks even when they were way beyond toddler hood!

Is your kid fat?

Quite. The point is that the availability of these foods are in abundance, and lots of children are more likely to respond more favourably to the pizza, if that is what they are accustomed to, in the first place. And some parents who are time poor are more likely to purchase these things, with scant regard to the nutritional content. How many times on here have I seen "fed is best" etc..

See this is why I'm thinking it makes more sense for a bigger meal at lunchtime. Smaller lighter meals are easier to quickly cobble together when it's the evening and you're knackered.

At my DD's school lunch us at 12.50 so it's not late but they still have loads of junk available at break and before school for breakfast too.

Yep.

My DD gets picked on for being skinny.

By NHS calculations she's a healthy weight and has never been in the underweight category.

She's hard to buy for as she's tall for her age but also pretty narrow. Unsurprisingly we do well for her in European clothing shops.

In her class photo for the year now while there aren't any children who stand out as 'fat' there are plenty who I'd class as overweight/chubby and I'd say the majority are 'well built' which in reality is overweight for kids they should have visible ribs etc.

That being said I'm overweight (size 14) and a lot of the kids in DDs class have mums who aren't overweight so it's not necessarily down to overweight parents = overweight kids.

I think nutrition knowledge is seriously lacking across all layers of the society. Feeding yourself properly is a life skill but it's not being taught well at school. In most grocery stores junk food section is bigger than fruit and vegetables section. Fast food / easy food is typically high sugar / salt / calories and not nutrient dense. Lots of attractive packaging with superheroes appealing to kids on junk food, but none or very little of that for healthier food.

A first school? Is that a Primary school? I mean I thought the food was bad at Primary but at least there was some salad and veg included with every meal. And they had one dessert.

It's a whole new ball game at Secondary. I've looked on the menu and they do as an example of main meal offerings over a week:
Bacon baguette
Pizza
Sausage and mash
Chicken goujons
Burgers
Macaroni cheese
Pasta Bake
Spaghetti and vegetarian meatballs
Chicken and rice
Chicken curry and Bombay potatoes
Breaded fish
Fish fingers
With sides of:
Garlic bread
Seasonal vegetables
Spring rolls
Chips
Jacket potatoes

So junk food heavy. But what you don't at first realise is this is only offered in one area. There are multiple places they can get lunch as too many to go through the main canteen. At these places everyday they offer:
Cheap pre-made sandwiches
Sausage rolls
Pizza
Cheese paninis
Hot dogs
Chips (and cheesy chips)
Doughnuts
Brownies
Cakes
Cookies
Waffles...all of multiple kinds!

Then the vending machines are full of soft drinks!

And these 'grab and go' options are not just available at lunch but at break too and some at breakfast too!

It's a scandal!

I saw so many obese children on holiday in Cyprus. All inclusive and they were allowed to fill their plates up with pizza and beige food and go back for seconds/thirds. Parents need to be the ones to regulate the food, children can't do it themselves.

i saw a load of secondary schoolers with short skirts and fat legs, however the following day i saw another load with skinny legs.

Or just scrambled egg on toast with peas/sweetcorn/fruit/yoghurt? Which is even quicker than a pizza.

Just got back from Spain and I thought the same. Also I live in a cul de sac and see my neighbours children playing out the front, most of them are very overweight.
One neighbour I speak to who is overweight herself buys her primary school age daughter a kebab or KFC every weekday for her dinner, she has said it's down to lack of time but I think it's neglectful, the daughter is 10 years old and a adult size 14.
I don't think it's down to money either, I was a single mum on working tax credits for years so very little money, my son's diet looked like...
Banana and yogurt for breakfast
School lunch or sandwich/fruit/biscuit
Dinner spag bowl or jacket potato and beans.
Snacks Fruut/cereal bars/ice lolly.
A cheap diet that keeps you full and doesn't take lots of time to prepare. We also walked everywhere.

PE has not been 'cut' in schools. It is, generally, the lack of activity outside of school that is the issue. Not enough playing out, not enough walking, not enough sport/physical games.

Schools are not responsible for everything.

Yet the op saw these children on holiday along with French and German children which suggests she was abroad.
So it sounds like these parents have their priorities wrong if they are spending money on foreign holidays not proper food.

Yes that was appalling - those parents were shameful. Depressing.

Portion sizes have increased massively, when I do Playdates a lot of the bigger girls eat adult portion dinners and snack constantly.

More ready meals rather than home cooked dinners.

Much much much more snacking, kids are never actually hungry anymore.

What were occasional treats (eg cakes and brownies) eaten daily.

Kids aren't out playing in the street or hardly ever

Takeaways eaten weekly(?) or even more?

Kids don't walk or ride a bike to school

I will say this as well. In private school PE in some shape or form is 4 days a week rather than two and there is whole afternoon of games. Plus extra curricular activities on site which are often exercise based. Playing competitively is normal. I wish I had had this experience as a child.

70s kid here and very similar although fish and chips was a holiday by the seaside treat so perhaps once/twice a year - the same amount I have fish and chips now too!

The first day as a Scandinavian au pair, the kids I was looking after went to the snack cupboard and took a packet of crisps and chocolate. I said, you can’t eat this after school only for Saturday treat (that’s how I was brought up) . I thought they were messing around with me. Turned out they were allowed crisps and chocolate daily