To find the obsession with snacks weird

Isn’t this a case of you do you but don’t judge others ie the mumsnet 11th commandment?

my DC is a teen and is still hungry when back from school. Lots of reason didn’t eat lunch being main one for a number of reasons, At primary, same but different reasons for lunch not being eaten.

And before the people jump in and say tough in my day blah blah. Well in my day I was beaten by a belt (parents), beaten with ruler (teacher), starved for two whole days because I refused to eat liver (it doesn’t get any more appetising). I think as a society we can agree we have moved on as to how we treat children (with a thankfully few horrific exceptions)?

Children have growing bodies so they need more calories than adults. School is tiring. What’s it to you whether they live 5 mins away or 15? Why distress a tired child for the sake of grabbing a snack or drink? And other than trying to start a debate on MN WHAT’s IT GOT TO DO WITH YOU?

urs don't get food in the second break.

My daughter said she ate 2 slice of carrot, a few bits of pasta and half a biscuit for her lunch then other day, lunch is at 11.45. she'd had a small apple at first break, her breakfast was 2 eggs, slice of toast, melon and a mug of milk.

So yeh, she's hungry at 3:15, she's been running round, playing, learning in that time, and the 25 mins walk home (via a 30+ minutes play in the playground with other kids) is much nicer all round if she's eating a cheese roll and an apple on the way, rather than forcing her to wait until 6:30pm for dinner, just because some idiot in the internet can't imagine a world where people are different with different lives and needs and metabolisms to themselves!

When hoardes of kids go to the supermarket after school, on way home within walking distance. Just something we didn't used to do, didn't even cross our minds. X

Ours don’t get food at afternoon break, just 10 mins playing outside. In fact after year 1 they don’t get an afternoon break.

They do get afternoon breaks so barely an hour or two and a 5 minute drive? Whatever works for you but you've set the expectation of food immediately after school, which is mid afternoon. 🤔

Absolutely! Also the expected 'pudding' after every meal. Back in the day previous century we had a snack and drink at breaks and lunch, then went home to have drinks, not pop as that was a treat, as with desserts, weekend only.

Yup, advertising and social 'norms' have paved the way for overeating, fast food etc. X

I'm in my 50s and I do remember there being a tuck shop at playtime, but I don't remember there being the same focus on snacks that there is now. I didn't get a snack after school as a matter of course. I was given one if I asked, but it wasn't specifically offered.

I do remember supper though, which in our house was something like a toasted tea cake before bed. Yes, I'm northern. 😄

I don't have DC, but if I had I wouldn't have encouraged them to snack unless they wouldn't have been eating again for a while. I think the adult obsession with snacking is out of hand these days tbh, never mind kids. Crisps, Pringles, Doritos, flapjacks... oh and the most pointless snack of all, bloody Snack-a-Jacks aka flavoured air. I don't get it.

I used to go for weekends away with a friend and she was always obsessed with getting 'snacks for the room' to the point where it was irritating. I mean, one or two things to peck at is nice, but she'd want us to get umpteen different things. I don't get that either. It'd be hypocritical for me to comment on the obesity crisis as I have to watch my own weight, but I can't say I've ever been especially tempted by Doritos or Mr Kipling French bloody Fancies, that's not the issue. It just felt superfluous. But then the general cultural obsession with food and eating sometimes irritates me too. I know I sound like a misery guts which I'm not, it just doesn't interest me much.

Guess every family is different. I was often hungry but certainly not malnourished in fact, struggled to lose weight later.

We didn't "snack" as they do these days, but we definitely ate between meals. Mum would make teacakes, and we'd toast and eat them, definitely outside of meal times. We definitely got given a bit of cake and lemonade from our Gran that wasn't part of a meal.

She's 70 and would talk about eating fried potatoes and playing cards with her brother's and da, until late at night, there's also definitely photos of her with her mum, auntie and cousins having tea and biscuits, they're all lined up holding their biscuits over the cups 😁😁

Maybe it's the regular snacking as part of the day that didn't occur? I can't recall having food between meals every day, that's for certain. Bit we definitely did do it.

@DogMaths

it is. I’m gonna go and wrench it from their hand whilst telling them it’s a meal not a snack

Not as a 50 yr old, surely?

It’s whatever the person is eating it as, nothing do with you.

I think the same about adults.

For children, I don't know enough about them. I suppose they may need to have smaller portions, but more often because of their size.

When I was a child snacking before lunch was discouraged - spoiling your apetite, but then secondary school had lots of things for sale in the morning break.
Something after school was normal, but that sort of coincided with the old 'tea' meal that came at 4 o'clock and was separate from dinner/supper and wasn't exactly the constant grazing that people do now.

Thanks. I was starting not to trust my memory!

@fanaticalfairy I'm a couple of years younger than @Sharptonguedwoman and I remember it as she did to be fair- if I went round a mates house I got a glass of squash if I was lucky and possibly 1 biscuit at the most .

I was brought up with no drinks beyond a quarter pint of milk/water at meals and no snacks. Constantly thirsty and constantly hungry.

Yes, I survived, knew no difference. But as soon as I got any money and freedom to buy my own stuff, I binged.

Binged and binged and binged.

If my DC are hungry or thirsty then they can eat/ drink. Of course within reason.

3 meals a day is a recent concept. Mammals have all kinds of patterns. Grazing and smaller meals works for us.

Can't believe my grandma used to tell me water was fattening.

Yeah the thought of the warm school milk makes me 🤢 too. I could only drink it in the winter.

The only good thing that woman did! The milk was DISGUSTING, left on the step all morning to get warm. We were forced to drink it. I hate it to this day.

It's just copying others. Like people walking around with a coffee as if their life depended on it.

People get on a train or coach and start opening their packed food before it leaves the station.

Maybe. My mother loathed tea as a drink so we didn’t drink it. I don’t think adult friends came at 11. That was full on housework, 4pm. Kids home from school.
Might have been different in other’s houses but all the mums went to work so I doubt it.
calling round for coffee or tea wasn’t part of our lives till later, after uni.
My friend was the vicar’s daughter. They had tea in the afternoon.

You must have loved in a parallel universe.

People often had tea and biscuits, or about of bread and butter etc around 4, or a slice of cake with tea mid morning at friends or whatever.

I didn’t mean to imply they were bad, somehow, just never felt the need. I’m sure they’re lovely.

I can't always stomach the texture of fruit and i sometimes prefer my food "liquid", especially if I've got morning sickness.
Also easier for me to have frozen fruit in and blend rather than risk wasting fresh fruit if i don't eat it before it goes bad, plus frozen obviously lasts longer.

Not saying your wrong. Just saying in my family it wasn’t a thing.