To find the obsession with snacks weird

Just saying how I regarded it, that’s all.
Never had a smoothie or protein shake. Don’t see the attraction. I’d rather eat the fruit.

Some of us (children who are in pre school) don’t have another meal after lunch midday. The pre school only offers them some fruit before pick up time at 3:10-20pm. We live about 15 minutes drive from the pre school depending on traffic AND my child is always HANGRY and tired when he leaves school the snack keeps him going until we get in then it’s a rush to make dinner. Super active children need fuel

We didn’t have ‘cuppas’ at all really. My mum wasn’t a tea drinker and coffee back then was a bit more of an unusual drink at least in our house. We drank squash mostly. Tea with the 6 pm meal.
Honestly can’t remember the pattern with fruit but no cakes or biscuits between meals at all.
Breakfast was cereal, lunch soup and cheese and crackers. Don’t remember biscuits being around much. Cake for pudding but not surplus. Tea as a meal was high tea at 6 pm. Never tea and cake at 11am or 4pm.
When we had pocket money we bought crisps from time to time.
Supper late in the evening wasn’t the pattern.
We weren’t hungry or malnourished a bit on the solid side really. 3 proper meals, that was it.
Not very unusual for the time. Tea with cake was never on offer at friends visited between 4 30 and 6pm. Maybe squash.
Different world, the mid 60s -70s.
Not being difficult, never thought of school milk as food. Maybe it was.
i’m late 50s vintage.

It has calories, fat, nutrition. It's more than plain water.
By that notion a smoothie or protein shake isn't a "snack" either!

Well it does when you're adamant your never had snacks...when I fact you drank milk, which is food, and you had it between meals, and therefore it is/was a snack.

And are you honestly saying you never ever once ate a bit of fruit, had a biscuit with a cuppa, had a slice of cake, ate a crumpet etc between meals /after last main meal if the day? Because that would have been extremely unusual.

I disagree there, I don't think people used to be as hydrated as they needed to be for optimum health. There's better awareness of hydration now.

Never thought of it as such. Milk is a drink, snacks are things you eat. But it doesn’t really matter.

And we are becoming more obese

of course there is a connection it’s not just that we eat more processed foods it’s that we have to be stuffing our faces all the time

I have been guilty of believing ds needs to snack when really he doesn’t it’s ok to be a little hungry for a while but it does sometimes make us grumpy and no one wants to deal with a grumpy child

Yea..we used to have one small cup of.water at lunchbreak and that was it.
There again my ds barely drinks at school as limited opportunity to go for a wee!

You do know that this was a Labour government move in 1968? Thatcher was part of the following Tory gov who carried through the policy by she was reluctant to take milk away from infants.

They have free milk because some children are raised on a diet of haribo, Doritos and takeaways. So sometimes the only decent food they have is at school, where they might have a bit of apple, or a slice of carrot or .. shocking a few slurps of milk.

Stopped in 1971 for over 7s

I don’t understand the size of bags parents bring with them to everything. I shove in a bottle of water, leggings, knickers and a small box of raisins in my handbag and I’m done! No shade, just bewildered by these huge bags which seem packed to the brim!

The milk was a snack...

It amazed me how many people arrived at work every morning with a coffee purchased from an expensive chain. They commuted about 45 mins (plus stop off at coffee shop). It must have cost a fortune. I did wonder if it was a of a ‘pose’ a bit of an Ally McBeal type thing (showing my age there!). Though it could be a ruse after my son found these for sale online.

I’m a 50s baby. Milk at school, no snacks. No snacks at home mid morning or afternoon. Just wasn’t a thing.

Of course kids need access to water but I don’t remember needing it badly at school. Think there was a water fountain.
Kids carry vast bottles around as they seem to think they’ll dessicate if they can’t constantly sip water. They get knocked over, leak in bags etc.
There’s a balance, I think.

Agree with the comments about school portions being small - especially when they get to Y6.

I don't think it's too bad to need something in the afternoon.

@DryIce my teen DS often snacks on toasted pitta breads with mashed up banana and peanut butter in it, he will literally have it as a dessert, or any type of sandwich. I've found that good, also hard boiled eggs, anything proteiny. Or houmous with the cut up veggies. cottage cheese he also eats a small tub of after school. Plain yoghurt with a bit of honey. even if it's tuna out of the tin, it's almost a third protein. He still goes to KFC and MacDonalds with friends which I don't approve of but at least I know he's having healthy stuff as well or on weekdays.

So if they eat a piece of fruit from the fruit bowl, you don’t consider that a snack? I do!

My 3yo turns into a fucking goblin if he's hungry. If I didn't bring an apple to nursery pickup, he'd be so hungry by the time I got him home and made dinner, that he wouldn't be able to sit at the table nicely and eat it.

So, the fruit bowl that people help themselves to when they're peckish.... How is that not a snack???

@UnderSeptemberStars

so by that notion, a full pizza or a roast dinner is a snack if the person is eating it as a snack?

yeah, no,

I’m a huge advocate of the afterschool snack, and ever present water bottle. Mine were always hangry by the end of the day because school lunches never got finished.

I think it’s easy to get into snacking because babies and toddlers feed more often than adults. Snacks are one way of adapting to a different schedule of needs.

There’s a balance to be struck between that and the kind of constant grazing that doesn’t give the digestive system a chance, and tends towards high calorie, low nutrient junk food (usually labelled as healthy)

I used to bring snacks to afternoon pick up, because we used to have hellish walk home otherwise. They would be tired, cranky and harrassing me to go into the shop on the way home.
I started bringing them something to eat for when i saw them and it really helped have a manageable journey home.

I suggest not worrying about it too much if that's what works for other parents.