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Original poster

Does anyone else do snack baskets over half term?

192 replies

LauraSaidIShouldBeNicer · 21/02/2022 08:30

My 2 are 7 and 5 and all I hear is am huuuuuuungry. They always have free reign of the fruit bowl and have a good size breakfast lunch and tea.

In the half term I make them up a basket each filled with snacks for the day they can get themselves and once the basket is empty doesn't get refilled till the next day and anything left stays in for the next day. At first they used to eat everything but now they've got the hang of it.
The baskets are primarily fruit in today's basket we have.
An apple
Small bunch of grapes
2 tangies
Mini roll
Crisps
Belvita biscuits

OP posts:
Original poster
LauraSaidIShouldBeNicer · 21/02/2022 10:03

It's not a fancy wicker basket Grin just a normal plastic storage type. We are up early family DH leaves for work at 6 so am up with him, kids are up not long after.

OP posts:
RegardingMary · 21/02/2022 10:03

@Comefromaway

Surely that would be a snack.

Jvg33 · 21/02/2022 10:03

Probably at least one overweight person who told you off for sugar content etc.

Comefromaway · 21/02/2022 10:04

@TheVanguardSix

All you parents of little ones... wait for it! Grin Wait 'til they're 18 and they go off to uni and discover the K-hole/ Wetherspoon's student discount snack basket. Forget grams of sugar. It'll be grams of cocaine by then. I am joking (sort of)!
Mine are 18 and 20. They are having to learn that they cant afford to eat junk food out all the time!

I always had to budget. Allowing everyone free reign on snacks meant there was less for someone else.

Pyri · 21/02/2022 10:05

@Comefromaway

Good grief no.

It never occurred to me to have snacks. When they were little I would offer something like a piece of fruit mid morning, a yoghurt after lunch and maybe a biscuit in the afternoon.

Grin THESE ARE SNACKS!!!!
Comefromaway · 21/02/2022 10:07

I meant snacks in the house to the extent the OP has said. Yoghurt is part of a meal.

deadlanguage · 21/02/2022 10:07

There’s nothing wrong with getting hungry between regular meals, in fact it is good to be hungry by the time you get to dinner time. Are they having this amount of food during school? If they aren’t and don’t complain of being hungry then it would suggest that it is probably down to boredom rather than actual hunger.

Natsku · 21/02/2022 10:10

@LauraSaidIShouldBeNicer

We've tried set snack times all I hear is is it snack time yet? The contents vary and today its got more sweet stuff the kids helped me this morning make them up, rookie error Grin this works well for us
You just have to say no its not snack time yet if it isn't. I get it, I hear it a lot too, but I just say no not yet, or point them to the clock to check for themselves. Free range snacking is very bad for dental health, shouldn't be eating more than 5 times in a day (breakfast, lunch, snack, tea, supper) even if its healthy snacks.

If they claim to be starving and absolutely need a snack outside of snack time and meal times then you offer something they will eat but aren't keen on, like vegetable sticks (in my son's case, frozen peas, in my daughter's case it was fibre bread when she was younger), then you'll know if its hunger or boredom.

But I like the basket idea but with putting the my daughter's snacks for the week, so she can choose each day which one she'll have, knowing what ones are left for the rest of the week. Will stop the negotiating about which snack to have each afternoon!

RegardingMary · 21/02/2022 10:12

@Comefromaway

I meant snacks in the house to the extent the OP has said. Yoghurt is part of a meal.
The difference is her children have their fruit and biscuit in a basket so they can help themselves when they want it.

I'm still not getting the difference between the OP having fruit in a basket and you giving your child fruit.

Gonnagetgoing · 21/02/2022 10:12

When I was a child in 70s we rarely snacked (wasn't a concept) certainly at school and if there was the odd cake or chocolate it was a treat.

after school if we had something before tea (dinner) again that was a treat, e.g. iced bun or we had fruit.

School holidays slightly different because we had picnics, days out etc but even then it was more along the lines of ice creams, fruit, the odd cake bar etc.

It seems so strange to be giving snacks constantly to kids - almost like shutting them up.

Qwill · 21/02/2022 10:12

People are always going to do something different to you, so if you’re happy with it, then just carry on? It doesn’t seem that you’re completely happy though as you keep trying to justify yourself on here? People have offered you some advice, so either take it or carry on as usual. I’m still confused what the point of this post was if you weren’t going to be open to any advice of different opinions. I find it so funny on here that as soon as someone as a different opinion to you, it’s ‘classic mumsnet’, rather than someone just not agreeing with you!!

formalineadeline · 21/02/2022 10:13

Why do they need more calories and sugar because they're at home not school?

They're kids, of course it works for them. I expect having chocolate for breakfast would also work for them. Would you do that too if they whinged and you couldn't be bothered to say no?

High sugar intake is really bad for their liver by the way.

Fedupsotired · 21/02/2022 10:13

@Comedycook not all teens snack! Mine don't at all but eat very large meals!

Gonnagetgoing · 21/02/2022 10:15

We also had proper breakfasts - so e.g. toast and cereal. Then milk at school. Packed lunch was sandwich, crisps, fruit, small chocolate bar (Penguin). Or school dinners. Decent evening meal (tea) and pudding.

Even when I was an older child and teenager we would sometimes have yogurt as a snack or desert and my treat every week was a large packet of BBQ flavour hula hoops, just one. I did have chocolate bars here and there and creme caramels as a teen but certainly didn't go overboard.

formalineadeline · 21/02/2022 10:15

And I don't have special Mumsnet opinions. This is my offline opinion too.

OnceuponaRainbow18 · 21/02/2022 10:15

@formalineadeline

My kid has 2 snacks at school, and a carton of milk!

I see teens at my school snacking at break time/in between lessons/before school has started!

AuntieMaggie · 21/02/2022 10:17

How will they ever learn to self regulate if they're constantly being told when they are and aren't hungry

This^

OP I think it's a great idea and used it when home schooling - no different to me sending snacks into school for DC along with packed lunch. Everyone here saying no need for snacks between meals do your kids not snack at school? My DC are very energetic so eat a lot, especially my youngest. They have a mix of fruit/veg/healthy and 'unhealthy' snacks because I also believe that by restricting unhealthy foods leads to more issues with being able to regulate them later on.

It also helps my DC having some structure to know what they are going to eat that day.

I also prepare myself one for work and used to do it when working from home...

deadlanguage · 21/02/2022 10:17

I didn’t snack as a teen either (I’m in my mid 20s so this wasn’t before snacks were marketed so heavily), or eat my body weight in food like teens seem to on MN. That wasn’t on offer to me, just normal meals. I still grew, competed in sports, and didn’t starve to death!

RegardingMary · 21/02/2022 10:18

@Natsku

So you make your children eat food they don't like to prove their hungry. What a very unhealthy mindset to give them.
That is the most bizarre thing I've ever read on mumsnet.
Would you do that to yourself? Would you purposefully eat something you don't like to see if you were really hungry?

TheVanguardSix · 21/02/2022 10:19

Comefromaway My post is a joking reference to ketamine, not trail mix for 20-year-olds.

Daisydoor12 · 21/02/2022 10:23

Mine have always had free reign of the snack cupboard/fruit bowl just as I did when growing up, on the condition 3 main meals are eaten and snack cupboard is only restocked once a week. It’s worked for us children are all well within their ideal weight and are all very active. We’ve found by not restricting and them knowing it is always available means they are not so keen to eat it all at once. Fully appreciate every child and family are different but like I said works well for us.

Natsku · 21/02/2022 10:24

[quote RegardingMary]@Natsku

So you make your children eat food they don't like to prove their hungry. What a very unhealthy mindset to give them.
That is the most bizarre thing I've ever read on mumsnet.
Would you do that to yourself? Would you purposefully eat something you don't like to see if you were really hungry?[/quote]
Its food they like enough to eat, not food they dislike, but its not treat food so they won't eat it if they just want to snack out of boredom but if they are hungry they will. I know they won't turn down a biscuit even if they're not hungry but they'll turn down something dull if they're wanting to munch on something. I do the same to myself, if I think I want a snack but its not been that long since lunch, then I'll have something similar.

godmum56 · 21/02/2022 10:27

If they can help themselves to fruit, why put fruit in the snack basket?

RegardingMary · 21/02/2022 10:29

@Natsku

As far as getting a handful of frozen peas.
Thats the part I find odd.

You could offer a rice cake with spread, some cheese, a piece of fruit. Which is more like what you'd pick yourself.

Do you really offed your son frozen peas if he's hungry. He'd need to eat hundreds to get any calorific benefit.

crazeekat · 21/02/2022 10:29

Yes my daughter is a great eater of meals so I always gave her more or less free reign of whatever she wanted in between, except it went totally the other way, she would
Eat constantly, sweets rubbish, crisps, all the crap in the house she would just not stop, so
When I said no more she was then sneaking things, actually sneaking biscuits sweets etc BETWEEN HER BUMCHEEKS to get them upstairs past me lol, but no it got totally
Out of hand so I did the baskets she gets a load of stuff in her box including crisps sweets yogurts fruit crackers cheese etc and she can eat it at any time, as much as she wants, but when it's gone, it's gone, don't ask for another thing.
It completely works, and she knows I'm serious when it's gone.
She eats adult size meals every meal and her packed lunch is big too for
School so this is more
Than enough for her too and it has totally worked for us.
It worked as coming down to the kitchen I would go in the fridge and a 8 pack of biscuits were gone, the chocolate was gone, fruit was gone, 6 pack of crisps gone there was nothing for any one else, she didn't give a toss no one else had not had anything, she only cared when I lost the plot at her and then she was sorry cos she was in trouble, which was then stress for us all, and I was scared I was making an issue about food, which I don't want to do, as she didn't have a food problem she was just greedy and couldn't help herself, nothing else.