Snacks at school pick-up?

[MyCatSnoresTooLoudly]

Do people at your school do this? DC2 is in reception and it seems most parents bring a snack for them to eat the minute they leave the classroom, often sugary. No judgement, whatever makes your day easier - but it means DC2 whines and moans for one as well.

We’re only ten minutes walk from school and he has something as soon as he gets back, I’m not anti-snacks per se, but I’m getting a bit irritated with having to constantly say no and feel like the bad guy because I don’t turn up with chocolate biscuits to be eaten standing outside the classroom door!

Is this a thing? Am I being mean not bringing something?

I always bought a snack after school, and yes fairly often biscuits or similar. They are secondary age now and no harm done. I never even thought anything of it. Mumsnet is weird over tiny things!

My DC is usually hungry after school and I generally have a snack waiting in the car. Sometimes it's sugary and sometimes it's fruit, but either way they aren't allowed sugary things at school so an afternoon pick me up and a bit of energy is usually just what she needs right at that moment! When I've not taken one on occasion, she honestly drags her feet and complains about how far away the 3 minute walk to the car is 😂

Exactly my thoughts, thank you 😂 And what does it mean you "don't allow it"? You don't allow them to eat if they're hungry? Because I assume that's why some children want to eat after school: because they're hungry. Are we expected to instill them with some kind of moral lesson by "not allowing" a snack after school? I don't get it: people will bring snacks for their kids because they have good reasons to do it. Who cares?

No. They usually have some fruit and a glass of milk between getting home and dinner time if they're peckish.

She meant she doesn't allow sweet treats as the snack. Which apparently makes her a "good parent".

I do. And yes more often than not it's a sugary snack. We have a 40 minute walk and they are hungry by 3.30pm.

Yes, I always bring snacks. We usually go to the playground for a while after school and I need something to keep her going til she has her tea.

No, they can wait till they get home.

I hate that kids seem to be being taught that hunger is 'the enemy' and must be stopped at the first sign.

Unless they're going on to an after school club, there's no need to meet them at the gates with food.

Since my oldest started school and had the mother of all meltdowns one pick up, I’ve brought a snack for each of them at pick up. They are genuinely hungry. Snack balances them and enables them to cope with the journey home. It’s only chocolate or sweets on a Friday. The other days it’s crackers, breadsticks, fruit, babybels etc. When they used to do activities after school, I’d often bring them a full lunchbox and call it a “packed tea”.

I’ve never taken snacks to school pick up. We walk home, wash hands and then have something. Often sugary!

It’s not though. I have 3 dc and I only needed to bring a snack for one in reception. She’d fall asleep on the way home, wake for tea and then go to bed. Snack meant she would stay awake a bit eating in the car on the way home or we could go to the park without her falling asleep (summer born - 30 Aug - premature dc). I parent my dc the way they need me to parent them yet you’d judge me 🙄

That said, I’m not sure why parents need to give the snack while still on school grounds.

Some parents have to take their little ones to afterschool clubs or the little ones have to wait until 5/6pm for dinner so a small snack won't hurt. I always give mine outside of school though as. You do know that they have lunch at 12:30pm and maybe a slice of fruit in the afternoon so until dinner time, it's a long time. You can't dictate what others do with their own kids but I always gave mine outside the school vicinity and told him to wait until we were out of sight.

We do because my children are always starving when they come out and we’re often going to clubs or whatever. Mainly it’s something healthy but not always! Today it was leftover croissants from my work!

Future binge eater in the making! I'm picturing the prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where his dentist Father never let him eat sweets with some pps. 😂
A small lollypop, or a few sweets/homemade item/healthy snack never does mine any harm. They don't crave sugar like their classmates because they're allowed it in moderation, some days they don't have anything, some they do. They already have milk and fruit at school. Dcs always have a healthy hot dinner when we get home, unless they're getting pizza or something as a Friday treat. They're good eaters and regulate well.

We do a lot of walking though and it gives them energy, especially if they haven't had time for much lunch at school. They're not ferried about like some, and we don't live right next to the school; those are the people that ironically tend to judge.

I’ve always taken snacks for mine…. Use to take her and her best friend (as we walked with them) ice lolly’s in the summer, same with her mum. Many others were doing the same. I don’t see what the problem is… you do you and let others do what they do. It’s really not that deep 🤷🏼‍♀️

I never did it with mine, and that’s only because it never crossed my mind. If they asked I probably would have done 🤷‍♀️

why does it matter if they give on school grounds or just outside?

I have done that too, I took mini milks in a double walled flask to keep them cold, it works great! I even took one of them a hot chocolate one particularly cold day, he hadn't been well and he thoroughly enjoyed it walking home.

I had the same frustration as you OP - I came to school pickup straight from work so the snacks would have sat in my car all
day, and that rules out a whole bunch of healthy things.

What I did was once every month I made the snack something ridiculous, like an ice cream sundae at home or pancakes. The rest of the time the snacks were things like bread and hummus, veg sticks and cream cheese, cheddar and apple etc. The children understood that we had to wait to get home to have our snacks as you can’t transport those sorts of things and they knew that even though they didn’t get chocolate biscuits every day, on Thursday at the end of the month they’d have something far far better.

It’s the performance some parents do in giving little Jenny her snack then other dc get upset they are missing out. It’s years since I was on the playground but there’s some really weird parents who make a performance of every little thing.

It's normal at DD's school. She's in year 1. Snack quality definitely varies between families though.

We (and her closest friends families) go for a relatively healthy snack most nights (either on the way home or in her bag to eat at the start of after school club) but Friday is treat day - a cookie, a few sweets etc that she and a few of her friends share between them. She then has some fruit or veg sticks in the car on the way home for a bit of balance.

Can't see how it does any harm and the little ones are starving by 3.30 having had lunch at 12.

We’ve taken leftover Easter and Christmas chocs, dd walked halfway home herself with her best friend and another friend so I always made sure we had something for them too. Ice lolly’s, brownies, fruit snacks whatever I have lying around on the day. She’s in year 7 now so buys her own snacks 🫣

Oh us too, those little things that are left over from selection boxes, they last all of January (dm buys a ton). (if I don't eat them first they'll get one after school on our way home 😂). I'll throw all of the left over easter chocolate into crispy easter nests or tiffin or something, and they'll get that.
Haha, buying snacks in high school is the best part! God those school flapjacks were the best! I'm slim and fit, so obviously it didn't do me any harm. I really don't over think it. They have a varied diet.

You would probably have a nervous breakdown if you saw what mine have access to after dinner 😂. They are also no strangers to a Greggs sausage roll!

Snacks may not be necessary in your situation. You don’t have to bring one. An apple or banana is going to do no harm though.
Kids don’t actually tend to eat all that much at school in my experience. Especially the littlest ones.
Snacks may make a lot of sense for some families for a multitude of reasons.
Your kid is going to be whining for all sorts of things his friends have got the he doesn’t for at least the next 12 years. Time to just say no and mean it.