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?

He lacks the coordination to eat and walk at the same time at the moment 😂

I also find it miraculous that he appears to be able to wait 10 minutes on the days DH does pick-up without whining or incident, but on mine it’s so unfair if I haven’t brought anything…..hence I agree perhaps I’m
being completely unfair and too rigid, but it’s interesting it doesn’t seem to be a problem on days I don’t pick up….

I always brought snacks if we were going to the park after school which we did most days it wasn't pouring rain. Usually fruit, cheese and crackers, tuna sandwich or a little pack of sushi. My boys always came out hungry!

Always took a snack. There are multiple reasons for this:

1. It's been 2 plus hours since lunch, they're hungry. Food regulates blood sugar
2. School day is exhausting and they're always done after
3. It's a good way for them to transition from one activity to another, even if it's only transitioning home
4. It stops them acting out. And by acting out I mean taking out their feelings on you after having to shut them down all day in a classroom - especially important for neurodivergent

My youngest was always starving after school when they were in infants. Im
not sure if they didn’t eat enough for lunch, or if it was just because they had an extra playtime after lunch so were running about lots. But I had to arrive at pick up with snacks or they would be hangry! They have grown out of it now they are in the juniors. In general their appetite has increased as they’ve got older and they eat much more at meal times and can go longer between meals.

I never used to, but ended up giving in. I just bring a brioche or a piece of fruit.

Just when I think I have heard it all on here....there is a hell of a lot more to being a good parent then no snacks at pick up. Bonkers.

Zippidydoodah

bus places are like gold dust but we’re fine, just a lot of juggling between myself and dh and they’re lucky they’re in town so they’re not absolutely stuck!

Ds got a snack as he needed it. (Autistic) DD didn't. No snack= meltdown. DD ate at home.

Excellent post.

Oh, well, it might just be that he's got a slightly more secure relationship with you than dad, so can let it all out? Maybe he feels like he can't do that with dad for whatever reason.

Id tell him I'll bring snack to school,bit under no circumstances will it be chocolate etc every day.

No never took snacks and I didn’t routinely offer them at home either, never understood this obsession with giving kids snacks, mine were offered 3 meals a day (or took a substantial packed lunch if a school day) no need for extra food. We still aren’t snackers, they are grown adults now

It doesn’t have to be an obsession. It can simply be a question of observing your child’s moods and behaviour and ascertaining whether a drop in energy is hunger induced or caused by tiredness. For many parents it takes a split second to understand that their child’s blood sugar is low and that they need a boost and to know it’s a regular occurrence at a certain point in the day. Perhaps your children didn’t suffer from slumps in energy (or maybe you didn’t notice or care) but I imagine it’s largely hereditary because - ya know - we’re all different. Giving your child something to eat after school seems perfectly reasonable. One of my children liked a snack after school because he didn’t eat much lunch due to struggling to eat around other people. The other never needed anything, although now at 16, it’s a different story.

It’s not an obsession, it’s NHS advice for children under five to have three meals and two snacks. Beyond five, they don’t suddenly overnight go “Don’t need feeding!” It’s about looking at your child’s mood, size and activity levels and recognising that they can’t take on enough food at meals to sustain all the activity, so giving them a boost in-between: not a Boost bar, but cheesy oatcakes or cucumber sticks and hummus or an apple or whatever, so they can then run around the park after school or go to a club or do their reading without moaning.

Why is it ‘good’ decision making?

if parents want to take a snack for their child then it’s none of your business and certainly not good or bad.

I’ve always taken a snack for my kids, they expect it now. I think I’ll still sleep ok about my decision making and parenting though…

It’s literally no one else’s problem that your child whines for a chocolate biscuit.
You might live 10 mins from home but not everyone does and also not everyone is even going straight home for food!

Yes nutritionist friend said the adults with eating disorders she sees in clinic now had overly rigid parents who wouldn’t allow any ‘unhealthy’ food as kids. She lets her kids eat a balanced diet, which includes sweet things.

I used to take a banana when DD1 was in reception. She was always exhausted when she came out and the short walk home would often end in tears. A banana just gave her a boost. She’s in year 1 now, school doesn’t wear her out/she’s better at dealing with it, so I don’t bring one.

When mine were Reception age I never bought snacks. Honestly it never occurred to me. We lived 10 minutes walk from school.

In the very hottest days of the summer term I would bring them both a fresh bottle of cold squash though, as they were quite often gasping.

but generally not. And then he starts inching up to his friends on the scrounge, which is embarrassing!
I am absolutely not judging anyone who does this, some kids will be going on to activities, etc, other kids may have additional needs or be very emotional when they come out and it’s whatever works for everyone. I have a feeling fruit will be rejected and then it’s the standing around eating as well….

I would be judging a parent who thought it was preferable for their child to be begging for food off friends than just provide them with their own when you know most days he wants something.

I’ve personally not seen this, no. But then most children have like a 1-4 minute walk from school to home. It’s a small village. The rest of us drive because we live rurally. I can’t think of a time I’ve packed snacks in the car unless we were going directly somewhere for the rest of the afternoon, and that’s not often.

Why do you care so much? For the sake of 10 minutes if your DC wants a snack then just give him a snack rather than judging other parents for choosing to feed their own children. I always remember being ravenous as a child when I got out of school so would usually have taken a snack for DD to eat on the drive home.

NHS routinely gives poor advice about food intake, both for children and adults so Im not sure we should hold so much in store from that

Some children will be genuinely hungry, no doubt about it. But what I see a lot of and what Im seeing in a lot of these posts is soothing by food which is a different thing

Also a couple of cucumber sticks isnt going to satiate someones hunger so thats not really someone who was hungry in the first place.

I also think that over time we have lost sight of the value of hot drinks for children, we focus on water so much, I think a lot of children benefit from a hot drink, in my day it was milky tea or milky coffee but people would shudder at that now, but a lot of children are likely to be thirsty rather than hungry and need a nice warm drink inside them, certainly in the cold weather.

Yes I brought my dc a hot chocolate in a thermal beaker once; he loved walking home with it in the cold. I don't allow caffeine though, as they're too little.

I love vegetables, but I couldn't think of anything worse than cucumber sticks and I'm an adult! I group it with watermelon, cannot stand them.

lmao I’ll take NHS advice over giving kids a coffee! 😂😂😂 How is “soothing by food” not the same thing as “a nice warm drink”?!

Cucumber sticks AND HUMMUS as you (deliberately) missed that part: dense calorie load, protein, energy boost, the veg is just a conduit (that my kids happen to like). They’re definitely, definitely hungry.

When you have a kid with AuDHD who would quite happily exist almost entirely on cucumber sticks and grapes (when she remembered to actually eat the food on the plate in front of her) - and announced when she was 11 that I hadn't noticed she was still wearing a t shirt in size age 3, but not to worry, she'd grown too tall to wear the shorts recently, but you needed to get her home to maybe eat something more substantial - yeah, hunger's the enemy.