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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be cross that DS not allowed to eat yogurt at break-time

169 replies

ifitsnotanarse · 29/03/2011 19:29

DS1's school have a healthy eating policy for breaktime and children are only allowed to have fruit and water/milk. This morning we had no fresh fruit to send in for break and instead sent in a yogurt as I quite obviously didn't want him being hungry - lunchtime is not until 12pm. We were also late this morning so I didn't get a chance to explain this to his teacher or classroom assistant. When I collected him from school he told me that the classroom assistant did not allow him to eat the yogurt and told him to put it back in his bag until lunchtime. I asked if the assistant asked him if he had anything else to eat and he said that she did and he told her no. Therefore he went hungry. He is 5yrs old and in P1.
I am so mad at the classroom assistant and feel like making a complaint to the head teacher Angry. I completely agree with the fruit and water/milk at breaktime but not to the extent that it policed so rigerously. WTF did she think would happen; the whole class erupt into anarchy?!?
Am I being unreasonable?

OP posts:
PinkIceQueen · 29/03/2011 20:58

Free fruit for all in our school. No yoghurts means no yoghurts imho. Why couldn't you write a note for the teacher if you were that bothered? It's not their fault you didn't buy enough fruit or were running late. Tsk fgs!

Thornykate · 29/03/2011 20:59

Am not saying your yoghurt was bad OP but most yoghurts are full of sugar, artificial sweetness etc & pretty crap. Same as most cereal bars. Maybe school could of slipped your DS an apple if he was starving?

Goblinchild · 29/03/2011 21:00

21g of carb in 100g of banana

oneofsuesylvesterscheerios · 29/03/2011 21:00

Yes indeed, BabbyEdensMummy, WTF do the teachers have to do with what the children do when at school. Absolutely right.

Hmm
Goblinchild · 29/03/2011 21:01

But OP wants someone else to blame, not herself. Get with the programme people.

squeakytoy · 29/03/2011 21:01

Well in MY day... which was the 70's/80's, we had a tuck shop that was open at break, and we could go and get chocolate, crisps, biscuits, and then go out into the playground and run all that sugar off! :)

TeaOneSugar · 29/03/2011 21:01

I try to keep those little packets of fruit flakes or raisins in yogurt in for when DH has taken all the fruit to work we run out of fruit.

I agree though my dd wouldn't have a mid morning snack at home, just a drink, but she always wants to take one to school, I suppose because everyone else has one. If they've had a good breakfast they should be fine until 12:00 - 12:30.

It's hardly going hungry.

BabbyEdensMummy · 29/03/2011 21:02

its a yoghurt! it doesnt make that much mess most of it goes in their mouth maybe spilling abit on their jumper worst case,,,what about the milk spilling on the carpet smelling? and three hours is a long time for children especially if they dont have huge appitite when they first wake up

BabbyEdensMummy · 29/03/2011 21:05

and did i say teachers have nothing to do with the children,,,there job is to teach not to decide what my child eats

mummyosaurus · 29/03/2011 21:05

It's a bit mean he couldn't have a snack.

Snacks are not funded by the government anymore, I don't think. We are lucky as DD still gets fruit in yr 1 but I think the PTa must fund it.

I'd stock up on apples as they keep really well, maybe buy 2 bags at a time. I find tesco Market value ones keep just as well as more expensive one.

LynetteScavo · 29/03/2011 21:06

I bet the classroom assistant thought he was raiding his lunch.

And can you imagine all the other 5 year olds looking at the yoghurt, and going home and telling mum that X had a yoghurt and they wanted one two. Where does the yoghurt thing stop?

The school doesn't provide milk or fruit?

cremedelacreme · 29/03/2011 21:09

Not read the entire thread but I don't think YABU at all! My DD (who is only 2.5 yo though) won't eat fresh fruit at all, and assuming she's still a fussy eater at 5, she'd have to have fruit puree in a pot or a pouch. But yoghurt fills her up more, and I don't see why a yoghurt pot, pouch or tube would create too much mess. (And you can get ones without sugar!) Also, at 2 2.5 she can eat this now without spilling, no problem, so a 5 yo should be fine! But maybe I don't understand these things because my DD isn't school age yet ... Confused

Goblinchild · 29/03/2011 21:10

he didn't have a snack because his mother didn't give him an appropriate one. What next, a stiff G&T in his drinks bottle to get him through the day in Y6? Extra pack of fags in Y11?
Schools have rules, children cope better and stress less if their parents support the rules rather than pretending that you can pick and choose which bits to follow.

Goblinchild · 29/03/2011 21:11

Would you like photos of reception jumpers after eating lunch independently?
Or you could offer to be a midday supervisor and see what all the fuss is about.

Driftwood999 · 29/03/2011 21:12

YABVU - as others have said, the school is trying to set standards Smile The yogurt was confiscated Yogurt pots are the work of the devil, are messy (someone has to clean that up, think school environment) and yes children wear the yogurt on their jumper. imx your dc will have been offered something by someone - I doubt he suffered.

tougholdbird · 29/03/2011 21:13

Maybe the school try and stick to the rules to set a good example to the children? Maybe they even think 'policing' this rule this will help children understand rules are not there to be got 'round when it's convenient to do so? YABU.

MrsRhettButler · 29/03/2011 21:14

the fact is children (and clearly some adults) have to learn to stick to the rules.... it cannot be one rule for op son and a different for the others, school is about rules, (yes and teaching edensmummy, did you go?) my dd's class sit on the carpet to eat snacks at snacktime so yoghurt would get everywhere
she does get free fruit though

Goblinchild · 29/03/2011 21:14

Back to my original point, get your arse in gear and organise something for snack time for 5 days of the week.
I take it OP has only been doing this for less than two terms? you've got a very long haul ahead of you, organisation as a parent matters.

Goblinchild · 29/03/2011 21:16

Children are very good at exceptions to the rule if there's a reason.
The diabetic children in school get whatever they need as snack, and not a peep out of everyone else. Could be that they also see the lunchtime blood test and decide that they'd rather forgo it and the chocolate biscuit.

Feenie · 29/03/2011 21:16

I had to get a letter from the doctor to say that DD1 and DD2 needed to eat carbs at breaktime to help prevent migraine. Until the school got the letter they refused to let my DDs eat cereal bars, etc. rather than just fruit.

Hmm The letter from the doctor didn't say your children must have cereal bars, it said they needed to eat carbs. As Goblinchild says, there are a decent amount of carbohydrates in a banana. School caved in to keep the peace, by the sounds of it.

Thornykate · 29/03/2011 21:20

Fruit is full of carbs.

BabbyEdensMummy · 29/03/2011 21:20

yes i did go school Hmm but i hardly think a youghurt is the worst thing ever she didnt give him a big bar of chocalate to tease the other kids, its a yoghurt ffs!

tougholdbird · 29/03/2011 21:22

Babby Point is not whether it's a sensible rule, rather that rules should be stuck to and parents shouldn't pick and choose when they follow them. It's called setting an example (ffs).

marmaladetwatkins · 29/03/2011 21:22

It's not the schools fault you had no fruit or that you were unable to explain about YoghurtGate to them.

But, you'd have to be a hard-hearted son of a bastard to deny a five year-old his snack.

So YABU and NBU at the same time. No help, am I?

Nanny0gg · 29/03/2011 21:22

How filling is a yoghurt, really?
If your child had breakfast he wouldn't starve, and who is going to deal with 30 children and yoghurts and spoons? Oh yes, the staff who have to prepare all the activities for the lessons.
Luckily our school has the free fruit scheme, but prior to that if a child hadn't brought their own fruit they went without. And I did feel sorry for those that hadn't had breakfast either.
Just make sure you don't run out.