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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To get cross about snacks after school

116 replies

Effnjeff · 19/04/2015 16:53

My DCs finish school at 4pm and despite having had a hot lunch insist they are starving the moment they get in the car. I am then pestered with snack requests.

They normally have dinner around 5.30 but if they've stuffed
themselves with snacks never finish their meal. Hence then hungry again before bed.
I'm sick of waste, constant snacking
and being a 24/7 cafe.

I really don't know what the answer is - should I have dinner ready as soon as we get back? Is - 4.30 dinner too early?
Should I only let them have fruit and put up with constant whinging until dinner?

What do you give your DCs to eat and when, after school??

OP posts:
bloodyteenagers · 19/04/2015 20:31

7:15 / 7:30 bed doesn't work for everyone. Lots are not in until after 6.

Stillwishihadabs · 19/04/2015 20:34

So true Talkinpeace. But Spanish (and french children) nap much older than English dcs. Bedtime was still 730 for Dd in Reception, I think French and Spanish dcs would be still be napping at that age (as ours did when we went to Southern Europe age 3,4 or 5). When she went into year 1 I started eating all together at 7 bed was at 8. Now she is 8 and goes at 8:30 during the week. Awake at 6:45-7.

OrianaBanana · 19/04/2015 20:39

Not just the children either, don't they still have siestas?

DisappointedOne · 19/04/2015 21:11

Best food to stave off hunger is protein and fat. Fruit is mostly sugar.

DisappointedOne · 19/04/2015 21:13

Think my DD has been in bed at 7pm once in her 4.5 years. She's still awake and singing in bed. She's a night owl. I have no need or desire to change that.

bamboostalks · 19/04/2015 21:20

overmydeadbody
I think cutting out all carbs except fruit and veg is pretty drastic for a child. It's really not advised. Where's all the energy coming from? Is your child overweight? Are they really eating no pasta, bread, rice at all?

Original poster
Effnjeff · 19/04/2015 21:27

Lunacy DCs are 9&7. Youngest in bed 7.30, eldest 8.30.

We're up 6.30 am

OP posts:
clank2 · 19/04/2015 21:28

I can understand why they are hungry. Hot dinners at school aren't that big, and it is quite a few hours from when they had it.

You can do one of 2 things. Give them a small snack of fruit when they get back in, and dinner at normal time, or, give them their dinner earlier than normal...I don't see any problem with giving dinner at 4.30/5.00. If they are hungry before bed, they can then have some cereal or something. I really don't think they eat much at school you know, they need to stock up at some point, but as you say, it is causing a problem if they eat too much snack and then their dinner gets left.

Thankfully a very minor problem to be having!

Original poster
Effnjeff · 19/04/2015 21:34

Yes I think I over estimate how much they eat at lunch because they have a fantastic menu. Reality is probably a bare minimum bolted down and out to play.

OP posts:
DisappointedOne · 19/04/2015 21:36

Isn't a small snack after school then eating together later an option?

Original poster
Effnjeff · 19/04/2015 21:39

Disappointed. My DCs are tired and grumpy after school. I think leaving dinner until much later would make it worse.

OP posts:
LunacyPays · 19/04/2015 21:41

I only realised recently how small the portions for school dinners are.

DisappointedOne · 19/04/2015 21:43

Doesn't sound like much fun, to be honest.

DisappointedOne · 19/04/2015 21:47

I pick DD (4.5) up from school at 3:15pm. She has a pot of fruit in school at about 2pm and a biscuit or small cake in the car on the way home. We have after school activities 2 nights a week, so she'll get a small sandwich or wrap with ham, cheese or tuna or veg sticks with cream cheese for a bit of an energy/protein boost before that. Then a family dinner at about 7/7:30pm before bed at 8:30-9pm. She's up at 7:50am for school and everything is later at weekends (she woke at 9am this morning but she often lies in later).

Kitsandkids · 19/04/2015 21:54

Okay, I'm feeling a bit guilty because mine never get snacks after school before dinner. We get the bus home from school and get in just after 4. By the time I've checked book bags for letters etc and everyone's shoes and coats are away it's about 4.30 and I just make a start on dinner. So we eat about 5ish (with pudding plus a few sweets from their sweet tin afterwards) and then they don't eat anything else until breakfast the next day. They go to bed between 7 and 7.30.

I'm worried now I'm not feeding them enough but they hardly ever complain of being hungry between meals - if they do it's normally just before the next meal so they're about to be fed anyway.

PeachyPants · 19/04/2015 21:57

I have to take exception to some of what you have said about fruit DisappointedOne, it's not mainly sugar and it is different to feeding your DC fruit gums. The sugars in fruit are much healthier than sucrose and fruits are full of water and fibre and have a much greater and longer lasting effect on satiety than refined carbs.

muminthecity · 19/04/2015 21:58

My DD goes to after school club, they give the children a snack at 4ish of half a sandwich, some fruit and sometimes a biscuit. We then have dinner at about 6.30ish. On the days when I pick her up early, I do the same - snack at about 4, dinner at usual time.

I only give her a small snack, a couple of little crackers with cheese, a few breadsticks with houmous or a slice of wholemeal toast with peanut butter.

WorraLiberty · 19/04/2015 21:59

Kits your post about 'feeling guilty' doesn't make sense.

If they hardly ever complain of being hungry between meals, why on earth would you need to offer them a snack?

If you really are worried about not feeding them enough, then of course revise their food intake for the day.

DisappointedOne · 19/04/2015 22:00

sugars in fruit are much healthier than sucrose and fruits are full of water and fibre and have a much greater and longer lasting effect on satiety than refined carbs.

I'm sorry, but that's just not true.

PeachyPants · 19/04/2015 22:03

Well it is true, I think it's a shame if you are using faddy food myths to inform how you are feeding a four year old.

exLtEveDallasNoBollocks · 19/04/2015 22:04

DD always needed a snack after school when she was having hot lunches. She'd polish off a full sandwich and a banana smoothie at 3:30 and still eat all her dinner at 6.

When we switched to packed lunches she stopped needing a snack, except on the day she had PE & Netball training.

Hot lunches are pretty small, and at DDs school there were a lot of meals she didn't like - she'd complain the chicken was dry, the carrots hard and 'old' tasting, the rice dishes boring and so on. The amount of times she'd come home and tell her dad that all she'd eaten was a couple of potatoes or some salad was why we switched her back to packed.

Now I work in the school I can see exactly what she means, and tbh there are a lot of children eating very little at lunch.

SulpherTuft · 19/04/2015 22:10

Kids get hungry after school.

It is OK to give kids carbs - they use a lot of energy and are growing.
Give them a wholemeal bread cheese sandwich or half a scotch egg or a peanut butter sandwich or hoummous and carrots or marmite sandwiches, or something.

StationeryOrdering · 19/04/2015 22:12

Filling snack after school eg toast, sandwich.

Dinner at 6.30-7

DisappointedOne · 19/04/2015 22:14

Well it is true, I think it's a shame if you are using faddy food myths to inform how you are feeding a four year old.

I'm not. DD has fruit at the point of the day that she needs a boost. Not just before bed. (She doesn't need a snack before bed as she goes up about an hour after dinner.)

Kitsandkids · 19/04/2015 22:21

Worra - I just constantly have a guilty conscience! I can be made to feel guilty about all sorts of things I shouldn't feel guilty about! In this case it's because almost every other poster on here has said they give snacks. I also worry that perhaps my children don't ask for snacks because on the odd occasion when they have I've told them to wait for the next meal. But a couple of times when we've been out and had an ice cream or some sweets or something that has affected their appetite at the next meal and food ends up wasted. So I prefer to just stick to eating at meal times.