Why does a 45 min children's activity necessitate a snack?

[Naicecuppatea]

Just that really, looking at summer activities for DC, and get a bit fed up with the need for bringing a snack, as well as water, for a 45 min or 1 hour activity. A snack shouldn't be needed surely! 2-3 hours long would be a different matter perhaps. AIBU - or do we have too much of a snack culture these days especially among children who aren't expected to go for an hour without one?

I agree!!

The snacking culture has become ridiculous now

God forbid a child should feel hungry! It's not s sign of poor parenting it's actually good to feel hunger!

Just give them a bottle of water and a a banana, it's no big deal. Do what they ask or don't send your kids if you don't like the way it's organised.

all these snacks might be the reason some kids are getting [whisper it] fatter, esp. if the activity doesn't involve much moving about.

mrs fuzzy I suspect you are right!

Adult activities are no better

Cinema... Used to be a bit of popcorn, but nowadays it's special coffees/nachos/extra large bags of chocolate/pic n mix

Shoppers can't seem to walk round shops without Starbucks/Costa stuck in their hands

Sporting events seem to require full on meals in the guise of 'snacks'.... To watch a 90 minute game in the middle of the day

Cake sales are everywhere.... Workplace, schools, library

type 2 diabetes awaits hundreds of 1000's of people just because you haven't had the symptoms yet.... i should know, i weigh 10 stone but i still developed it, and at least half of the population is over weight

Mmm I do have coffee all day every day though.
But they won't even need a bottle of waterfor an activity really, unless it's very high intensity sport surely

It's parents of toddlers at school parents assembly that annoy me. We're trying to listen to the kids talking about their work that week and someone's toddler is behind us crunching his way through a packet of crisps. So rude and unnecessary.

Snack culture exists in relation to pets as well. Or "furbabies" as they are known. I don't mind a strategic distracting treat or two in my vet consulting room and usually give the pet a small treat myself at the end when they are settled before they are free to go to associate calm confident behaviour with something nice, but some people shovel fistfuls of crappy treats into their fat ill mannered pets from arrival to departure at random, in lieu of actually training them.
Ditto out on short sedate walks in the park- you see people stopping to stuff more bits of sausage and cheese into adult dogs lest they collapse with hunger (insulinoma isn't that common FGS). And I don't mean a training treat for a nice recall or a halt and wait quietly at heel, I mean reeling in the flexilead just to cram more food in.

I sometimes wonder since many of us have the luxury of never having to feel hungry, we never do?

I have tried to explain to my children that it is ok to feel hungry for a short while before dinner. They can wait a few minutes and don't have to have a snack to fill the gap!

That said, I have realised I am not great at feeling hungry even while I'm in the process of making dinner and I know it won't be long!

Also have used modest snacks when children were toddlers out and about to stop them fussing but then, they had small stomachs. Little and often!

Don't carry snacks now, honestly!

I don't think it's a particularly new thing.

I went to activity sessions during the summer holidays 20 years ago and there were plenty of "snack" breaks. Squash and biscuits at 10am, lunch around midday, more biscuits and squash around 3, an afternoon snack (toast, crackers, fruit) at 5 and then tea when I got home at 6-7pm.

I don't think it's any different nowadays.

Is it a morning activity? We've had to introduce a morning snack to the playscheme because so many kids arrive without having had any breakfast.

In fact we took them on a trip last year where we left at 10.30 and returned at 1.30pm and we got lambasted by several parents due to the fact they "only" had a piece of fruit as a snack and not a full on lunch (we were on a bus for the first and last half hour).

YANBU

I'm surprised some people can go for a shit nowadays without bringing a snack.

HermioneJean that's the sort of snack schedule we have at brownie or guide holiday and I think is fine, although I wish biscuits could be swapped for something more filling (1 or 2 biscuits isn't much when you had breakfast at 7.30 and lunch isn't til 1 and you're running around outside all the time)

But they are sent on activities for a couple of hours with no snack breaks! We do try to insist they take water with them when we're at camp because most kids are rubbish at drinking enough water and if it's hot and they're active it's easy to get dehydrated and even heat stroke.

I have often thought the same. A snack for an after school activity lasting half an hour. Really??

There's a snack culture?

I thought people were supposed to eat little and often. Is that no longer a thing? And isn't diabetes more about what you eat rather than how often you eat?

Yes there's a big snack culture now.

Start a thread asking how you can keep a toddler quiet during a wedding ceremony for example, and just count how many replies suggesting you bring lots of snacks to keep them occupied.

Or just look at the school gates and how many parents meet their children with a snack, for the 10/15 minute journey home.

Eating little and often is fine if your main meals are smaller to balance out the calories.

But lots of people eat three full meals a day PLUS snacks and then wonder why they can't lose weight.

Oh god yes the snacks! I often feel like I am somehow inadequate because I am not constantly producing a stream of organic rice cakes/small packages/tupperwares of sliced grapes for my toddler. I will bung a bit of fruit in the bag if we are going to be out for hours but am really not into this constant grazing malarkey. Especially not with all the specially produced, individually packaged overpriced children's snacks. They don't need to eat that often!

There's quite an interesting section on this in 'French children don't throw food'. Apparently in France they might have cake but it'll be at 3pm, not this all day grazing madness.

Yes Quod you certainly sound like you think you're inadequate.

Splendide I do think you can be made to feel disorganised/inadequate if everyone else is ferreting about in bags producing a stream of snacks and you haven't brought anything for your toddler because you don't actually think they need it.

i'minshock I totally agree with the OP that a 45 min activity does not require a snack, and actually generally don't give 17-month-old DD any snacks during the day. However our church service runs over her usual lunchtime (lunchtime is planned to fit into my work schedule as she comes with me) and she would be very hungry and upset without any food. Snacky things are easier to do in church than a proper meal.