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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Not to give DC a snack on way home from school?

289 replies

chainedtothedesk · 06/09/2017 03:53

Quite happy to let them snack once we are home but my DD (9) has asked that I arrive at school gates to collect her with a snack. She's noticed other parents arrive with a snack and says she's hungry too at the end of the school day (often doesn't eat the fruit I give her for morning break though!) And doesnt want to wait the 15-20 min it takes to get her home. I suspect hunger doesn't come into it , she's just hoping she is more likely to get a bag of crisps or similar, rather than toast, if they eat on the way home rather than once we get there.
Today we saw a family eating a chocolate bar and small pother of Pringles on the way home which prompted the question (though not for the first time)
AIBU to make my DC just wait a little until they get home and suggest that they have something a bit healthier than chocolate and crisps?

OP posts:
Original poster
chainedtothedesk · 06/09/2017 03:54

*pot, not pother

OP posts:
WhippetyStourie · 06/09/2017 03:58

Arrive at school with a banana/apple/carrot.

Rinkydinkypink · 06/09/2017 03:58

Every now and again I can't see a problem in surprising her with a treat straight from school. I don't think everyday is necessary. If she insists take fruit, carrot sticks or something healthy.

mylaptopismylapdog · 06/09/2017 04:05

I did this when my children were younger as I found it made them more manageable when we got home.

AlexaAmbidextra · 06/09/2017 04:12

I don't get all this 'snacking'. I'm sure when I was a child I and my friends used to be able to go for a couple of hours without being fed. Perhaps that's why there's so much childhood obesity now?

MrsOverTheRoad · 06/09/2017 04:16

YANBU. Mine get a bar of choc on Fridays. What I do is to ensure they've got an actual meal waiting at home though.

So they have a very early "tea" at 4.00pm and then supper at 630-7 both meals are smallish....they might have spag bol for their first tea...and then at supper, something like toast or crackers and cheese.

Gooseberrytart4 · 06/09/2017 04:23

Give her the fruit she chose not to eat earlier. Or an apple. Yes best not to buy into eating crap daily after school. Not a great habit

treaclesoda · 06/09/2017 04:24

I have been doing school pick up for 7 years now and have never seen someone hand a child a snack to eat at the school gates. YANBU.

ICJump · 06/09/2017 04:29

mrsovertheroad do you do that every day? I'm wondering if it would work here but two days a week we aren't home til 630.

AlmostAJillSandwich · 06/09/2017 04:36

How long after dinner time is pick up?
At my primary school dinner was at 12 then home time 3:30, but i was literally less than a 5 minute walk from school to home, where my gran would make me tea and toast, yum.
At high school dinner wasn't until 1 and home time was 2:30, was a 15-20 minute walk but i wouldn't be hungry yet when i got home.
Not that 15-20 minutes is a long time to wait for a snack, and i suspect you are probably right that she thinks she is more likely to get convenience/junk food than something more substantial and healthy at home.
I second the suggestion she eats the piece of fruit she decided not to eat at morning break. We used to be able to put our name down at registration in primary school for a slice of toast at morning break for 10p, or 2 slices for 20p. We weren't allowed to bring our own food for break though, and you could also have your name put down before each term to get the break time bottle of milk. I used to love those little bottles but not the taste, think that was more the straws than the milk though.

Scoobydoobydont · 06/09/2017 04:43

YANBU

It seems to be generally accepted now that everyone is constantly filing their faces with food.

Snacks for kids at soft play, activities, park.

Snack for adults when shopping, or working (people constantly eating at their desks all day simply wouldn't have been allowed up to not long ago)

I don't get it. No wonder so many people wobble when they walk to the vending machine.

MrsOverTheRoad · 06/09/2017 06:27

IC yes...my working hours allow me though.

MaisyPops · 06/09/2017 06:30

Give her a piece of fruit. If she's hungry she'll eat it. If not, she can wait dir toast when she gets in.

I don't really understand parents who allow their children to snack on treats all the time.

BlackeyedSusan · 06/09/2017 06:39

she can have the toast as bread then, in a sandwich. or fruit.

ds does sometimes need feeding immediately after school. (autistic, behaviour is relative to blood sugar levels. ) dd does not. not every child is the same. I am betting it was the pringles and chocolate that prompted the question.

MrsOverTheRoad · 06/09/2017 06:43

Mine are so starving after school that I just find it easier to eat then. DH works from home a lot so we all eat a main meal then...4.00 sounds early but we don't snack so lunchtime is quite a distance from 4.

So big meal at 4...then supperish thing at about 7.

ZigZagIntoTheBlue · 06/09/2017 06:44

Ds1 always wants a snack walking home from school. I'm guilty of falling into the habit in reception but phased it out last year and will be putting my foot down this year too.
When I was giving him a snack it would occasionally be a biscuit but more usually some fruit. He is growing like a weed though so does genuinely get hungry quite often!

randomuntrainedcuntowner · 06/09/2017 06:45

It's pathetic. Of ten the kids will have had a two course cooked lunch 2-3 hours previously - they are hardly going to starve. No wonder our kids are becoming obese - they never stop bloody eating! 😮

bigchris · 06/09/2017 06:45

She'll be coming out with a bag of Haribo often enough with the 30 birthdays to get through Grin

Ribrabrob · 06/09/2017 06:48

You are not being unreasonable. This constant snacking really gets on my nerves. Why do kids have to have a snack wherever they go? Even at a club that only lasts half an hor, you see parents laden with snack pots, juices, raisins etc. It's just so bizarre.

LostInMess · 06/09/2017 06:50

YANBU if your child has previously been fine without. I always take a snack to the gates but it's a healthy one. I only started doing so when DC3 started school last year, though, as he was always starving when he came out, despite having eaten lunch. To the degree that I did check with school that he was actually eating it and his fruit snack in the morning.

I remember always being the same when I got home as a child, so can sympathise.

We tend not to get home straightaway though, as the children normally run around the adjacent field to let off steam for a while.

Happy to say none of us are obese or indeed overweight!

Gileswithachainsaw · 06/09/2017 06:56

Yanbu. I personally would just want to get home rather than faff about with snacks. Takes longer to have to find a bin and wipe sticky fingers tgan it would to just get home.

Nothing wrong with being a bit hungry. Means they will eat their dinner.

I'd not even give a snack at home either

Scoobydoobydont · 06/09/2017 06:59

so lunchtime is quite a distance from 4.

It's really not! Plenty of people in the world survive more than a few hours without food

(Mind you I say that as someone who very ralrely eats anything before 19:00)

schoolgaterebel · 06/09/2017 06:59

She will be very hungry when she comes out of school, I would have a piece of fruit or carrot for her. She is old enough to understand a bar if chocolate or pringles are not a nutritious snack after a busy day at school.

Having said that, she is 9 and more than capable if waiting till she gets home for a healthy snack.

43percentburnt · 06/09/2017 06:59

I think the amount of food at school is ott. Morning snack (could be toast, muffins or cheese etc), 2 course lunch - sometimes with a chocolate/sticky pudding, then an afternoon snack (fruit and milk). They are only there for 6 hours, a significant proportion of the day spent eating. It seems they get no more than 2 portions (1 fruit 1 veg - the veg is often beans). Before starting school we aimed to eat 8 portions a day, meaning I now have to find a way to get 3 in at breakfast and three in after school!

So I would offer her cucumber and carrot sticks.

honeylulu · 06/09/2017 07:03

I agree that kids don't need to snack all the time. Suggest to get that she eats her fruit from break.
Lots of parents would turn up at my son's school laden with crisps and other crap. The kids who went to off site after school club obviously wouldn't get given such stuff. They got a hot dinner there at 5pm and coped perfectly well. (My son was one of them.)
The parents of the snacking children would moan about how fussy they were and how hard it was to get them to eat a healthy dinner when they got home. Well, duh.