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

[chainedtothedesk]

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?

Good grief. So much judging for such a small issue.
Do what you want to do.
I must be the only parent on mumsnet that gave their child a snack on the way home during the earlier years then. Not that I have to justify it but it was a lot nicer 20 minute walk home if my child had something to eat and wasn't having a hungry mood swing.
Oh, he is a very small eater and is slim if that helps the posters who clearly think he will a larger size

But talkedabout you're giving a small, healthy snack to keep them going through until a more adult tea time of 7pm.

The people in the OP are turning up with chocolate and tubs of pringles presumably because their child can't wait til they get home to eat junk.

Mine tends to socialise/play football and doesn't notice how little he has eaten until he practically passes out in hunger.
Cross posted.

If he's not eating at lunch then the solution is him eating at lunch instead of playing football.

I know yours is a healthy snack to keep him going but there's a little part of me that thinks if he knows he'll get a snack later to keep him going then there's no incentivefor him to actually eat his lunch because he can play football and snack later.

I wouldn't do it. But then we don't have a long walk home. I also wouldn't want a child coming out of school and eating without washing hands first. Schools are grim. Little ones sit on the floor (shoes on) put their hands all over the floor. I don't want those fingers in her mouth!
If mine want a snack they can have one. Once we are home and hands are washed. They can wait 10 mins.

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

Me too - DS powers through food, and by the time he was walking home from school (or worse a club) it had been so long since lunch he was properly hungry and grumpy.

Scooby four hours without eating after a busy day at school is quite a distance. As I said, my DC don't have snacks...they eat lunch and then their main meal at 4

Mine used to get a snack on the way home: bread roll, banana, or something along those lines. My mother collected them, I agreed. They'd eat lunch around 12.15, get collected around 3.20 and have a 25 minute walk home.
Each to their own, I think this thread is yet another opportunity for people to be judgey and smug about choices.

I remember being baffled when the adverts first started regarding different foods that were 'great for an after school snack'. I always wondered who had an after school snack. Then I became a nanny. All these children suddenly wanting snacks constantly.

I think some of it is the habit of asking, though. I had one boy who used to ask for a snack while I was making dinner. I'd say no, dinner will be ready in 10 minutes. 'But I'm so huuuungryyyyy' he'd say. Well yes, that's the idea! You are supposed to be hungry right before a meal!

He would also ask for a snack while sat at the dinner table with dinner in front of him, so again, I think it was more a habit to ask.

I look after a child now who's parents let him have free access to the snack pot, and can pick three-four snacks when he gets in from school. Of course, he then eats two mouthfuls of dinner and says he's full. Surely it would be better to eat at 5pm and be hungry for an hour, than to eat three snacks at 4pm and hardly any dinner at 6pm

Mine asked and I said no, they could wait till they got home but there was plenty of parents with enormous amounts of junk at the school gates not many took fruit and veg and my dcs just had to learn to accept that they were not getting anything till they got home. I have never encouraged snacking - they do very little snacking at the weekends and holidays but I think the structure of the school day encourages it.

Why? What's the big deal.

It's one of those easy win situations.

Your DD has asked you for something. It's not bad for her, she's going to get it anyway,so why not show her that you listen to her and when there's not a compelling reason not to do something, you will do it for her.

As forbjwe not feeling hungry, I remember feeling starving at the end of school!

I love bringing my two different snacks. Bit of fresh fruit but ALWAYS a treat too (mr Kipling cake, two finger kit Kat that kind of thing). It's easy for me to do this I suppose as we are a very skinny very very active family so I have no qualms about treats but if you do have qualms you can do an alternative treat (bit of dried fruit, handful of popcorn.)

She likely IS hungry, mine always were.

I used to bring them a sandwich each

Feeding a hungry kid cucumber and carrot sticks is just middle class cruelty.

Just bring a substantial "snack", like a baguette or sandwich.

The lunch portions at school are the same for all children regardless of age/size, and tall, skinny DD comes out of school absolutely starving. Without a snack, she generally goes all hangry on the way home and is a foul mood for the rest of the afternoon. A snack on the way home and a more substantial snack once she gets there mean that the afternoon goes smoothly, homework and chores are done, and she gets to have time to play. No pringles, though. She basically has a second lunch mid-afternoon because she seems to need it, and as she has huge trouble finding clothes that aren't ridiculously loose on her, I'm not too worried.

Thanks for your responses. I have told her that I don't intend to start bringing snacks and that I didn't think it was unreasonable to wait until she gets home. If it's a day when we are going straight on to swimming then that's different. I suppose I just wanted confirmation that I wasn't being mean! And I also resent having to look like the mean mum in my children's eyes as they see other kids with treats at the school gates.

As far as I'm concerned, if my child...who eats lightly of her packed lunch, is starving at 4 and I'm able to, then it's sensible for her to have her main meal then.

She eats it all...so do I! I don't think it's great to eat late on a regular basis.

That makes more sense talked.
I got the wrong end of the stick on your post.

I get the judge-fest on the unhealthy pringle tub style snacking. The kid is going to be no more full on pringles and chcolate than a small healthy snack

I see kids with grab bags of crisps and sharing size bags of haribo that they aren't sharing after school.

Unless they're going off to an activity straight from school, I don't see why kids need a snack a few hours after lunch.

Mine are always hungry on the mile walk home. I bring cereal bars, fruit or breadsticks normally. They are hangry and ratty without it.

I don't get all this anti snacking vehemence on MN. My DC are little but SO much nicer when they aren't hangry. I'm don't give them crisps and chocolate but an apple/carrot sticks/babybel/raisins after school or nursery pick up and they are delights instead of having screaming tantrums. They aren't overweight. They eat their supper. I thought having 5/6 small meals a day was better than 3 big ones?

I only see people giving treats if children have a swimming lesson or a sports activity after school (dinner is going to be late) which is fair enough. I have never taken snacks to school pick up. We have cut out snacks unless they are fruit, dd's usually refuse and will wait for dinner.

Feeding a hungry kid cucumber and carrot sticks is just middle class cruelty.

But mine genuinely love them!

My dc asked me to do this last term. I called their bluff and took carrot sticks. No word of a lie-they ate them as if they hadn't eaten for weeks, thanked me profusely and said they were the nicest carrot sticks they'd ever had .
Turns out they were really hungry. So I do tend to take them a small snack-carrot/peppers/Apple/cracker and cheese etc. it seems to be the best time of day to get healthy food into them

id have a balance I don't think its wrog to bring a snack.even if a grabful of nuts or roasted veggie crips or fruit.
that a child asking for a snack.and who cares if its bout loving a snack from mum on way home rather than hunger.if you don't do it shes just being denied a nice thing to do.having a small something as long as its in balance with the rest of her day wont harm her.
make it healthy then riday something treat like.
all this no snacking or not hungry when eating crap.shes a child.we all love to eat as kids.we aren't screwed up then.so what.its bout the rest of the time.eating in balance as a family and she wont be gorging or becoming obese or over eater.she will yearn for less and want to be sneaky for less.becasue food is just a nice thing
its not warrented on anything so she will learn to eat for hunger and for just loving food not for being good or bad.foood shouldn't be good or bad just balanced and natural.