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?

If they're going to eat crap at secondary school age cathf then it makes all the more reason to give them a healthy diet whilst you do still have influence over their diet.

crackers and humanoid
Almost wetting my pants laughing, no pelvic floor at all, see.

Crackers and humanoid sounds like a very filling snack.

Have school dinners gotten smaller then? As I remember them being too big for me to finish when I was in primary school. DD's school has a good system, they serve themselves their food and are encouraged to take a small portion first and then can take seconds etc.

Having some lovely humanoid right now, with toast (having difficulty keeping my pants dry, laughing so much).

My year 3 gets given a piece of fruit and a bun which he can have at break/on way home. If he has anything else he wouldn't eat his tea.

My eldest used to get a snacky treat on the way home on a Friday, but other than that he used to wait until he got home from school. YANBU to make her wait until you get home.

I pick my 5yo up with an apple or carrot sticks or little pot with grapes. It makes her more manageable and less hangry! I hope that by 9 she would be able to wait until she got home. Maybe take a drink of water for her? Quite often my dd needs pints of it after school as she forgets to drink in the day, which makes her grumpy and feel hungry when she isn't.

So much depends on the situation and background.

Mychildren get a treat on pick up every day. A cake or a biscuit or similar.

They eat veg and fruit until it's coming out of their ears. They do not stop moving. My son is an excellent swimmer at seven and true sportsmen. My daughter is a gymnast and swimmer.

I had a mother very very relaxed about sweet stuff. I had a cake, biscuits, crisps every day I reckon. I grew up in the 80s. I'm 5'7, 8 stone, work out at least 5 times a week and i would honestly say my favourite food is fruit and fresh steamed veg with a juicy grilled salmon fillet. This is me...

So in this context, I am happy with a bit of junk every day. For me and my children because we are very slim, healthy and active.

If we were overweight and / inactive, I may reconsider.

Its a terrible habit to get into, and eating in the street is horrible.

I really judge the parents of children (esp overweight ones) that I see stuffing food into their faces as they walk along the pavement.

I think a lot of the 'obesity epidemic' is down to simple overeating - a calorie surplus, even if through overeating of super healthy food will still result in obesity.

...I think a 'treat' consumed at home while sitting at the table to appreciate it is a very different thing from mindlessly shovelling it in while still walking home.

I have always done this. Got the idea from another parent when dd was little when we had tantrums all the way home. We walked 20 minutes too and it did make it far more pleasant.

Dd grew out of it in year 5 or 6. Ds, now in year 4, still has it. Neither child is fat or has bad teeth. I get one other parent being a bit sniffy about it (first on about 8 years) because it makes her children ask for one, I suppose.

But parents have to deal with other parents having different ways of doing things. This is the really bizarre thing, imo, how some get surprised or upset over things like this. Look at it this way, it's good prep for when they are teens and some are allowed to smoke, drink and have sex at 14. You will really wish to be worried about a box of pringles then.

I actually had no idea anyone thought eating in the street is a bad thing. Some foods are meant to be eaten in the street, like an ice cream. Ok it would be a bit weird to walk along gobbling up a plate of pasta with a fork, but why shouldn't you eat a snack? Also why is it "mindless" to eat while walking along but if you sit at the table to eat you'll have some kind of Proustian insight into your rice cake. How ridiculous. I'm capable of appreciating food while also being outdoors.

Proustian insight LOL

Mine don't get anything at school. If I'm on the ball and dinner is due at 5, they get nothing until then (and rarely ask tbh). If it's going to be closer to 6, they may have a small snack at 4 to keep them going.

I'm surprised at the number of people who give snacks after school as a matter of course. Mine eat lunch starting at 12.30 so at school pick up time they've not even gone 3 hours without eating, probably 2.5 hours since finishing lunch.

If they were starving every day at 3.20 I'd be more inclined to look at the quality and quantity of their lunch tbh rather than taking them snacks.

I don't get the angst around children snacking after school.

I was at primary in the early nineties and stayed to after-school club. We had lunch at 12, and didn't finish school until 4. Everyone who stayed after school got toast, fruit, biscuits and squash or milk. I then had a proper dinner at home around 6.30pm.

I also wouldn't want to be eating fruit from a lunchbox that hasn't been refrigerated for eight hours either. Lunchboxes smell and make everything unwrapped taste odd, in my opinion. My parents always put fruit in my lunchbox and it always returned uneaten even though I happily ate it fresh at home. I just hated the taste.

if you sit at the table to eat you'll have some kind of Proustian insight into your rice cake

They definitely don't need a snack straightaway. However, I always take a drink each for them. My kids always seem to be thirsty after school.

I try to give mine something quite healthy when they've arrived home. A sandwich, hummus and pitta or fruit. That keeps them going until they have their evening meal.

And then they hit secondary school, and all the careful off-home-site nutrition gets blown to shit. Even in the yummiest of middle-class families, the children are chugging and scoffing and slurping empty calories in the street, then brushing away all evidence before going home.

And then they hit secondary school, and all the careful off-home-site nutrition gets blown to shit.

Pretty much! I used to work in an ASDA near three local secondaries and a college. Teens would come in and buy 16 chicken fillets, chips, drumsticks, wings, sausage rolls...and that was just from the hot food counter! It cost maybe £2-3 a day which I can imagine is normal amounts of lunch money for teens.

Spot on Eyes.

I was ravenous after school ended as a child. And then I would get tired and grumpy. I had an apple to eat on the way home. No need for crisps or chocolate. All these parents who are refusing their children´s very reasonable requests for an after school snack - I wonder if these will be the kids who rebel when they get to their teens and munch their way through family sized packets of crisps and chocolate every afternoon?

I don't think most people are refusing a snack just thinking it should be eaten sat down (either at home or at the park. ....)

Nobody will like me but I generally can't stand people eating in the street. School gates included.

I wouldn't take the snack but I'm that parent 😂

Well, something has to be blamed for the obesity crisis amongst children which we hear about on the news. I too cannot understand the 'snacking' culture - what is wrong with kids feeling really hungry for their evening meal and eating it all, rather than dampening their appetites with snacks which take the edge off?