To cancel the traditional sugar fest at Brownies.

[SoddingSoda]

I started volunteering at a Brownie unit around a year ago after moving back to the area. I absolutely love the girls and how enthusiastic they are, and also the other fellow leader/parent helpers are fantastic. In the summer term I took over the unit as the leader in charge stepped down due to family commitments but still continues to attend most weeks.

Last year when I joined the end of term party went a little like this:
-Girls came in with their contribution to the party food. Someone passed me a bottle of cherryade (I honestly thought they stopped making this stuff in the 90s!!) and I hid it under the table. Then another parent came in with another two bottles of pop.

i made the food into a spread and the girls helped themselves. But the pop was still hidden as I honestly thought that kids didn't drink that stuff/parents wouldn't be too impressed if I poured it out. I must admit I felt uncomfortable serving it when the leader asked what had happened to it (I did ask each child if they were allowed to drink it at home before giving them a glass).

The girls had piles of party rings, jammy dodgers, sweets, watits, skips with one of those nasty tinned dog dogs etc all washed down with a cup of cherryade and coke.

Que absolute mayhem, imagine an American Black Friday sale. Girls not listening to instructions, running around, back chatting, being nasty to each other, not just having fun but being absolute nightmares. An hour later the girls are whining, getting hurt (not listening and messing around), crying for no real reason (struggling with the craft cause two to burst into tears) and just having a total come down. It. Was. Hell.

Now, not wanting to go into detail the other leader's daughter is the worst behaved and her ADHD is easily aggravated by junky food. If it was any other girl at brownies i would have called her parents to pick her up as a) I don't want to be held responsible b) gets aggressive with the others c) is just a plain nightmare. On most nights she can be kept engaged with 'being the helper' but after tonn loads of junk it's impossible but so are most of the other kids. See this is the problem if I write a nice little letter asking the parents to only send party food with the first three ingredients being 'natural' and no fizzy/artificial colours the other leader just doesn't get it. I don't want to be the leader who comes from out of town and kills the 60 year tradition but I just don't agree of giving kids pure shit. I wouldn't eat that stuff, nor let my kids eat it so why would I let other kids in my care eat it. It's a small village, and it seems that not much has changed in the last 100 years. So in my opinion nothing will unless small changes are made for the next generation. I guess I've answer my own AIBU but if I am being AIBU please be nice haha.

Jon - you think type 2 diabetes isn't going to cause the NHS to collapse? Think again, love!

Metabolic syndromes in general are killing us and our beloved healthcare system. And sugar is right up there as a major cause.

This is a MASSIVE issue for the western world.

I’ve seen it done before where a list is put up of what food is needed and everyone signs up to bring something.

This is what we do at swimming club.

So you can list plates of sandwiches and filling, sausage rolls, veg sticks, crisps biscuits etc.
State that the brownie pack will provide the drinks and then do jugs of squash.

I feel desperately sorry for fat children actually. Their health is being damaged permanently and there is fuck all I can do about it.

When I see threads like this I wonder why our parties in the 80s weren't just chaos

Because as others have pointed out witchend. This isn't a sugar/food problem. This is a discipline one.

It seems like the girls don't respect the OPs authority, and so will behave how they like.
At my secondary school, the girls always played up for the Languages teacher (I went to an all girls school I'm not picking), because the poor sod had no authority or any idea of how to control the class. There was no sugar involved in the languages class, just kids with zero respect.

It is quite possible to have authority without coming across as mean or aggressive, some adults have it, some haven't. I've witnessed my DDs Yr6 as quite as a mouse teacher make a group of misbehaving boys settle down without even raising their voice.

I didn't drink coke at brownies parties in the 80s. We drank it once a month as a treat.

So it's just fat people you have a hatred for then? Not smokers and alcoholics? Not suprised at the double standards.

However, one of mine becomes utterly unmanageable after significant quantities of sugar.
You can quote studies all you like at me - as her mother, I know her very well!
The parents in the film i linked to thought they knew their children well, but proved to be wrong.

Yanbu.

I manage this at my Rainbow unit by a) buying it all from unit funds (this is what Active Kids cards are made for!) or b) sending a slip home asking each family for a specific item (cheese strings, sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, crisps, party rings, small cakes...) "enough for 3-4 girls". This usually means we don't end up with tons of food left over, and we can control what gets brought in. I just provide squash or water to drink, like every other week.

Why would I hate anyone?

The food industry for fucking around with government policy, maybe?

My worry for the western world's problem worth obesity doesn't mean I hate people

However, one of mine becomes utterly unmanageable after significant quantities of sugar.
You can quote studies all you like at me - as her mother, I know her very well!
The parents in the film i linked to thought they knew their children well, but were proven wrong

^So you can list plates of sandwiches and filling, sausage rolls, veg sticks, crisps biscuits etc.
State that the brownie pack will provide the drinks and then do jugs of squash.^

Yes youarenotkiddingme that's a good idea. An old church of mine used to get around it by saying they'd provide food because of health and safety reasons. They'd do lovely mothers day spreads like granola and yoghurt and do healthy spreads for kids Christmas parties etc.

Ask for a a £2 contribution and buy the spread yourself then you can balance it out.

The difference between now an the 80s is the quantities I think. A biscuit and a handful of criss with sandwiches and a well diluted squash compared to handfuls of biscuits, bags of crisps and pizza, nuggets and other such crap.

People in hospital with smoking related illnesses and alcohol dependancy related illnesses are putting just as big a strain on the NHS as fat people too.

The fact you keep willfully omitting that part of my question and keep focusing on fat people putting a strain on the NHS speaks volumes. Not to mention ignoring the fact the NHS was starved of funds in the first place (pun not intended) but let's not let facts get in the way of a good hoiky judgeypants session.

You sound ridiculous, I used to be a Cub Leader and we had parties like this - everyone enjoyed it, great spread of food and any unopened boxes/packets of biscuits etc could be donated to the Food Bank.

You can mildly 'control' it by asking each group to bring something different - like others have suggested and stating that you will provide the drinks (juice or whatever you prefer we had mulled wine for the adults ) but I guess it's the fun of the whole party atmosphere that excites the children, not just a few sweet things.

No need to be so joyless about a Brownie party.

Our school do class Xmas parties. There's a sign up list for bringing specific items (10 paper plates; cheese sandwiches; jam sandwiches; crisps etc) and most items on it could be very low cost if you chose. Works well.
Your letter about natural ingredients would come across patronising and be ignored I'm afraid.
I'd definitely have some organised party games first and food towards the end, like a normal birthday party setup. Make your contribution be making it a more fun evening by organising better (and the sugar police bit could be a byproduct).

SoddingSoda food is usually served at the end of parties. Perhaps try that next time you have a do?

I think another good idea would be to scrap the craft thing? It's not everyone's cup of tea.

I'd love it if you were my brownie leader :)
Maybe turn it into a party food making party and ask for sandwich ingredients and fruit for fruit kebabs etc

I feel desperately sorry for fat children actually. Their health is being damaged permanently and there is fuck all I can do about it.

I don’t think the op mentioned “fat children”, did she? And being overweight is not caused from sugary food at parties a few times a year.
Bad eating habits combined with eating far too much and a serous lack of exercise is the bigger problem, for children and adults!

I ate sugary foods, chocolate, ice cream cakes the occasional fizzy pop and takeaway (and still do). But I ate reasonably sized meals for my age, I danced up to 3 times a week through childhood/teens played 2 after school sports and walked to school and back every day of primary and to the bus stop and back at secondary (which was actually longer than the walk to primary)

No issues with my teeth, no fillings etc. And I’m a size 8, I still dance a few times a week and I run and go to the gym a few times a week. I like my food and I don’t make any effort to reduced my intake but like wise I wouldn’t want to constantly eat fatty take away foods.
It’s about balance and teaching children from a young age about good foods, trying new things and coooking good quality meals and enjoying them.

But like I first said the op doesn’t have a food problem she has a behaviour one! The food is an excuse and blame tactic for not being able to control them.

No they didn't emboo19 it was in response to a post of mine, and they didn't like what I said.

But alas some people won't ever RTFT. Even me sometimes.

I'm a beaver leader and last time we had a party we sent out a note asking them to bring in a certain thing and that worked. So a couple of kids bought pizzas, a couple sausage rolls etc and others the sweet stuff and drinks. That way we weren't inundated with only sweet stuff. If you don't want to specify exact food you can say savoury, sweet, drink.

Definitely have the food at the end, then they go home to their parents full of sugar, fizzy drinks and energy!

As for it not being noticeable in the past about sugar highs, my mum used to moan if my brother had had too much, he was off the wall crazy. I'm pretty sure he had ADHD.

I have weird children who puke up if they have more than one fizzy drink, or too many sweets. Of course at parties like that they ignore what I've said about how much they can have, so I have to deal with the consequences later!

I don't think this is a problem with it being a small village where not much has changed. In fact that comment makes you seem very patronising and condescending.Most children's parties still have hot dogs, crisps, sweets and Coke. It's not how they eat the rest of the time.
I also think you haven't taken into account costs. People will bring what they can afford. If you start stipulating certain 'natural' alternatives then some parents won't be able to afford it (and there's also research on the impact of most sugar substitutes that isn't favourable too).
Follow the advice from the more experienced leaders on here and have the food at the end. As a leader, your life will be much smoother if you have the support of the parents rather than positioning yourself as someone who is superior and critical.

To be fair, Jon, we are discussing the merits of brownies consuming cherryade. We aren't discussing them smoking twenty fags a day.

That was why I restricted my comments to obesity

woowoo water is free.

I don't think this is cost. Lazy argument.

Party food then a craft sounds like a nightmare anyway.

Make the craft preparing the food - can make animals with chopped fruit and cocktail sticks and decorate biscuits and such like. Then eat at the end.

Most kids are not actually made “hyper” by sugar but by the party atmosphere and excitement anyway.