Endless snacking

[Hihosilver123]

I find it interesting how some parents feel the need to constantly feed their children. Amongst school parents (primary) there seems to be a high level of anxiety if the children don’t have a snack at playtime. Surely children can survive from breakfast to lunch? It’s ok for them to be hungry for a bit, as lunch approaches, isn’t it? It’s the same with water bottles. Children don’t need to be endlessly sucking on a water bottle do they? Perhaps I’m old fashioned but snacking was not a thing when we were kids. We just ate at mealtimes, which included tea after school and then an evening meal.

What’s a play piece??

It must have only been about three days since the last thread about how awful snacking is

Anyway, I'm in my mid thirties and we always had squash and a biscuit during morning break in primary school. In secondary, the tuck shop did a roaring trade in chocolate and crisps.

My parents told me stories of snacks after school too - it's hardly a new phenomenon.

I'm a 70s child. We had a full on tuck shop at my Welsh junior school (in the early 80s) which every child would make full use of at playtime. I can vividly remember the thrill of graduating from infants school (where only crisps were allowed as a break-time snack) to juniors (where it seemed a complete free for all in comparison with sweets allowed as well as crisps).

Highland Toffee was 5p, boiled-sweet blackcurrant lollies 3p, packet of crisps 4p.

Long queues for tuck every single day and such great excitement if a half-sucked blackcurrant lolly was ever left in someone's traditional wooden desk overnight by mistake - the classroom would be swimming with ants the next day and we thought that was marvellous

I remember bitterly resenting my (lovely and very sensible) DM who allowed us 5p each on Fridays only and sent us with boring old fruit for snack time the other 4 days of the week!

Can you imagine the absolute horror now if any of the above were allowed?

Snacking has always always ALWAYS been a thing. The difference now is that healthy snacking is seen as very much the norm and the kind of tuck shop snacking I grew up with would be seen as neglectful/abusive.

Little snack for playtime. Usually bag of crisps or something like a Kit Kat/fudge etc and a drink.

@FlyingPandas
Highland toffees. I'd forgotten those.

I used to have 20p and the joy of choosing what to have. 20 penny sweets, or a bag of crisps and a drink? I loved the liquorice Catherine wheels for 2p. We used to unroll them and make necklaces out of them-before eating them.

Can you imagine the absolute horror now if any of the above were allowed?
It always amuses me when the schools talk about the obesity crisis and how they're banning such things-and I think, well if you look at the 80s where we had tuckshops and no obesity crisis, then maybe banning all junk food round children isn't really the answer.

It was also good for children learning about finances. Making the choices, and maybe keeping 2p for the next day so you could get something special-or you forgot your money and went without negotiated a form of loan from a friend (if you'll buy me 3 aniseed balls and a sugar mouse, then I'll buy you a packet of monster munch tomorrow)
Lots of maths and money going into that.
Plus the year 6s who were in charge of selling. I think the year 6s even had input into what to order next time at our school.

I do think our dc miss out on things like that.

God yes. I remember taking fizzy pop to school in a flask once. It didn't end well.
You drank water from the fountain if you were desperate or fancied a walk.
It's my mum's fault every meal I eat has to have a pudding of some sort. We were trained from childhood. Viscount, club or trio after lunch. Semolina or cake or hobnobs after tea. Then supper, toast or cereal.

Then in high school, it was a visit to the sweet shop before or after school, the aforementioned shit in school and fizzy drinks at lunch. Can't remember when I started drinking water instead of juice. Probably when I was a student and had to pay for my own!

I find it less odd in school children (who can’t choose when to eat as they have a rigid timetable) than I do with adults. You go to the theatre and there’s constant rustling and chewing nowadays. Can a grown adult not desist from eating for (max) 90 minutes? I find that very odd. A kid with a banana at 10.30 having had to have breakfast at 7 and a set lunchtime? Seems perfectly reasonable.

What I don't get is giving a toddler a snack in a 40-45minute class... surely they can last til the end of the class?!

Snacking is always a contentious subject, but wtf is wrong with children staying properly hydrated by "endlessly sucking on a water bottle" as you so delightfully put it??? Don't you have a hobby you could do or something instead of knitting your thong over some children drinking water?

A snack for playtime (in Scotland).

I would rather have 5 small snacks a day than main meals and my youngest is the same , everyone eats differently

It can be more about teaching them how to sit with others nicely and sharing. It’s helpful to some children who will be more likely to try new foods if they see lots of other children doing it. It’s not as silly as you may think.

We never had snacks at primary school, warm rancid milk but no food. Also, in the 70s a family would share one bag of sweets at the cinema and there was no snacks in the evening. Well, unless you count a biscuit before bed.

Sure the obsession with snacking is adding to the obesity crisis.

I grew up during rationing. Snacks were not available. Very few fat people around, but generally people were well-nourished.

Sooo..you had a snack...

I'm on the fence with snacking. But I think that the better hydration is something to embrace. It's much better for us. Every generation has its lifestyle downfalls, food is ours. It's better for our children than the over drinking, or smoking iswas in the 70's. My GM (born 1910) used to talk about the Opium addiction in her day.

🤣 yes, I felt I had to put that in there for full disclosure, but just one biscuit after school, at home from the biscuit tin. Now some kids come for playdates and are used to having a plate of a selection of fruit, crackers, snacks at pick up, snacks brought to the park, snack variety.

They certainly had snacks at primary in some schools in the 70s, my brother took at snack for break time. I was at primary in the 80s and it was crisps, you could take your own or buy them at school. We’ve never been overweight.

And of course a biscuit before bed is a snack. 😂 Why would it not count?

Primary schools now tend to insist on a healthier snack than crisps.

I was born in the 80s. We ate breakfast, elevenses, lunch, high tea, supper. So maybe no snacks, but 5 meals 😉

And we didn't have lunch either . Maybe something like a croissant for some and as teenagers we'd just buy a pastry or bagel from the shop. A lot of us didn't have breakfast either as we started school so early.

I bet you wouldn't want that for your children now , just because it happened once upon a time in a land far away.

Oh , and I ended up fat anyways.

I was born mid 80s and we had a 'tuck shop' at school where we brought cheap monster munch etc as a snack and had sweets after school before tea. I think the snacks kids get now are far better. People have always snacked, there's no moral high ground for being hungry between meals.

I usually eat breakfast around 6.30am, snack at around 10am, lunch around midday. DC snack too. I am overweight, but DC are all very thin.

Oh goody, another one of these threads 🙄

All my DC have had a play piece for school. I had one too years ago.

Think, as a teacher the dc do really need a snack at early break. But a healthy one. Otherwise around 12 they really begin to droop. Often they have half their lunch then and the rest at next break giving them a longer playtime and no big hunger issues. They eat so slowly as busy chatting too. I am in lreland so no school dinners in my school. But there is a healthy eating policy.
When l was in school we had an early start with a big breakfast of porridge/ eggs..proper meal. Then no snacks until lunchtime. Now l feel children are rushing more in the morning with both dps trying to get out to work, dropping little ones to creche etc so breakfast may not be as substantial. Also in school it gives a nice pause in the day and they are ready to go again afterwards. But it's essential it's a healthy one.
As for the water bottles they do annoy me but as a person who could forget to drink all day they are probably the wise ones. Once a doctor couldn't take a blood sample from me as l was so dehydrated even though l felt fine. I have to very consciously remember to drink.