To find the obsession with snacks weird

[yipyipyop]

I've noticed in recent years lots parents seem to think their children can't survive a few minutes without a snack. We live a 5 min walk from school so I don't but parents with a similar commute seem to have a bag full of snacks they're handing out. It just seems over the top

It's recommended for growing children to eat snacks as well as meals. Even if the child lives 5 minutes away from home, does it really matter if they have their snack on the walk home or when they get home? Maybe they are going straight to an after school activity etc as well.

Mine is only 2 and wouldn't manage without snacks. He even has a light dinner at nursery and then dinner with us at home too.

I always carry snacks and water because otherwise the kids get hungry and I have to buy food when we're out. All healthy, slim, active kids.

And snacks have always 'been a thing.' They were a thing when I was young, and they were a thing when my parents were young, according to my grandparents. Kids get hungry; this is not a modern phenomenon.

We have a 15 minute walk home from school and more often than not DD2 will ask for a snack. She didn’t when she was on packed lunches but now she’s on school dinners she seems to need one. I think the school dinners are a fairly small size, if she has the sandwich option it’s literally a sandwich, bit of salad and the pudding, whereas the packed lunch would have had fruit and yogurt as well. Plus she’s in reception and they eat at 11:30. It probably wouldn’t be necessary if they had their fruit and milk snack in the afternoon but they have that at 10, which seems daft with lunch so soon after and then nearly 4 hours until the end of the day. DD1 has packed lunches and never needs one.

I'm a snacker, I have snacks at 11am, 2pm, 4pm and usually some time before bed if I've eaten early (before 8, which is early for me, Southern European habits).
I give my child similarly timed snacks, though it's always healthy stuff for both of us - a variety of fruit, yoghurt, raisins, nuts, oat cakes, rice cakes etc.
The whole family are slim, we just seem to burn off calories quickly and get hungry often. I don't understand those who say they don't snack, say you have your breakfast at 7, lunch at 12 and dinner at 6, that's a gap of 4 and 6 hours between meals, wouldn't you be starving? Unless you've eaten a huge amount of food at each meal, which is actually not good for you, it's healthier to eat moderate quantities often.

A healthy snack after school always really helped DS when he was little. It's a long time between 12 o'clock lunch and a 6 o'clock dinner.

School tell us to bring something for the little ones right after school. It's like when breastfeeding, little and often because they don't naturally overeat to fuel up for later. KS2 they suddenly start being able to wait.

My memories of the 1980s involved being thirsty and hungry a lot.

I take a small something, as we a long walk home, but not if we take the bus, which takes 20 mins.
I think taking snacks for a 5 min walk would be ridiculous, but I rarely notice what other parents and their children are doing, never mind what they're feeding them.
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@Biffbaff may I ask how your occupy your toddler at mum and baby fitness classes? I would argue that actually an hour is quite a long time to contain a toddler and alongside colouring and stickers, a snack box of bread sticks and fruit allows me to actually get a workout done!

I agree. I'm sure it's related to the obesity crisis.

It's also really difficult for dc with food allergies. Food is present everywhere all the bloody time.

And the walking round while eating! Urgh!

Yeah this. I'm hoping we can move away from this when they go to school, I had never heard of "morning snack" before my kids went to nursery. Or afternoon snack + tea in the middle of the afternoon!

(Edit: I'm not British though)

We live 7 minutes walk from school so I resisted bringing snacks… but my kid doesn’t always eat enough lunch and is easier to get home if she has a tiny boost. The biggest issue is that when I’m the parent who doesn’t bring snacks her friends’ parents take pity on her and she ends up eating everyone else’s and I feel guilty :(

I was never brought up to constantly snack. We were allowed to have something when we got home from school but that was it.

My school rules actually forbade eating in the streets in school uniform and if you were caught it was an order mark or detention for repeat offenders!

I brought my own children up much the same. Snacks definitely not the norm.

Mine have a snack after school because they have lunch at 12 and dinner isn’t until 7.30 when they’ve finished their after school activities. Also the school dinner portions (primary) are tiny.

When they get home though, not actually on the walk home.

YANBU, it's ridiculous.

Lots of kids are being brought up to believe they can't do a 20 minute or half an hour journey home from school without a snack 🙄

But then again, when someone starts a thread asking how to keep their child quiet during a wedding or an appointment, or journey for example, they'll often be advised to 'take plenty of snacks to occupy them'.

So they learn to connect snacking with everything from boredom to mild hunger.

Hunger is a natural feeling, not the enemy.

another 70s baby, admittedly a skinny precious only one, I had a substantial after school snack, things like a home made banana milkshake and a sandwich, then dinner, e.g. chicken, rice and vegetables, then pre bed snack of cocoa and two jacobs cream crackers with marmite. It sounds a lot but the portions were small and I was hungry, and it was rarely much sugar. Always been skinny and still am and have always snacked. however don't eat much unhealthy stuff. I think snacks for kids are great but they should be healthy ones, like fruit, a small sandwich, milk etc. I gave my kids a lot of oatcakes, fruit etc and seemed to be OK. Of course now they're teens they eat a lot of junk but the healthy stuff as well. I've given up nagging tho.

I think it might be because school dinners are so small. My GC always come out of school starving. I always take snacks when I pick them up it makes our lives easier! I never did with my own children when snacks weren't a thing. But they did always have something to eat as soon as they got home
They are very healthy and active children and not overweight so I don't see the issue.

YANBU. That's why people are so overweight - continually stuffing their faces.

The food industry has done a brilliant job at 'selling' snacks as essentials.

For the vast majority of people including children they just aren't needed with the exception of medical conditions etc obviously

A life without snacks sounds depressing af. I'm so glad I wasn't brought up by the food police.

People seem to forget that snacks can be healthy too. It's like the people who think iPads for children = games with paedos, when they could just as easily read or listen to a book on them.

Surely whether it’s ‘needed’ depends on what time you have your meals? Dinner at 7.30 after lunch at 12 is a long time for kids to go without food, they only have small stomachs. We can’t physically manage dinner earlier because of work/after school activities etc, so they have a snack (cheese and crackers or something) at 4.

I don't think school lunches are too small considering they'll get a dessert too, and then be expected to go outside and play/exercise.

I think what's happened is other meals have become much bigger, and that's what makes them look small.

When I worked in a primary school, some of the packed lunches the kids took were like banquets and more than many adults could eat in the middle of the day.

primary school dinners are much smaller than they used to be. My youngest is a teenager now but I will always remember her being given one fishfinger and three chips for lunch in reception. We had a 20 minute uphill walk home from school so i always took a snack.

It was the same 20 years ago when mine were young. Snacks all the time. I don’t get it.

It’s very odd.