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

Me too. I remember illicitly drinking out of the taps in the bathrooms. I'm terrible at recognising when I am thirsty now, and rarely remember to drink enough water.

Yes op! It's mad..my niece and nephews have no off button for food. They constantly need to be eating something.. I remember them trying to explain the concept of 'second breakfast ' to me. Wtf.

Thinking back to my own childhood, I had cereal for breakfast, for lunch at school at 12pm, I had 4 cream crackers with cheese, an apple and a small biscuit bar.

When I got home (20 min school bus journey) I got two custard creams. . Then had dinner at 5pm and that was it til the cereal the next day.... what am I missing ? We weren't malnourished?! 😂

The idea that we constantly need to eat drives my barmy. Very few of us are very thin, we can cope for 4-6 hours between meals. Even my carbs monster teenager is fine without snacks - they do need 3 square meals a day though, or they tend to get shouty (very busy growing).

As a 60s child we had breakfast, a small bottle of milk mid morning, a substantial two course school lunch and I was still absolutely ravenous after school. I can’t see much difference between having a snack on the way home, or one after getting home as I did. We didn’t have our evening meal until both parents were home from work. Having a snack to eat on the way home would have been lovely, although we all walked home by ourselves from the age of 5 or 6. There were water fountains in school so we were not dehydrated.

My DC would also get home feeling very hungry after school or activities so had a snack straight away. If I collected them in the car I would take something with me. They still had plenty of room for their evening meal. At home, I would give them a snack of fruit and bread and butter mid morning as they were early risers.

Surely, there is no correlation with snacks and on demand breast feeding, as a pp mentioned? Or weight gain for that matter. My DC eat pretty healthily as adults and we have always been a slim family. It is overall diet and intake plus other factors to do with metabolism which matter. It seems rather unfair to judge people based on seeing them having a snack or giving one to their children.

I live quite near a school, & I notice it's always the fat kids that are eating.

Or it's confirmation bias and you're just more likely to notice a ''fat kid'' who dares to eat after school.

Mine has a snack after school, but of seen kids being handed snacks as the leave the classroom when they live the same 10 minute distance away. Maybe their kids winge more.. I'd probably so the same for a bit of peace tbh

When I first met my sc they expected to have
Breakfast
Mid morning snack
Lunch with pudding
Afternoon snack
Evening meal with pudding
Supper

I soon put a stop to that! My kids and I eat 3 meals a day and the very occasional snack but not often.

I blame nurseries too. Sc was in them full time from a few months old.

Fashion designer Bella Freud posted on insta the other week about the food philosophy in her house as a child, it was a very “dry ingredients” household, there was no easy snacking food, and every meal would take hours on end to cook arduously from scratch. It led to disordered eating, gorging herself and having to lie under the dinner table after meals because she was stuffed and completely unable to moderate herself because food felt so scarce, and she used to beg for snacks and do sad eyes until her school friends felt sorry for her and gave her some of the prized “snack” food from her lunchbox.

Also lots of children’s continence issues (past the usual age of toilet training) related to dehydration which plays havoc with the bladder and bowel! Our bodies do need water!

My kids are young, 2 and 5. They definitely need more than 3 meals a day- usually 4 meals and maybe a snack.
Breakfast
First lunch 1130 (matches school lunch for the younger/ they also get a banana and biscuit on arrival), older eats at 1045 and 1230 at school)
snack around 315 - main meal if DH is working at the office/snack if he’s WFH
Dinner served sometime between 530 and 630. (Or else porridge and fruit at 630 if we had main meal early)
When dinner is on the early side or if they didn’t like it I’ll do porridge right before bed. Otherwise offer a banana or similar. They are awful if I try to put them to bed hungry.

At most one of those is a processed snacky food. Breakfast is cereal or toast, lunch is pasta, leftovers or sandwiches, main meal is usually a curry or tray bake. Then a snacky meal like cheese and toast, cheese and fruit, yogurt, peanut butter on rice cakes. If I want a treat that’s the time I’d do biscuits or crisps or some chocolate.

On the weekends we do snack a lot if we do a day out. Pulling out crackers, cheese and fruit endlessly because we often eat breakfast at home and then might not have a sit down meal till 4 or 5.

The big difference I see from my childhood is that we might know 1-2 families per year who had individual packaged snack or got things like oreos daily.

DC1 would leave primary school incandescent with hangry rage. We considered all possible reasons until low blood sugar was casually suggested by an SMSA. That was it. A little pack of raisins in the lunch box for after school sorted it.

My MIL is the worst. The kids can't go to the park for 30 minutes without her packing yogurts, biscuits, crackers, sometimes even sandwiches, abd this is just after they've had lunch!
I don't think it's good to be constantly eating. I generally give my children one snack a day between lunch and dinner. They're usually ravenous when they come in from school so I give them a hot chocolate and snack.

Second breakfast is a Tolkien reference, it was eaten by hobbits. Embarrassing for you.

Why embarrassing? 😳

I pick my DS up with a snack, and I live 10 mins away from school. I'm not obsessed with snacks. I don't think he'll perish without one, and I don't spend a lot of money on them (usually it's a piece of fruit or jam and bread). I do it because it's easier and more convenient if he eats on the way home, as we have dinner early at 4.30. if he's eating a snack when we get in, after washing hands and taking shoes off and so on, it will be too close to dinner. He also walks home faster with a snack.

I think lunch break in school is different now.

Some of our youngest ones go through at 11.30 and they rush to get out to play so don't eat much and they aren't encouraged to eat more.

Because she tried to use it as an example of her Niece and Nephews fat fuck status, but it’s actually a literature reference that went straight over her head in her haste to judge.

Yeah, mine get barely any time to eat.

Yanbu- I’ve been roasted on here though for trying to stop other parents giving (or the PTA selling!) my kids sweets and cakes at home time. As toddlers sure, little snacks ( not adult sized), but by school most should be able to make it home (not met with a two pack of donuts 🍩🍩👀)

Assuming the children were Tolkien fans 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I know it was a literature reference but I don't get why it's embarrassing that she didn't recognise it?

Not everyone likes Tolkien.

One of my DCs was always exhausted and miserable after school (has now moved schools and comes home happy). I took snacks to distract him I suppose. He looked forward to them ( and it was a lot harder to walk home if I forgot). Plus, school lunches were tiny portions and they didn’t get much time to eat it (problem solved when we moved schools).

I have an adult dc and many parents took a bag of sweets for pick up when they were young. Usually haribo / mix up / bakery item

I don't take one to school but they do have a snack when home. Sometimes fruit or something, sometimes cookie. Whatever they want. They always eat their tea .

Are people really 'baffled' by children having snacks mid morning and afternoon? This was always a thing when I was a child (80's) - juice and biscuits for 'elevenses', piece of fruit/ bread and butter/ cake after school, milk and biscuit before bed.

Every training course I've ever been on offers drinks and snacks at the morning and afternoon break. Everyone is different, I'd much rather have smaller meals and top up with a snack than have big meal and feel too full.

I’m a grazer, I hate feeling overly full and post-prandial after an enormous meal, or even an average sized one.