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

My school had similar rules and we were all terrified of the headmistress so we complied (she also banned patent shoes because they reflected your knickers!).
I think that the French have it right. Food is eaten at a table at meal times plus an afternoon snack (le goute) keeps children going between lunch and dinner. Walking down the street shoving a Greggs sausage roll in your mouth would definitely be frowned on; DD1 spent a year in France as part of her degree and she and I had to educate DH that when we bought a take away wrap for lunch, we needed to find somewhere to sit to eat it.

I don't understand the problem here. Breakfast in the UK is a little bowl of cereal, no wonder they need a snack after.

I have two boys who are tall and energetic. Why is everyone so angry that they got a bagel at nursery?

It's new since I was a kid, but not that recent. I used to take my kids to soft play about 20 years ago and other parents would often be giving their kids sticky juice or crumbly snacks in the play area, like they couldn't go for an hour without something to eat and drink .

a ham and cheese toastie is a meal! not a snack! Loads of calories

For adults and to be fair one ham and cheese toast is on its own never killed anyone! The kids play chasing and football daily, they burn through them (my kids are slim btw).

At my son's nursery it is morning snack 10am, lunch 12pm, afternoon snack 2pm and light tea/dinner at 4pm. Breakfast is 7-8am depending on when they are dropped off.

morning snacks are usually fruit with breadsticks/rice cakes, afternoon snacks are usually various veggies with cream cheese/hummus etc, lunch is usually the 'big' meal of the day so the usual curry with rice, dahl with naan etc followed by fruit or natural yogurt with fruit and dinner is usually something light such as beans on toast, various wraps with salad etc followed by fruit.

Mine will then eat dinner at 5 and a light supper with a cup of milk before bed at 7.

Exactly! I don't deny my pets access to fresh drinking water at all times so why would I for my children?! I prefer mine to drink little and often throughout the day too rather than gulp a big load down in one go or even worse leave it til bedtime and keep pestering for more and water at bedtime!

As for the snacks, I'm a grazer and my DC are. Fruit and veg, babybel, breadsticks. Shock horror a packet of crisps or some biscuits. Id rather some random judge me than be dealing with a hangry toddler!
Mine don't have a pick of fat on them and seeing us out and about you're just getting a snapshot of the day- you don't know how long it's going to be until we're home, or how healthy they've eaten across the rest of the day.

Snacking isn't a new invention...

Afternoon tea...elevenses... All snacks that have been around for 100s of years

TBF I blame school for this.

My DS's school has a toast and milk break at around 10am, fruit snack around 11ish lunch at 12.30, fruit snack again around 1.30ish then home time at 3.15. If you go to ASC, you're expected to send snacks there too, so DS also needs a snack around 4pm (as he would at after school club) before tea at 5.30.

At weekends we don't do that many snacks breaks!

My daughter was like an antichrist when she came out of school - mainly because she'd usually been too busy talking to eat her lunch. Snacks were the only way to survive the 30 minute car journey home.

OP, you'd hate me, DD5 has an apple and a cheese roll and a biscuit immediately after school and then goes on to eat her dinner at 5:30.

This I remember queuing for the drinking fountain and only being allowed a quick sip because of the queue. Happened often. I also remember being starving hungry coming out of primary school. In the end my mum started to bring fruit. But I was famished, and then it was a mile or so walk home. Snacks are a big part of weaning nowadays, so NHS advised! I don't think snacking itself is a problem, more the what and when.

Street food "snacks" have a history going back thousands of years anyway.
If you're a 3 meals a day person then good for you. I know someone who is very rigid about this though and will rather starve and be all cranky rather than grabbing something when out and about as they wait until they get home.
I feel ill if I get too hungry.
I don't really eat an evening meal though. Breakfast, a hearty lunch and a variety of snacks suits me perfectly.

Yanbu this is an issue when I'm taking my kids out for the day or an activity with other families

It’s common (most common I would say) for children to be natural grazers and not big meal eaters. I think it can be common to bring snacks to school because they are tired, depleted and often have not eaten very well at lunchtime since they are left to their own devices. There’s nothing wrong with eating small and frequently throughout the day if that’s what comes easiest.

I lived in France in the 80s and the children there always had "gouter", a kind of snack meal at around 4pm. Then ate their dinner at around 7pm.

This is what we do. A decent snack when they get home from school, then dinner at 7-7.30pm.

My kids are hungry all the time and get really low on energy if they don't have snacks. Both very slim.

I usually give dd (almost 3) an afternoon snack as we like to have dinner with dh so can be at like 6ish.

Im all for snacks but I always find it shocking at playgroup the amount of mums filling their kids with packets of crisps/crackers, then when playgroup serve their snack fill the kids bowls so much there’s barely any left for the other children (no 2 year old needs 5 nice biscuits, half a banana, grapes and crackers for a snack, especially after a packet of crisps)

Well the Mumsnet I am on accuses anyone who isn’t a size 14 of ‘living off of lettuce leaves’, not having a real woman’s body, not being attractive to men who like ‘curves’ (MN speak for rolls of fat) and ‘competitive under-eating’ - funny how we all see it different isn’t it?

Totally agree. Massive bags of snacks just for a morning out. I really don’t get it unless someone has diabetes etc. We would get something as kids if we had walked to the shop etc, and things like crisps were in cupboards but if you ate more than two packets it would have been commented on… no wonder so many people are obese now, setting in habits of constantly eating and tasks revolving around eating from an early age.

This I remember queuing for the drinking fountain and only being allowed a quick sip because of the queue.
oh my god yes the queue for the water fountain!!!!!!!

Little and often is a perfectly acceptable way to eat. For many, it's more natural and healthy than three big meals a day. Personally I think the idea that "three square meals a day and no snacks" is the only correct way to eat belongs in the past together with all that plate-clearing nonsense. It's the size and content of snacks and meals which is the issue, not necessarily their frequency.

The best tip I ever heard was to give the kids whatever veg (plus/minus a protein) they were having for lunch and dinner as the morning and afternoon snacks. That way if they don’t eat as much at the main meal they’ve already had their veg, if they eat it all then they get double helping, there’s no need to think about another food source and it prevents being over hungry and cranky before meal times.

My 1 year old would get extremely grumpy between 7 and 12 and then 12 and 5 without a snack now milk is minimal in the day. They burn so much energy constantly it’s not really surprising I don’t think?

Snacks aren’t really a thing in my house. I try to make life as easy and flexible as possible and to me, they’re an unnecessary overhead that I avoid. If we are going out and about and don’t have clear plans for dinner/tea, I would take fruit/yoghurt/cereal bars just in case. And to be honest, I don’t see how there is time to fit in snacks between meals (DC is a toddler). I would either be giving it to close to the last meal, or too close to the next one 🤷🏻‍♀️

My eldest is 10 and may have to force her to have a snack sometimes as she does a lot of sport and needs the fuel. To be honest she wouldn't eat meals if it was down to her, she doesn't ever seem to feel hungry.

My youngest is 7 and small for his age (height and weight) and is more of a grazer. He prefers to have smaller meals and snacks in between. His BMI teeters between ok and underweight so if he wants to eat we let him.