AIBU to be furious at holiday club?

[samidolls]

Background- my son is 7, going into yr3 in September. Holiday club is run by the school, and he has attended each year since starting school. Every year previously holiday club has provided breakfast and a snack tea, but parents have had to provide a packed lunch as they don’t have access to the school kitchen.

Yesterday was the first day of this years summer holiday club (for some reason it didn’t open for the first week of the holidays). There has been a new system put in to book places at holiday club, and part of this was an option to pay an extra £1.50 each day for a hot meal.
We specifically did not pick this option as while DS is not a fussy eater he cannot stand potato, and at least 3 of the meals are potato based.
There was no communication of any other changes at all.

DS comes home last night to tell us he was not allowed to eat his packed lunch at lunch time and had a have a hot dinner- which we have not paid for. The meal was jacket potato with beans, and as he doesn’t like potato all he ate was beans!

The staff told him he should have brought two packed lunches, as he needed a second one for tea time. They then gave him his packed lunch at tea time.

I know he hasn’t gone hungry, and that’s not the source of my angry (though it doesn’t help!) but the complete lack of communication?! We would have packed a second lunch if we had only been told about it.

There has not been a single bit of communication about this, I went back and checked booking docs, posters, terms and conditions- nothing.

I should also add that DS is in before and after school club every day, and the same staff run holiday club, but again nothing was mentioned! They know he eats basically everything but potato, so to withhold his packed lunch just seems absolutely insane to me!

It was not a very successful start to the holidays as we couldn’t even get into the building yesterday as they are having building work done and the entrance was blocked (with a builder as a bouncer who insisted we had been informed- we hadn’t!) and also now holiday club closes at 3pm on Fridays!

There are many frustrations as a working parent but this has tipped me over the edge when it’s all combined! 😬

He wasn't allergic to the food he was given either, he just didn't like it. Why are so many people assuming they have no regard for allergies when there is no evidence to suggest that? How do you know they didn't check his paperwork before kindly offering him some lunch? I'm so confused by the whole thing tbh.

If he can't have the hot meal, and he's there from 7.30 to 17.00, then surely you should have provided extra food anyway?

If he had had the packed lunch by 12, he would have been hungry a few hours later.

They made a very sensible decision…. Give your child a free dinner which was available at lunchtime and his pack up for tea when no other option was available. Would you rather him have eaten his packed lunch at lunchtime and then have nothing for the rest of the day. If other parents were aware of the new arrangements, why weren’t you?

If you read some of the replies, you'd think they held the boy down and force fed a potato he didn't like and was deathly allergic to by people who never gave him food before

Rather than kindly being provided a free meal he didn't like all components of because of a small miscommunication by people who provided him other food throughout the day and would have paperwork about allergies

Well she would have sent two things if she had known, and now she will.

Most people I know would give a limb for a holiday club. My disabled D'S has four days in the summer holidays as there is not much for children with his needs.
I'm one of the lucky ones around here.

Yeh I wouldn’t be happy about that as my son is extremely fussy with food and wouldn’t have eaten any of that lunch (he’s going to holiday club with free hot lunch but we are providing his own packed lunch because of this). I would at least want to be informed on the day so there is the option to bring in food if one of us is available

YABU

Sound as this so called breakfast lub was just an after thought
by the school and they dont care and don't really want to run it to be honest,
Communication is dire to say the least,

Hope things improve,

It’s really, really not a big deal.

I think I would be annoyed, I'm not sure about furious.

I think it's a bit mean to lay into the OP. She was cross about the lack of proper information and communication. That's reasonable I think.

It's not a breakfast club - it runs until 5pm!

It's also not an afterthought, they've been running it for years

Sounds like minor break down in communication on first day, these thing happen, think you are overreacting, they gave him something to cover this missed meal, not sure what the real issue is...

No one is perfect, there will also be the odd teething issue, think her reaction is slightly over the top. If they had refused to give him a meal it would be different, but they feed him for free, not really sure what the issue is.

Absolutely!

I would point out the lack of communication regarding food requirements.

Send more food with DC.

Not dwell on it.

Enjoy the holidays.

Sorry about calling it a Breakfast Club. I was in a rush when typing it and have a overactive spell checker.
Yes l realise they have been running it for years. But this year they are not doing a very good job of it and the lack of communication would suggest to me.

That everything has been done the last minute begudgingly without much thought.

I would think that if they'd gone from offering a hot meal to not but it's the other way

They're offering MORE

And because OP hasn't returned, we don't know if it was just OP who missed the memo or if all children did and were unable to eat later

I was expecting something major but a mixup with lunch for one day.

It's nice they run a holiday club so I wouldn't be one of 'those' parents to kick up a fuss or be furious as you would be labelled as such.

We need to set an example of some sort of resilience to our kids who are easily impressionable by angry parents overreacting.

Your child was offered food. He was not left to go hungry. It’s not worth getting ‘furious’ over.

https://thecomplainingcow.co.uk/

she gives great advise re services not up to scratch

so he ended up eating at dinner and tea time
Total non issue
moving forward send 2 meals

with kindness you say your struggling stop looking for and making extra issues for yourself