Free breakfast club-offensive government campaign

[JTT95]

The government has lost the plot. This campaign is ridicolous. Listing things you could do instead of having breakfast with your child (while the child eats processed toast and jam or cereal at school instead of sharing a family meal). They are pushing some strange anti-family agenda.

processed toast and jam 😂😂 if you don’t want to use breakfast club, don’t. Some people need to.

I think free breakfasts clubs have a lot of potential benefits in principle. (In reality they are poorly funded etc etc).

But that is a ridiculous poster.

I don’t understand what the point of that is at all?

nearly everyone I know has to rely on breakfast club, no one would be able to start work on time without it. Surely no one sits down to a ‘family meal’ first thing on a weekday morning before work/school? I mean god knows mums usually have enough to do without preparing and attending a sit down breakfast.

That said I’d obviously rather my child had breakfast at home but needs must for a lot of working parents.

They are pushing it to everyone, even to people who don’t need it, making out it’s somehow better for the child to eat breakfast at school. If you look at their comments on instagram where this was published most people think this campaign is offensive.

But they are not making out it’s better for the child? They are pointing out the benefits to the parents in a tongue-in-cheek way. I don’t see the problem with it personally

What was wrong with "Spend 5700 minutes on public transport commuting to your work".
Which is presumably the main reason people need to send their kids to breakfast club...

It’s awful! Surely the message needs to be, “Enabling parents to work”?

Perfect parents clearly do sit down to an organic curated meal first thing in the morning. Sadly I am not perfect and it is better for my child to have a crumpet and jam and milk with his friends at school so I can get to work on time and earn money to keep us both alive.

If you look at some other videos down this campaign, you’ll see they’re saying exactly that. Better for the child to start their day with their peers before school and for parents to be able to work more hours.

The campaign has received a huge backlash.

Also, watching Peppa Pig is literally the last thing you do when there isn’t a child about the place.

Well the poster is ridiculous. But I think the free breakfast club is great. We have children in different schools so being able to drop 3 of them off at 8am is really helpful.

I can't see what a b out it that needs to be added to the ever growing things to be offended by list

I just saw it as a bad joke falling flat, no great conspiracy judgement or whatever else people want to twist it to be

Well it’s just fantastic that they have hurt the private schools with VAT to provide shit like this. My DSis teaches in a private school and she has had colleagues made redundant and seen her workload increase to unmanageable levels. Where there were 4 reasonable sized classes doing a subject, there are now 3 giant ones - the kids can’t fit into the classrooms without moving desks every lesson and the remaining teachers have a stupid workload that isn’t really possible. Race to the bottom as usual with this idiotic ideology.

I'm not sure anyone I know sits down to a family meal on a weekday morning.

Well yeah, framing it as “it’s there for those who need it” rather than hey it’s such a great thing for your kid to start the day at school even earlier so you can drink tea is stupid. Most people would rather have breakfast with their child than sit there drinking tea or watching peppa pig on their own.

It's offensive when popular and well run pre-existing clubs have been forced to close in favour of "free" ones. Clubs where they charged approx £2 per session and were able to provide a wide range of food. The 60p provided by government in these "free" clubs is woefully inadequate and only allows for a soggy slice of toast and diluted juice instead of fresh fruit etc.

Nothing is "free" and it boils my piss when they harp on about this.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/primary/schools-worries-about-free-breakfast-clubs-lack-of-funding

@JTT95 how does your family juggle two jobs and primary school aged children, getting everyone to the right place in the mornings inc commutes etc?

Oh FYI the kids who really need these clubs ie the ones from deprived households aren't going to be dropped at school an extra 45 mins earlier! Ask any teacher, these are the children who are barely dropped off much before 9am, they aren't going to suddenly be dropped off at 8am!
Parents who are organised enough to get their children to school at 8am are usually the ones who are also organised to give their own children breakfast.

The implication in the poster is that you could spend your mornings with your child watching peppa pig rather than having to make them breakfast because BC will do it.

If the campaign was about enabling parents to work then that would be one thing, but it isn’t. It essentially implies that parents are wasting time feeding their children so why not let someone else do it so they can have time to themselves.

Nothing wrong with breakfast club for parents who need to go to work. But the campaign is offensive.

I’m not talking about people who need it. This is about pushing it needlessly to people who could be having breakfast with their child but are encouraged to have 23 round trips to Spain instead. Bonkers.

There is no need for people to constantly look for things to be offended by

This campaign is to ensure children living in poverty eat before learning. Making sure basic needs are met.
I know it’s stereotypical but I would assume the majority of people who are off to work would be feeding their children.
(I am aware there are lots of hard working people who are struggling to feed their children)

Agree. I'd rather have breakfast with my child than stick her in a noisy portacabin and add an extra hour onto her already long day.

Honestly all this stuff worries me. The food kids are fed in all these settings gets worse every day, with very little fresh fruit and veg, hardly any protein and a reliance on cheap, long life, over processed carbs.

I see it at our school. The kids of the poorest parents are being fed all this shit, while the better off kids have parents who can afford to work part time/flexibly/wfh and are arriving at school having had porridge and fresh fruit, eggs and home made sourdough toast. School dinners are abysmal, the catering companies can't provide enough calories on the budget so include confectionery (despite guidelines against it). Again the better off kids are sent with much nicer pack ups from home.

It will create a social divide between the kids subjected to this, who will grow up less healthy, and those who aren't.

The focus should be on helping parents work part time hours (and encouraging employers to allow this) that balance family and work. This is economically a good thing too as it means people stay in work rather than quitting to become a SAHP.

My friend works in a massively deprived area (in Scotland). She brings bread with her to school so she can make toast for the kids who come in having not eaten anything since school lunch the day before. It’s a good thing.