To absolutely hate the word… snacks

[Ughughughughugh]

When did the word snacks come in?! When I was a kid it wasn’t used. It gives me the ick… kids have a snack, give them snacks, snacks snacks snacks . Why not meals?! I could rant all day about the word snack and my hate for it . If you do give your kids food just call it fruit , crisps etc but snacks can jump off a cliffe

I think you mean it wasn't used in your home but I can guarantee people elsewhere were using it. Snack is an ancient word, documented since the 15th century, with a more or less consistent meaning. I'm 70. Snack was a word used in my home as a child. The difference is that a snack usually meant a light meal, taken at meal times. For example, my mother would say "We'll have a snack for lunch because we're having a big meal tonight". The snack might be a sandwich or a small salad. We didn't eat between meals - nobody did - except for maybe a biscuit with a mid morning drink and the same, with a cup of tea, mid afternoon or a piece of cake if there was any around. Chomping away all day just wasn't done (or even thought about).

My autistic 7 year old don grazes constantly all day. I've tried getting him to wait for meals but he's so skinny and at age 4 went through a phase of not eating at all so I give him snacks about 20 times a day! He calls them "nacks"

Yes!! 😂 I am too, I genuinely never realised it might be a regional thing!

I like the word "snack". Currently fond of "shnack" too.

Don't like "nibbles". Makes me think of a hamster.

I love how it took less than 10 posts for someone to suggest that snacks are part of the agenda of Big UPF. Peak Mumsnet.

Milky way advert 70s.

Yes. Before the red car and the blue car started racing.

Far worse.

I loathe "a glass of something". Fortunately, I only see it on MN.

OP, yes! I hadn't realised how much I hate it until now.

It's horrible!

Snacks can get fucked.

When were you a kid OP?
The fifteenth century?

Please don't back pedal!

Snacks is a shit concept and a shit word!

Whether you like the word “snacks” or not, it’s disingenuous to pretend the word is some kind of recent phenomenon, in the way “ick” and “picky bits” are.

OP’s objections in any case seem more rooted in the actual practice of eating between meals, rather than the word itself.

I don't know anyone who says charcuterie unless they're speaking French

We have “snicky snackies” - sorry 🤣

Which word would you use rather than snacks?

I’m old school and generally don’t have snacky snacks 😬

I wish there was a 😅 emoji on MUMSNET … your post did make me lol 😂

Your photo hasn’t been quoted which would have given my comment context.

It’s not as bad as ‘meal’. “Shall we go out for a meal?” Ugh. Reminds me of mealworms or a ‘mealy’ apricot or butter bean. Shudder.

Ok…

Love this, I haven’t heard ‘bite to eat’ for at least a couple of decades! My DM used to say that, eg “and then we’ll have a quick bite to eat before going to the cinema”. It effectively meant snack by another name. She’s been dead for over 20 years but I can hear her saying it now now that you’ve reminded me. Same generation who would say “do you need to spend a penny?” Meaning do you need a wee?

It absolutely is! And said in the accent as
well! Maybe that’s why I don’t like snacks as we had a bite to each instead 🤣

It’s true it does depend on the child. They might need a lot of snacks if they have a high metabolism, do sports etc. I also have a skinny beanpole DS (now grown up) who can eat all day and probably should as he needs the calories.

OTOH I definitely did know other parents when my DC were little who were obsessive about snacks and wouldn’t leave the house without a huge supply of them - often performatively healthy or supposedly healthy things like organic rice cakes, carrot sticks, fruit strings or those mini boxes of raisins. If the kids didn’t have 10 snacks a day, they were certainly offered them that often.

My DS massively over uses the word snacks so i now hate it too!

But the French word "charcuterie" doesnt have a proper English equivalent. Do you feel the same about the words baguette or cafe?

I'm a French teacher, so not exactly averse to using French words, but I have always called it 'cold meat', not charcuterie. I think the Americans call it 'cold cuts'.

Quite. Vocabulary snobbery and food piety all rolled into one. Brava, OP.