AIBU to give my children a treat everyday?

[Flossyknicks]

I’m wondering what other parents do when it comes to giving their children treats. They are 8 and 4 and will have a biscuit like a digestive or a custard cream, or a Mr Kipling Angel Slice, every day. At the weekends, it might be two treats.

YABU one treat a day is too much
YANBU one treat a day is ok

A biscuit. All this angst over a biscuit. Good lord.

A biscuit is not a treat...

Something you have every day isn’t a treat.

that said there is nothing wrong with one biscuit every day

Are the treats there to reinforce good behaviour?

If it's a daily thing regardless, that's no longer a treat

Really can’t get upset over a digestive biscuit. I’m sure someone will come along and suggest you’re mainlining crack into your kids but I couldn’t get her up about a couple of biscuits a day.

I don't let mine have a treat everyday. But I'd say a biscuit is in a different catefothan angel slices.

Still, our generation have normalised heavily processed foods, so if you can find better alternatives that your kids like, then maybe replace the biscuits, angel slices, etc. with those.

One custard cream a day is fine.

I probably shouldn’t have said treat, a treat is a little toy or magazine

I think what I would do is to reframe “treat” and call it a snack. That way you aren’t putting food like cake or biscuits etc on a pedestal and your kids learn they can have them as part of an overall healthy diet.

In answer to your question, no I don’t think this is excessive at all. If you restrict these sorts of foods so that they become available only on the odd occasion, that’s where relationships with food start to go awry. Normalise them so your kids aren’t desperate for them and you’re doing just fine.

YABU to say a digestive biscuit is a treat. That’s a punishment.

I used treat incorrectly as I don’t actually call them treats and neither do the kids, they’ll just ask for a biscuit. It’s good to know it’s quite normal. At the weekends they may have some ice cream after dinner

😂 I agree but they do ask for them

Why is everyone being so pedantic over the word "treat". My goodness! And who cares about a biscuit a day? Why would that even factor in as a concern?

A biscuit, cake or ice cream etc is completely fine.

I’m not upset or concerned, I’m just wondering what others do. Perhaps I’m being extremely mean! Interested to hear what other sweet (don’t say) treats parents give their children..

Perfectly normal. Don’t fret.

I always tried to work on the basis of foods are some of the time foods v most of the time foods. My daughter has a great relationship with food as an adult.

Me? Not so much. My mother heavily restricted these types of food, hid them, commented about being “naughty” if she had a pud, obsessed over other people’s appetites and bodies as well as their own. The result is me with a very difficult relationship with food that exhausts me. It starts small and seemingly insignificant but over time……

A biscuit every day, piece
of angel cake or whatever is no issue at all x

I think that sounds fine.

A plain biscuit eg a digestive, no chocolate is fine as long as they are active kids, eat their dinners and aren’t overweight. If there is a drip feed where the child is twice the healthy weight, then no the snacks need to go

My rule when my kids were younger was one sugary thing a day. A sugary thing was a biscuit, cake, glass of orange juice, fruit yoghurt, ice-cream. Anything with more sugar than good nutrition

I try not to have loads of ultra processed foods in and offer better alternatives where possible. DD likes things like the Deliciously Ella dark chocolate almonds - I prefer to give things like that albeit she wouldn’t have them every day, probably once or twice a week max. She wouldn’t happily eat things like biscuits, but I don’t want her to end up with a crap diet like me!

My dc had either a digestive biscuit and cheese, hummus and carrot sticks or a crumpet after school when little as we ate at 6.30pm, one underweight, one slim and ideal weight - adults now still same weight range

I think that sounds perfect OP. My two get a biscuit when they come home from school and a lolly or biscuit after dinner (which I think is too much but it's hard to stop it now). I am a teacher and some kids get far too much rubbish in their lunch boxes.

When my DS was growing up he was nwver bought sweeties or fizzy drinks as a lot of contemporaries were.
But I would buy him Matchbox car or a very small toy or a book from the charity shop. Perhaps not every day, but very frequently when we were out and about.

It's natural to want to treat your children OP. There is nothing wrong with what you are doing at all.

Clearly everyone can do what they like with their own kids, and I doubt a custard cream a day is going to harm. If it's biscuits / cakes daily without exception, it's just a core part of their diet rather than a treat.

My kids (tween / teen) used to have UPF biscuits and cakes regularly, but I stopped buying them as a regular thing about 5 years ago. Now, if they want biscuits and cakes, they make them. When they were a bit younger, we'd help them with the oven if they did the rest, but me and my husband weren't sufficiently bothered by sweet stuff to bake frequently, and the kids' interest waxed and waned. If they want some kind of optional snack thing, they're happy enough to make some popcorn, have cheese and crackers, or whatever, from what's available at home. Occasionally, they or we will bother to bake something, which is then a treat. If we're going away for a holiday I might do some baking beforehand so there's cake / biscuits / flapjacks, and again, that feels like a treat, rather than a core part of their daily diet.

It really isn't for small kids.

Treats should be once a week including parties.