AIBU to put out sweets for children at a summer party?

[Lotusina]

I’m hosting a summer party soon and although the majority of guests will be late teens and adults, there are a few under10s attending too.

Food will be provided, but it’s a light summer buffet rather than bbq or sit down meal. There will be cupcakes and squash.

I want to make it as festive as possible for everyone, and I’m wondering whether to provide some little dishes of sweets for the kids.

As a parent, would this sit well with you or would it be annoying as hell?

I have no idea what sweets kids like these days, but was thinking of something like the natural confectionery co - would appreciate thoughts on that, or other suggestions.

YABU - don’t do it, their parents will hate you

YANBU - do it, it’s a party FFS

Most do have sugar. The ones that don't say "sugar free" which are full of sweeteners and taste like it too!

well yes of course but who wants to go to a party where you can’t take your eyes off your kid and have to tell them they can’t have the sweets that have been deliberately left out to tempt them?

I mean in practice people will go, because the alternative is to never go out, but it’s dreadful the way society plies children with crap foods, especially when we have the science and the experience to know what effect it has.

OP - given that youve seen a meaningful minority of parents will hate this, but that the majority are fine with it. What have you decided?

In New Zealand our jelly comes in crystals rather than leaf or cube style. Wasn't unusual for a kid to have a box of jelly crystals in their lunch box.

The responses here should clarify why, opinions are polarised.

Normally yes but in this weather you’ll need to find something that won’t melt in to a sticky mess 😬

My nursery feeds a great menu these days, varied and full of veg.

Now I love baking with my toddler, but I just don't get the desire to offer them puddings and treats all the time. MIL decided that his bedtime milk needed to be chocolate milk at theirs or else he wouldn't finish it, and my dad thought that he needed sugar on his strawberries.

All of these people say that "a little won't hurt" - and their adult children are all overweight/obese, and I have crap teeth (thanks for all the sugar, Dad).

My son's great gran is wonderful though. Always complimenting how great it is that he eats well, and saying that so much food available back in the day was filled with rubbish.

Yes!

I've no issue my kids having sweets at a party, I have 1 extremely fussy child sk what would make me delighted would be wee plates of things like crackers, grated cheese, breadsticks, hummus, things kids seem to really like and will graze on. Also agree about fruit, watermelon slices, mango, strawberries, however that's purely from the perspective of a parent with a fussy child where I'm having to take a fed is best approach so some crunchy bland carbs are gratefully received.

When we did a kids party we did proper grown up sandwiches and rolls for adults then kids we did trays of cheese, ham and jam and then a multi pack of crisps and a couple of tubs of little hari o bags. Neither of mine are that fond of sweets though. Eldest would definitely have a cupcake and youngest some crisps or crackers and fruit over sweet. Maybe if I had kids who would gorgeous on harinl type sweets I'd mind them being there.

Hell yeah, even adults love a sweetie! Maybe hold some back to put out later so the little ones don’t gorge themselves straight away.

Can they be dessert?

Its a party FFS but I'd be more inclined to get individual ice lollies or ice creams rather than sweets?

I would go with fruit kebabs and then give an individual bag of sweets for a going home gift.

Yeah but a lot of people don't read the label that closely.

I've noticed that there are a disproportionate number of parents on here whose children seem to be affected by sugar despite their being no scientific evidence of any affects

No idea why the MN demographic is such an anomaly

There are small bags of sweets that are low sugar and chewy so not a choking hazard if you do have outlier offspring

Because people believe stuff that isn't true? Its like the similar research about people behaving differently towards babies depending on whether they were told they are male or female. The people would deny it but the video evidence is there.