To despair at the crap some people feed their kids

[Apotofrealcoffee]

Currently watching a kid who can’t be more than age 3, tuck in to a packet of ‘squashie’ sweets on the bus. No sign of a tantrum, kid seems perfectly happy looking out the window, but out come the sweets. And to pre empt the ‘snobbery’ thing, the parent seems middle class to me and certainly eloquent.

I regularly see kids tucking into chocolate bars, packets of crisps, lollies, all on the school run. Many of them toddlers in their buggies dropping off older siblings. Parents meeting kids at the school gate with full packets of Oreos, bottles of pop, doughnuts.

I’ve been trying not to judge for years and have been repeatedly told it’s ’just one snapshot of their day’ but honestly, I feel like the time for judgement has entered. I have never fed my toddlers crap like that, let alone just after breakfast. My 3 year old has never had a fizzy drink.

Why, just why! AIBU to feel there needs to be some kind of very direct public health campaign at this point? Maybe even a ‘no sweets at the school gate’ rule?

Maybe not most but you'd be surprised.
I work in nutrition and some of the things I see are pretty unbelievable.

Thankfully that won't happen.

It can work the other way as well - l never had anything sweet or treats and as soon as l earned my own money l binged on crisps and chocolate.

But l do agree with op too.

Herbs and spices are packed full of powerful phytonutrients.

Birds eye crispy pancake, anyone😁

So I was one of those kids whose parents restricted sweets and treats. Once I got to secondary school and discovered no less than three news agents on the walk there, I didn't hold back! Those were the days of the 10/20/50pm pick and mixes and I'd treat myself a lot whenever I had money. I would over eat the sweet stuff and even as an adult well into my forties, I still have issues over secretive bingeing.

That said, I'm not overweight and keep fit. But I definitely don't have the healthiest relationship with food and like others with similar childhoods, find it hard to regulate.

We are absolutely surrounded by sweet treats as a society and as a parent, it's bloody hard to keep it healthy.

Unfortunately I had to remind a mum a while ago that a can of blue thunder (aldi red Bull) wasn't the best drink to give her 2 year old child.... Her response, "but it's sugar free" 🙄 I did take it off the child and gave it back to the mum, asking "are you actually serious". Was expecting a complaint about that one, but never materialised.

The thing is there are ways of proving a point without coming across as so insufferable and unpleasant.

Nothing would ever get banned if everyone took that attitude!

I agree. I was never one for giving DS snacks every time we went anywhere. It was unnecessary and he’s never asked for food on the go since. It’s interesting I was in France in the summer and I noticed they do not have snacks available in the same way we do, newsagents and convenience shops with shelves heaving with sugary and salty snacks everywhere just don’t exist in most European countries.

Thank you for saying that💙

Oona wants everything banned 😆

God I still bloody love a tomato and mozzarella findus crispy pancake.

People need to be allowed to make their own choices. You seem to be on every other thread wanting things banned.

It's odd that some people preach about breastfeeding and giving infants the best start then go on to get defensive about the same kids eating crap from 3 years +

The mum may have been trying to pre-empt a tantrum. 🤷‍♀️

I don’t generally give sweets to my toddler either. But she went through a phase of screaming after 5 mins on the bus. Nothing worked. It was a regular 40 min journey and I felt terrible about subjecting the passengers and driver to it, so eventually I gave in with an organic lollipop before the screaming started. After a few weeks I weaned her off the lollipops to another snack, then no snack at all.