to be annoyed at parents who send their kids to school with packs of chocolates, sweets and other sugary items to be DISTRIBUTED among the children

[OrangeFish]

I might be, or I might not... but I can not understand the rationale of sending their kids with all these sugared items with the sole intention to be distributed to the other children in the class.

Am I unreasonable in getting annoyed at parents assuming that it is OK to give sweets to children without their parents having a say on it? is it ok for the teacher to distribute them just as they leave the classroom at the end of the day? I understand she doesn't want to deal with a crowd of 6 years old on a chocolate high, but why to assume we, the parents would be ok with it?

This is a sensitive topic to me... in the best case scenario, my son would be left empty handed as he couldn't have some sweets without risking a severe allergic reaction; in the worst case scenario, if he eats/touches the wrong thing he may end up in hospital.... so I wanted to know what is the consensus for this as I'm obviously biassed due to DS's particular problems.

Do you think it is OK for sweets to be distributed freely at the door of the classroom?

What would you say is every now and then. I would say maybe once every 2 weeks or so but people seem to have vastly differing opinions ranging from never to daily.

I mean sweets from school once every 2 weeks, not total amounts of sweets.

OP, haven´t read whole thread, can just say I would be annoyed if my dc were given sweets and chocolates on a regular basis at school.

To me, this is junk food and of no nutritonal value, I subscribe to the "sweets on a Saturday" idea, none during the week, harsh some of you will cry, but not if that is what your dc are used to! Certainly they don´t have much of a sweet tooth so it´s not like it´s an uphill struggle.

havent read the whole thread but has anyone mentioned that brushing teeth straight after a meal, especially sweet or sour is actually bad for the teeth?
and that with stuff like haribo the bad is what is contains apart from the sugar and not what impact the sugar has on the teeth?

We are bringing the children up as vegetarians so I am a bit miffed when ds comes bounding out of school with yet another mini-pack of haribo (gelatine) - but I don't stop him having them just wish they could give out lollies or chocs as they are less likly to be non veggie.

It is a pain at the shops when ds is badgering me for the chewy jelly sweets and I say we can't have them I hate being inconsistent.

It is not every day though that swets a given out at ds school more like 2 or 3 times a month if that - mainly birthdays.

Most of th tim ds complains about the 'vegetables' they give him at snack time so I know the balance is right.

I am strict with sweets and chocolates and the kids don't have them every day, BUT I don't object to this at all. Sometimes they come out with a chocolate/sweet they've been given for someones birthday - as a pp said they give them out at the end of the day so the parent can decide when the child has them. Sometimes I let them eat them there and then, sometimes I don't but it's my choice as the parent.

I think it would be a sad state of affairs if they were not allowed to do this and I do think yabu

SG

I think it is real killjoy to begrudge it and as long as you are providing a healthy, balanced diet it is hardly a threat! I was teaching a year 1 class today and the girl who was 6 today was excited all day about handing out her treat-I wouldn't like to be the one to have to look her in the eye and say 'we don't bring sweets-take them home'.
It would have spoilt the day for her. As it was we all sang 'Happy Birthday' she told her about her birthday and they all said 'thank you'. I asked them to wait until they got home to eat them-which gives the chance for a parent to confiscate them if they so wish!

The OP isn't asking if she is BU about birthday sweets, its about random sweets being handed out twice a week. Its not part of a birthday celebration. Sorry to bang on about it but loads of people have said things like 'its only a max of 30 times a year' and 'it means a lot to the birthday child' etc. and that is not really what she is asking.

"I'm NOT requesting the school to ban birthday sharing of treats (I do also send birthday cakes in) but wonder if it was Ok for children to be given sweets twice a week at the door of the classroom, as I said I don't think they are birthday related."

I think you will find tht they are nearly all birthday related.If you have 30 children, and they all do it, it will be practically once a week.

I think that generally people are complaining about birthday sweets-however the majority are obviously in favour as otherwise it wouldn't happen.

Its a few sweets ...no biggy ...not worth getting your knickers in a knot over imo

I find it sad that some parents get so wound up about generous kids/parents giving their child the occasional sweet. My kids used to get sweets from teacher if good on Friday afternoon. I thought that was a great idea, and my kids are still skinny and not that into sweets. I rarely bought the kids sweets myself as don't have sweet tooth so never really thought about sweets, would buy them for long car trips etc, but had no problem with other people buying them sweets or them buying them from their pocket money.

Rebecca, it´s not about getting wound up imo, but a principle that it is not appropriate to regularly give other people´s dc junk food on a regular basis.

Each to their own, I favour the sweets on a Saturday approach, which I had as a child and never had a problem with. At that time, giving sweets out at school was unheard of and I don´t think this is a valuable tradition to start.

Treats don´t have to involve junk food imo.

It doesn't bother me at all.

I know it is slightly different but neither does it bother me if anyone offers me a fag, even though I have never smoked. I find the habbit disgusting.

Neither am I offended if someone offers me alcohol and I don't want a drink.

As your children grow there will be many more important things to worry about than them being offered the occasional sweet.

Just skimmed this thread but I do think YABU in general. Quite often in DD class the only sweeties/cakes/chocolate that are shared around is if there is a birthday or special occasion and by the the time they are shared equally the kids only get a small mouthful or one sweet as there are so many in the class.

oh how we've moved on from a finger o fudge...

Ooooo and a Mars a day does help you work rest and play

Have to say though I have always steered clear of Yorkie bars after seeing that grim advert as a child with the trucker from hell biting menacingly into his Yorkie bar.

for some reason they made yorkie's very gender specific.

Talking of adverts, I always found they Flake ad very ott, don't think it would be deemed acceptable nowadays.

"Junk food" is just a term for high calorie food though. I wonder if classing some food as "good" and other food as "junk" just adds to our food neurosis. My husband was out cycling for most of yesterday and needed very high calorie food during the day. Why is this food more junky than a celery stick which would have had him keeling over! I've never described any food as junk to my kids. You eat different types of food depending on what you are doing. My kids are both slim, sporty and eat most things. If we're in a rush we may go to KFC, if we've been cycling or running we may have a mars bar. If I've time to cook we'll have more vegetable containing meals. I don't see why giving a kid a couple of sweets is giving him "junk", it's just giving hime a tasty sugary sweet.

To me, junk food is food of no nutritional value and should be rationed for this reason because it is of no value in itself and also because junk food is habit forming, which is even worse!

So though I object to giving out sweets at school, I DON´T have a problem with a Happy Meal.. DD eats the carrots and apple and grapes, I don´t begrudge the chicken nuggets and chips..

In the case of your sporty dh, of course he should have high calorie food to get therough the day, but to me this wouldn´t be junk food. A huge bowl of pasta before going on a long bike ride would be entirely appropriate, the same no of calories in sweets would not, it wouldn´t get him through in the same way..

I think the "problem" with dc nowadays is we have so much money we can all afford to pander to special requests, make separate meals for our dc, give them sweets as they are requested. To me, this leads to the neuroses we experience nowadays, the "eat what you´re given" approach and sweets only as a special treat made for a far healthier past..

I really do not see what the problem is!!

To me a healthy diet is a balanced diet with treats. They are getting a treat-one treat- not a whole bag like some adults would scoff! They are being taught that these are things to have at a special time, alongside healthy meals.

As adults we have parties and treat ourself to a glass of wine etc.

FWIW we had no treats when we were young. Hence when I went to parties I scoffed every treat in sight and was sick. I was never taught that sweets could be encorporated into a balanced diet.

And unless my child had an allergy or medical issue I would never dream of denying my child a loly that everyone else had, that's plain mean.

He goes out cycling for 200-300 k in a day though. Yes he carbo loads the day before but he needs high calorie easy to digest stuff whilst cycling. I take glucose tablets with me if going out for long runs (over an hour).
Sweets don't have no nutritional value. They contain sugar which gives you calories. Dark chocolate contains iron. Sweets are only a problem if you eat too many of them. I disagree that they are habit forming as well. People who say they are "addicted" to a particular sweet are usually talking rubbish and using pseudomedical jargon to justify eating alot of ice cream/ chocolate etc. Food also has other roles other than nutrition such as giving us pleasure and fun.
I disagree that kids eat more sweets nowadays. I ate far more sweets as a kid than my kids do and I think parents are more aware of not using sweets as treats all the time.