Bloody handing out of sweets at school on birthdays. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[LynetteScavo]

DD has finished her tantrum now.

Caused by DS2 being handed a crappy bag of sweets by his teacher as he came out of school.She wanted some. DS gave her one. She was tired from nursery, wanted more, DS said no. Que tantrum.

I didn't particularly want either of them to have them.

I tried tackling this with the school with when DS1 was in reception, and was basically laughed at.

Rant over.

They did it in DS primary school

If there are between 25 and 30 children in one class then that is less than 30 days when your children come out of school with sweets - is that such a problem

so 30 days out of 195 days that leaves 165 days that are sweets free

{approx}

It is OK when they get to senior school it doesn't happen so you will be ok then

If there are real allergies then the parents should tell the birthday child parents beforehand and then they can take that into account

I'm with you Lynette. I also raised it in reception and was told it happened very seldom. which was rubbish as it was once a week and of course DS2 screamed and screamed for his share.

I've pretty much given up now but would never let DS1 bring in sweets. He took 2 weeks off school to go to his American grandparents for Thanksgiving last year - we brought back pencils for the whole class and it went down well. Erasers would have been good too. Positive fun alternatives are my only strategy.

how's your PTA? Ours raises funds for sport by distributing smarties [hmmm]. They laughed at me too!

Hmm, lets say if were 30 kids per class giving out sweets for every birthday (maximum figure)

Not a great idea. That's a bag of sweets every fortnight.

ds's school has a very strange policy. They won't allow the child to hand out sweets inside the building and teachers aren't allowed to put them in book bags. But it's fine if the parents of the birthday child stand at the door of the classroom and hand out sweets.

We gave everyone mini-cakes for ds's birthday. I made sure there were no nuts but couldn't go much further in being allergy-friendly without doing a detailed risk assessment (as far as I know non of his classmates have allergies).

Plus Ramadan (which I think was what todays sweets were for) and mini easter eggs and then halloween and Christmas, so it's almost once a week.

A few sweets, and one hell of crying and kicking when I just didn't need it.

I'm going to ask for the sweets to be put in the book bag so DD isn't aware of them and DS1 can scoff the evil geletin boiled cow bones secretly in his room.

that's it Mercy. Everyone scoffs and says how uptight I am and that it's just the odd occasion - but we had 45 children in reception last year and the etiquette was to bring in sweets for BOTH classes. So it was every week.
Then factor in that there's a birthday party every fortnight where it really would be incredibly rude to show that you'd rather they didn't eat the stuff.

And altogether it leaves very little space for the real times when you should eat crap - trip to grannies or occasional tantrum-averter or your birthday or "just because". and if they bake something themselves, it isn't as special.

In my ideal world, a four-year-old would eat real rubbish (like Haribo) no more than once a week but school offerings alone exceed that.

Erasers & pensils sound so cool.

The PTA are mad on handing out sweets! At every school fayre (3 times a year), the children get sweets every time they go on a stall, whether they win or loose. It's one massive sweet fest.

I am not surprised they laughed at you. It is very miserable to have such a reaction. The birthday girl or boy chooses to bring in a treat for everyone and they get really excited about it, it makes up for having to be in a normal school day on their birthday.
They love to stand at the door handing them out. It is a very simple pleasure and it is always a mini packet or bar. I always found it a useful lesson with my DSs that they didn't always get the same. It evened out over the year.

DS got some sweets today at school, to celebrate Eid.

He didn't particualrly want to share with DD (3) when he got home, but she said "I don't want to have any anyway" and helped herself to an apple

Sugar is such a simple pleasure.

Holding your 15 month old down while he has a £180 filling is not.

My DSs had sweets when they were handed out, they are teenagers now and the middle one had one filling aged 5yrs, the other 2 haven't had a filling ever! You can clean teeth after the sugar!

But don't you think that if it was banned ir discouraged they would get just as much joy out of handing out stickers or cakes they had baked at home or similar? They are still innocent in reception. It's such a lost opportunity to divert them on to something else.

I'd be all for allowing distribution of a sweet item that you'd made yourself even if just rice crispie cakes - that is real hospitality and celebration.

Sugar is like caffeine - keep the dosage lower and it'll be there for you when you really need some!

Oh really I hadn't thought of that!

Do they sell special childrens tooth brushes too?

You have to let parents decide what they want to provide. It has nothing to do with the school! I can just imagine the fuss if the school started to dictate birthday treats, parents would be standing outside the school gate handing them out! I have had a tremendous row on another thread merely because I supported schools enforcing a fruit only rule at break! (Apparently it infringed parent's rights!)

The filling wasn't due to poor oral hygine, BTW;it was due to an ill-formed tooth, but it's just somwhere I'm not prepared to go again.

Hang on. Fruit only every snack time but any old sugary shite if it's someone's birthday?

A miserable reaction? Abbey, you are one twisted fire-starter.

£180 for a childs filling?

i thought it was free on the NHS for children

The NHS offered to gas DS and pull his tooth out, once it had become sufficiently rotten. I consulted a paediatric dentist in London, and decided to have it done privately. We do have a private children's dentist in our town now, and I imagine they wouldn't be quite so expensive.

A agree, pointy dog.

Interestingly, we were told by the dentist that tooth wise it's better to eat chocolate once a day, than to munch fruit all day long.

LynetteScavo

Am I correct in thinking your 15 month old had a rotten tooth from eating sweets and it cost £180 to remove?

Or was it from having bottles/cups with juice/squash/sugary drinks in?

DD1s first day at school yesterday, DD2 already upset and wanted to go in with her. Home time, they all get a rubbish neon pink lolly to take (a birthday). Cue DD2 upset again...she has type one diabetes so buying her one the same was out of the question....hoping it won't be a regular thing tbh....Agree with the 0P..healthy schools influence what goes in kunch boxes, why not birthday treats too?

lunch boxes even...