After school snacks

I have on occasion gone to collect DGC from school, and while some parents did have snacks for their children at the school gate. I do not think it was universal or even the majority. The school intake is divided between children from a deprived council estate and children from comfortably off professional families.

Not in our DGS school, haven’t seen any foodstuff at all being handed out by parents/grandparents but will now keep an eagle eye out silverlining.
We used to have a milk and biscuit snack with our own DC
Once home, but DGC like juice and a biscuit.
Going home by myself when at primary school I would buy penny sweets when I had any pennies to spend, if not I would spend a bit of my busfare on them and walk further.

My grandchildren take packed lunches to school - a sandwich or wrap (chicken, ham or cheese), 2 pieces of fruit, a yoghurt, and sometimes a small bag of crisps. They have toast when they get in from school and a cooked meal at about 6pm.

A lot of parents give their children quick, convenient snacks of sweets and junk food either because that's what they themselves eat, or because they like an easy option.

It's common at my DGCs school, and I take them a snack if picking them up.
School dinner is at 12 o'clock and dinner at home won't be until 6pm, so I think a small (and usually healthy) snack is a very good idea at 3.30. Otherwise, it would be nearly 6 hours without food, which I think is a long time for lively, active young children. My DGS is as thin as a rake, so it certainly doesn't seem to be doing him any harm.

I don't take anything for them but they usually have a snack once they get home. SiL used to complain if they had a snack because GS1 wouldn't eat dinner, but he didn't eat dinner anyway (ASD) and I continually pointed out that small children have small stomachs and it was a long time to wait for dinner with no food. Common sense won and now they have a snack and eat a proper dinner later. Even GS1 is eating - as long as it comes from his very short list of acceptable food!

When we used to actually collect GS from school, he would look forward to helping himself to two Haribos from a bag we kept in the car. Credit to him, he never took more than two. Now he walks home on his own and because DD is not home until 6.30, when she cooks, I will usually provide a small sandwich or similar to bridge the gap.

I hold my hands up I sometimes give DGS a small packet of Haribo (five or Six in a packet.) To eat on the way home.
He has had a healthy breakfast, lunch and will have his evening meal.

What upsets my daughter is the school stating it is a has a no sweet policy but nearly everyday it is allowing parents to send in sweets and lollipops to dish out as it's their child's birthday.
The sweets are full of sugar and ball shaped lollipops are dangerous. (DGS is 4 reception class).

When my boys were at school they always had a choice of fruit available when they came home from school at 4:15pm and dinner was at 6pm. A lot of the school kids I see out and about at the end of the school day are munching on chips as they catch the bus home.

I pick mine up once a week, and yes I take flavoured milk and some biscuits. I take them to the park for an hour or so, and they snack as they play. Their mother doesn't get home until about 6pm, and they might get some dinner at 7pm, so I don't have any guilt about giving them snacks at 3pm.

Once a week I used to take my children to the local cafe after school and buy them hot chocolate and a slice of cake. On other days it was a piece of fruit and a single biscuit until dinner was served at 6pm.

Well firstly far too many assumptions in the OP.

How do you know the child had a dessert at lunchtime?

How do you know when the child will eat dinner/tea?

I often take my DGC a snack when I pick them up from school because I know that they would have either a) had a really cr*p school lunch or b) they will have a long wait before their next proper meal.

Incidentally they are “built like bus tickets” (a Geordie saying for stick thin) and are really sporty children.

I'd agree with Gillybob. In a perfect world the child would have had a delicious, nutritious lunch and then have tea / dinner an hour after they get home from school. In the real world, they may have had a horrible lunch , and dinner might be four or five hours after school.

I doubt that a snack after school is the reason for the "obesity epidemic".

My grandchildren – at least the ones who come here after school and preschool – seem to be eating machines. I do remember being pretty hungry after a busy day at school, so I am happy to dish out some snacks. However, I try quite hard not to fill them up so much that by the time supper time comes, they don't want to eat. I do encourage eating fruit and cheese but I do include crisps and biscuits in the three snacks that are allowed. However, then it it gets difficult if Mum or Dad is held up on the way to collect them.

I give GD sandwiches with carrot sticks and tomato, it is a long day for little ones and she has after school activities. I always ask what school lunch was but sometimes she is vague. I don't think a child would eat if they were not hungry so I don't see it as a problem.

I think the idea of lunch with dessert and then dinner an hour after school may be a little idealistic silverlining48.

I was a single mother for much of my sons childhood. I worked till 5 most nights, but always had dinner with my son, usually about 6. That would have been a very long time for him to go without food. Was his snack always the healthiest? No, often a packet of crisps/ small bar of chocolate as he walked home, or milk and a couple of biscuits at the childminders. He was however thin as a rake and very active.

I now act as a kind of surrogate grandmother to two young girls in my street, neither stays for school dinners as they both say they’re horrible. They instead take a packed lunch, which comes home only half eaten. The small bag of jelly sweets they eat on the way home, and the slice of bread & jam they have at my house keep them going until dinner time. Which in Their house is 630, when both parents are home from work.

Interested to read views. On wednesdays when we pick up it’s a roast lunch with dessert so fairly substantial. They finish this about 1 pm. School out at 3.20/30. Home at 4. Ours have their tea at 5 pm and are in bed around 7. Clearly others eat later, however it’s more that most of what I see being given at the gate are sweets, cakes or biscuits. the childrens expectations are high too, woe betide if a snack is not provided...tantrums galore.

The senior school near me all pile out at then end of day straight into the nearby Aldi.
I always a remember someone I worked with told me about her son then aged about 14 but getting on for 6ft tal who would come home from school have 10 slices of bread with 2 tins of bans and then have his tea later.
My GS and nephew tell me sometimes when they get in to school dinner there is very little left so they are starving when school finishes. When my daughters mobile rings in the office at 4pm the whole office choruses ' Can I have a Subway?

We recently noticed as school ended the local well known burger bar with a big M arch full of secondary age children in large groups all eating burgers and chips with fizzy drinks. Then families with younger children ditto. The place was heaving. Teenagers also crowd the cafes and burger places at midday. I suppose my point was that children starting young on regular unhealthy snacks may grow into teenagers with a liking for fast food leading perhaps to adults with health issues....I believe we are the most obese in Europe. Just saying......

My Reception age DGS both have snacks at the end of the school day and so did my DC. All active and healthy and not an ounce of surplus fat on any of them. How many of us (honestly) go happily through from lunch to evening meal without feeling peckish?

Whenever I've picked my grandchildren up, they have demanded a snack. They live about fifteen minutes from home but it seems to be something they're used to. plus a drink! I never gave my children anything, nor did they expect it.

P.S. They are not obese!!

I don’t see many parents doing this, but I used to give my DS a snack on the way home when he was in Reception and Year 1 as he was very fractious otherwise and the journey home was unbearable.

I later realised that he was ‘hangry’. He didn’t get sweets though, usually a banana. It made a huge difference. I think little bodies struggle to go for long without food, giving them bigger blood sugar dips than an adult might have.

naught wrong with a banana Arthur. Not sure what hangry is, hungry/ angry? will check out on mr google.

What a great word - I’ll be using that!