Considering making a sign up genius for sports snacks? Is your kid older than 1st grade? Then DON'T

[Anonymous]

I am with you, and sadly I just sent out a snack sign up. Wondering actually if you are on our team because I sent my sign up out the day you posted this. We started soccer during COVID and neither of our kids’ teams did snacks and I thought it was great. Then this spring one of our kids was on a different team that did do snacks. Now my husband is coaching same kid and decided the team needed to do snacks (and I sent out the sign up because I have more experience with sign up genius, but I hated myself for doing it). No one has signed up besides me and one other person and honestly I hope it stays that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This seems like a bizarre thing to complain about.

I coach a rec sports team and do a sign up genius for snacks. But we only need 8 parents to volunteer per season, out of 15 families. And the spots are taken within a day, so clearly there are parents who don't mind bringing something. Also most parents on our team bring pretzels or pirates booty - not exactly super healthy, but not pure sugar. And if there were a kid on our team with an allergy, we would definitely accommodate (in fact, on another kid's team, there is a gluten allergy, so parents bring gluten free snacks).

Seriously, if it's too much for you, don't volunteer to bring something.

It’s not just about volunteering to bring snacks. I don’t want my kid having a snack after his game. It guarantees he won’t eat his next meal. We also try to avoid crap like Gatorade and Capri Sun but I’m not going to prevent him from eating/drinking the junk if the rest of his teammates have it in front of him.

Kids don’t need constant snacks. Our junk food culture is why we have such an obesity problem.

Oh geez, you don't even need to complain then. Tell your kid he's not allowed to have a snack. Sometimes the simplest solution is looking you right in the eye.

No, quit feeding him. No kid should have to turn down snacks multiple times a day. Either you and your family are overweight and don’t recognize it as unhealthy, or you have no trouble being naturally thin and have no empathy for people who have a hard time not eating or turning down sugar, etc.

I understand parenting your child the way you see fit which means if you don't allow snacks, you can tell your child not to eat snacks. I think that would be more trouble than it's worth though. Having a bag of goldfish after sweating and running for an hour doesn't ruin my son's appetite or make him fat. Therefore, I allow it. I have a friend who doesn't allow snacks other than fruits and veggies. Her kids are trained to decline offers of anything else.

I get your point that it's hard to make your child follow rules that exclude him from the group. But it's simpler to control your kids than to control the whole team.

Here’s the thing: Everybody can just bring their own snacks.

You bringing snacks for the team is “controlling the team”! How can you not see that?!

Why do some of you insist on feeding other people’s kids when it has nothing to do with the sport they signed up for?

Because it’s not controlling the team. No one is making you sign up on the sign up genius and no one is forcing your child to eat. If you aren’t a fan of team snacks, then express that to the team in question. Teams handle this all differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When did this even start? I played lots of sports as a team, and no one brought snacks.

Maybe it’s regional. I’m in the NYC suburbs and haven’t seen team snacks very often at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did this even start? I played lots of sports as a team, and no one brought snacks.

Maybe it’s regional. I’m in the NYC suburbs and haven’t seen team snacks very often at all.

Athletics is at a higher level there and taken more seriously.

[Anonymous]

If you don't like it, you don't have to participate, and you can tell your children not to take the snacks. You just have to deal with the consequence of that. Personally, I'm okay with my kids having one bag of chips and a bottle of gatorade once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like it, you don't have to participate, and you can tell your children not to take the snacks. You just have to deal with the consequence of that. Personally, I'm okay with my kids having one bag of chips and a bottle of gatorade once a week.

That’s lovely if you have one kid with one sport.

Why is it so important to you that snack be a group thing rather than just providing your own? That’s what I don’t get. It seems like it’s filling some weird need on the parents’ part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like it, you don't have to participate, and you can tell your children not to take the snacks. You just have to deal with the consequence of that. Personally, I'm okay with my kids having one bag of chips and a bottle of gatorade once a week.

It should be absolutely the opposite: If you don’t like not having snacks, bring your own Gatorade and chips. This snack culture is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like it, you don't have to participate, and you can tell your children not to take the snacks. You just have to deal with the consequence of that. Personally, I'm okay with my kids having one bag of chips and a bottle of gatorade once a week.

It should be absolutely the opposite: If you don’t like not having snacks, bring your own Gatorade and chips. This snack culture is nuts.

Nuts and bad parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am with you, and sadly I just sent out a snack sign up. Wondering actually if you are on our team because I sent my sign up out the day you posted this. We started soccer during COVID and neither of our kids’ teams did snacks and I thought it was great. Then this spring one of our kids was on a different team that did do snacks. Now my husband is coaching same kid and decided the team needed to do snacks (and I sent out the sign up because I have more experience with sign up genius, but I hated myself for doing it). No one has signed up besides me and one other person and honestly I hope it stays that way.

I'm so curious--are you in Fairfax? I think my son is on your husband's team. If so, I will not be signing up.

If you can do anything about the snack culture in other settings, I would appreciate it. Thank goodness my kids are older now, but it used to drive me crazy that every time a child was in my house for more than 45 minutes, it seems I was expected to offer them a snack. Once for a playdate many years ago with the kids of my closest friends, I actually announced I did not want to do a snack since we knew it was going to be very short and snack was always such a mess that took me days to clean and I thought we should just let the kids play. The reaction? You would have thought I'd mailed each one of these women a box full of dog turds. Anyhow--I'm not a fan of the whole snack culture situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am with you, and sadly I just sent out a snack sign up. Wondering actually if you are on our team because I sent my sign up out the day you posted this. We started soccer during COVID and neither of our kids’ teams did snacks and I thought it was great. Then this spring one of our kids was on a different team that did do snacks. Now my husband is coaching same kid and decided the team needed to do snacks (and I sent out the sign up because I have more experience with sign up genius, but I hated myself for doing it). No one has signed up besides me and one other person and honestly I hope it stays that way.

I'm so curious--are you in Fairfax? I think my son is on your husband's team. If so, I will not be signing up.

If you can do anything about the snack culture in other settings, I would appreciate it. Thank goodness my kids are older now, but it used to drive me crazy that every time a child was in my house for more than 45 minutes, it seems I was expected to offer them a snack. Once for a playdate many years ago with the kids of my closest friends, I actually announced I did not want to do a snack since we knew it was going to be very short and snack was always such a mess that took me days to clean and I thought we should just let the kids play. The reaction? You would have thought I'd mailed each one of these women a box full of dog turds. Anyhow--I'm not a fan of the whole snack culture situation.

My kids aren’t on this team but it’s not too late to stop it. To the well meaning parent who sent it out, send a follow up email. Say you spoke to other parents (us here on DCUM) and the consensus seems to be most prefer to bring their own snacks. You will be organizing a team party at the end of the season and would love help planning this. Please email you directly if interested in helping plan that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I agree, it’s awful. Luckily once your kid gets good, they get into travel teams where this is looked down upon. Not surprisingly the kids of the parents who insist on snacks are never the once who get good.

Did that make you feel good? Because I can’t imagine that it did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I agree, it’s awful. Luckily once your kid gets good, they get into travel teams where this is looked down upon. Not surprisingly the kids of the parents who insist on snacks are never the once who get good.

Did that make you feel good? Because I can’t imagine that it did.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I agree, it’s awful. Luckily once your kid gets good, they get into travel teams where this is looked down upon. Not surprisingly the kids of the parents who insist on snacks are never the once who get good.

Did that make you feel good? Because I can’t imagine that it did.

+1. Gross

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I agree, it’s awful. Luckily once your kid gets good, they get into travel teams where this is looked down upon. Not surprisingly the kids of the parents who insist on snacks are never the once who get good.

Did that make you feel good? Because I can’t imagine that it did.

+1. Gross

What is gross is insisting your constant need to feed your kids junk food is more important than anyone else’s desires with respect to what they feed their children. It’s not enough for you to feed your own kids junk food. You need to offer it and push it on all other kids. It’s disgusting behavior.

[Anonymous]

What is the point of your overly verbose rant? Teams aren’t going to stop having snacks because you whined on the internet.