Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "the snack culture"? IDK what that is, or why it is "out of control."

It's the shoving of snacks into any and all occasions (including adult meetings). Very few, if any, kids are working hard enough during a one-hour practice or game to need to refuel afterward.

100% agree.

Anonymous wrote:
I did that in the fall. Alas, it didn't work.

Thank you for volunteering to coach. I'm sorry there was an aggressive snack mom who undercut your efforts.

I wonder where these snack moms are at dance, gymnastics, swim, martial arts? It seems like it's mostly children playing soccer, lacrosse, and baseball who will die if they don't get group snacks.

When I coached little league this past fall for 5-6 yrs I proposed a snack schedule in the beginning of the season to see if there was any interest and there was none. I would bring some goldfish crackers at some practices and another coach would bring cookies at games. We had lot of families with younger siblings they had to tow to games/practices so they had their hands full and just bringing them to practices/games were a chore in itself let alone bring something like snacks.

Anonymous wrote:I played organized sports for years and never once can I recall having a snack at or just after practice and a game. At most, we might get to go get ice cream as a team after a Saturday game.

To me, this trend is just "one more thing." We don't participate--my kids don't eat it, and I don't bring it. We're not the only ones. One of my kids has an after school activity that has a snack sign up, and that makes more sense to me. If they didn't have the activity, they would probably have a snack at home around the same time.

I'm 40 and grew up playing softball and soccer in the 80's. We always had a snack after the games (not the practices) all through elementary grades. Usually it was a drink box and a Twinkie (or other Hostess product), granola bar or bag of doritos/chips.

Anonymous wrote:Volunteer to coach. Send out a welcome email. If the kids are 2nd grade or younger, say that there won't be time for snacks at practices, but if parents would like to sign up to provide orange slices at half time, here's the sign up. If the kids are older than 2nd grade, remind the parents that the kids need to bring their water bottles to every practice and game, and say you can't have snacks at every game because you need half time to prepare the kids for the second half of the game and thank the parents for getting their kids to practices and games at the scheduled time. The 3rd grade parents might be shell shocked at the lack of snacks, but they'll quickly realize it wasn't necessary and their kids survived.

I did that in the fall. Alas, it didn't work.

I was the coach. I sent an email asking parents to be sure to bring water to every practice and game, and stating that they were, of course, welcome to bring something for little Timmy to eat if they thought he was going to get hungry. I made no mention of team snacks or a schedule.
Sure enough, the day before the first game, I got a panicky email from Alpha-mom that I hadn't sent out the snack schedule yet. I told her I wasn't planning on doing a snack schedule, and as I said at the beginning, parents need to make sure their kids have a water bottle at every practice and game.
10 minutes later, she responded that she'd be happy to take over the group snack responsibilities from me.
So, despite my best efforts, we still had group snacks all season.

Thankfully DS switched leagues and his current team doesn't do group snacks. And shockingly enough, despite working WAY harder in this league, all the kids seem to survive the 10 minutes drive home after practice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's just one more instance of raising the bar. It makes ordinary parenting not good enough. "Some of us do it all" eventually will be the complaint when others don't contribute to the same standard. It's just a little thing - - this snack discussion, but it's a small example of what is happening on all fronts re: parenting. Some might say competitive parenting. Coaches, teachers, those in authority please help rein it in. Less hassle, reasonable expectations helps everyone be less stressed.

This x1000

Yep. I don't consider myself a competitive or comparative parent, but I find that when it's my turn to bring snacks, I end up buying things slightly nicer (and sadly, less healthy) than what I would bring my for my own kid -- mostly because I don't want the other kids to complain or be disappointed, but also maybe because I don't want to be lame in the eyes of the other parents.

Just writing that makes me realize how ridiculous it is!! The kids are mostly standing around at baseball games. It's two hours and they're 8. They don't need munchkins and juice boxes after.

Also, my kids know that if they whine or complain about the snack I bring, they lose their snack. After I showed them I was serious a few times, they learned to accept/appreciate what they get. No reason to do anything different for the team. (Water and a few goldfish crackers)

Anonymous wrote:I hate having to sign up to bring snacks for other peoples kids at practice and games. Wish we could just provide for our own kids.

+1

So ridiculous. I'm planning to be the buzz kill mom who suggests this once we know our kids' spring baseball coaches.

I played organized sports for years and never once can I recall having a snack at or just after practice and a game. At most, we might get to go get ice cream as a team after a Saturday game.

To me, this trend is just "one more thing." We don't participate--my kids don't eat it, and I don't bring it. We're not the only ones. One of my kids has an after school activity that has a snack sign up, and that makes more sense to me. If they didn't have the activity, they would probably have a snack at home around the same time.

Anonymous wrote:I am happy to either bring a snack routinely for my own kid, or sign up to rotate snacks. Either is fine with me. Same amount of food either way, so it's no skin off my nose whether I do it all in one day or across a bunch of days. Happy to share with whichever kid is hungry.

What I really don't get is get why some people are so snarky about feeding kids. They are children. We are adults. We can't find a snack to feed a hungry kid?

No because I wouldn't bring a snack for my kid routinely. She can go two hours without food.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T-ball coach here. We do it after games. As does every other team we play against.

It's sort of silly but what's the big deal?So once a season you have to lay out 20 bucks? Cry me a river. Are you seriously that cheap? It's kind of a fun decompression time for the kids, parents can chat, coaches can talk about schedule issues or whatever. And it takes 5-10 minutes.

It's. Not. About. The. Money.

NP here Your kid doesn't eat at all between lunch and dinner? If you know they'll get a snack after the game why not have that be their snack for the day? Your kid won't be ruined by having a handful of goldfish once a week.

My kids eat plenty of goldfish. You are being willfully obtuse.

I sign my kids up for team sports to get fresh air and exercise. It sends the wrong message that every time you exercise you need to be rewarded with crappy junk food. Because that's what it is-- either sweets or processed junk. I don't think it will "ruin" my kids. That's beside the point. WHY are we sending this mixed message? My child is 5. He doesn't need juice, cheezits, and a popsicle (which was the last snack) after 45 minutes of t-ball, half of which is standing in the outfield picking grass. If he needs something to eat after a practice I can provide it for him, FFS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T-ball coach here. We do it after games. As does every other team we play against.

It's sort of silly but what's the big deal?So once a season you have to lay out 20 bucks? Cry me a river. Are you seriously that cheap? It's kind of a fun decompression time for the kids, parents can chat, coaches can talk about schedule issues or whatever. And it takes 5-10 minutes.

It's. Not. About. The. Money.

NP here Your kid doesn't eat at all between lunch and dinner? If you know they'll get a snack after the game why not have that be their snack for the day? Your kid won't be ruined by having a handful of goldfish once a week.

My kid's games are at 9 or 10am and people bring donuts and chips as snacks. I'm not necessarily opposed to that because my kid eats plenty of healthy food to counterbalance the treats but it's a little much nevertheless. And everyone seems to want to one up each other with what they bring. It's a parent issue, not a kid issue.

Anonymous wrote:It's just one more instance of raising the bar. It makes ordinary parenting not good enough. "Some of us do it all" eventually will be the complaint when others don't contribute to the same standard. It's just a little thing - - this snack discussion, but it's a small example of what is happening on all fronts re: parenting. Some might say competitive parenting. Coaches, teachers, those in authority please help rein it in. Less hassle, reasonable expectations helps everyone be less stressed.

This x1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T-ball coach here. We do it after games. As does every other team we play against.

It's sort of silly but what's the big deal?So once a season you have to lay out 20 bucks? Cry me a river. Are you seriously that cheap? It's kind of a fun decompression time for the kids, parents can chat, coaches can talk about schedule issues or whatever. And it takes 5-10 minutes.

It's. Not. About. The. Money.

NP here Your kid doesn't eat at all between lunch and dinner? If you know they'll get a snack after the game why not have that be their snack for the day? Your kid won't be ruined by having a handful of goldfish once a week.

Anonymous wrote:T-ball coach here. We do it after games. As does every other team we play against.

It's sort of silly but what's the big deal?So once a season you have to lay out 20 bucks? Cry me a river. Are you seriously that cheap? It's kind of a fun decompression time for the kids, parents can chat, coaches can talk about schedule issues or whatever. And it takes 5-10 minutes.

It's. Not. About. The. Money.

Anonymous wrote: I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "the snack culture"? IDK what that is, or why it is "out of control."

It's the shoving of snacks into any and all occasions (including adult meetings). Very few, if any, kids are working hard enough during a one-hour practice or game to need to refuel afterward.