Here’s another question: when did children start needing to eat every 2 hours after infancy? I don’t remember my mom EVER taking snacks with us when we went places. I don’t remember getting snacks at school accept for kindergarten when we would get graham crackers and milk. I also don’t remember ever being hungry as a child either so I must not have needed them. I didn’t get snacks all the time. When did this start?
Now, when I take kids on a field trip I have to take a separate bag for snacks even if we’re only going to the park down the street for a half hour. If I don’t take snacks because I don’t think I need them since we are only going to be gone for a total of 45 minutes kids are shocked that I don’t have them (I mean 45 minutes!), and they demand that they have them.
Is it because we’ve discovered that eating through the day is healthier then 3 larger meals? Do we think our children will die of starvation? Do we think that because we love snacking so much our children should be able to do the same? Would they actually scream and throw a fit if we never began to feed them a bazillion times a day and didn’t expect it?
Think about it. Snacking takes up so much of the day; asking what they want, plating it, putting it together, watching them not really eating it anyway because this is the time they decide to play their hardest, and then clean up and even possibly changing clothes. You know the drill. I don’t even think kids like food as much as we imagine they do. Most times kids are completely disinterested in eating. If they want it they’ll ask, is my philosophy.
Sure, pack a snack in case they ask but let’s not force snack time onto our kids. Also, if they don’t eat their real meal why do they get a snack? Is it abusive if they have to wait to eat when the next meal is served? I was taught that meal time was just that, and if you didn’t eat it you would have to wait until the next meal to eat again. Doesn’t this system encourage good eating habits, and not play around at meal time because if you don’t eat there will be another meal in a few minutes?
I’m just asking.
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