Comments on: The Cult of Snacking: Are Your Kids Obsessed? Are You?

By: Confessions of a Mean Mommy » Blog Archive » Snacking All The Time, In the NY Times

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:03:13 +0000

[...] Yeah, been there, said that. [...]

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:09:51 +0000

This is a great post and discussion! My pet peeve is the “snack calendar” that is always thrust upon you the first moment of the first day of any organized kid activity, ie soccer, swim team etc.. I’m however a big fan of the after school snack. In our house cinnamon sugar sandwiches, milk, and fruit are favorites…it is a nice time to quietly reconnect with my daughter after a busy school day. It is also where I try weedle as much information about her day as possible. She is now a second grader, and her responses run along the lines of name, rank, and number!

By: Kate H.

Kate H. — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:22:29 +0000

Mine was a mean mom. I will be a mean mom someday. Eating in a bookstore? No. Eating occurs at mealtime. You do not eat when you are bored. Shocked that no one said anything about promoting childhood obesity with bad habits.

By: Confessions of a Mean Mommy » Blog Archive » School’s Out For Summer… Why is That, Again?

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:32:34 +0000

[...] be rid of, such as sifting through endless papers and projects in backpacks, and prepping endless lunches and snacks. But I’d never let that on to my sons. School? It’s a [...]

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:55:51 +0000

I’m with you here. Whenever I return to the US I definitely feel culture shock when it comes to snacking. I’ve found there is much less focus on snacks here in Japan where we live and much more focus on eating properly at meals. Little catering to preference, just expectations that children will eat nutritiously and properly and broadly. I suppose it’s a bit of an old-fashioned take on food, but I prefer it. You don’t see tons of children’s meals in restaurants either, or if you do, they tend to be smaller portions of adult meals with just a bit more variety.

It’s the same with toys too. You don’t see children going to doctor’s appointments with a bunch of toys etc. to distract them.

Great post! Lots of food for thought, ha ha.

By: class factotum

class factotum — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:21:54 +0000

I’ve wondered about this. I don’t have any kids and I get curious when I see kids at church with their snacks and their books and their toys. I’m Catholic, so it’s not like church is an all-day event. Can these kids really not go an hour without Cheerios? Can’t an 8-yr-old sit through Mass without a toy?

I don’t remember my mom packing snacks when I was a kid. We ate at the house. On long car trips, she brought sandwiches and bananas. But snacking to snack was not a thing.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:20:51 +0000

OMG, I had the exact same reaction the first time I went to a Barnes & Noble storytime with my then-toddler (maybe younger) daughter. The snacking was outrageous and clearly aimed at appeasement alone. My daughter was fine with it because, um, she wasn’t hungry, but also because I’ve made a point since she was very young to educate her about food issues, including things like mindless snacking. But in subsequent storytimes the snacking got so distracting that the woman leading the storytimes actually banned snacks. Holy cow, you would have thought she’d told these mothers to stop nursing a starving infant. As such, that ban didn’t last long. That said, I’m actually one of those mothers who always has snacks with me, for myself and my daughter. But that’s because we are very conscious about what we eat, and rarely can find acceptable snack foods when we’re out and about. So I like to be prepared. But that’s entirely different.

Chris

By: Jennifer Fink

Jennifer Fink — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:11:29 +0000

The snack culture can be so sneaky. It’s hard to go ANYWHERE these days without my kids being offered some kind of food, from free cookies at the bakery in the grocery store to candy at the bank to the ever-present snacks at Grandma’s house (today alone she gave them fruit snacks and frosted decorated choc. chip cookie. At 11 am).

By: Denise

Denise — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:40:02 +0000

Heather, so true — I’d always rather pack my own snacks then buy what’s available “out there.” We took them to the zoo in Florida last year when visiting my parents, and we were the ones with the fully-stocked picnic basket with lunch, drinks and snacks, so we could avoid spending ungodly amounts on bad concession food. That’s a little habit I inherited from my mom, A.K.A. The Fruit Lady. Regular noshes (such as at daycare and school) are fine. But don’t get me started on some of the snacks I’ve seen at my older son’s first grade class (they have a morning snack, about an hour and a half before lunch). I’m packing water or juice and Cheerios or a fruit bar, and some kids have Yoohoo and Oreos!

By: Denise

Denise — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:37:16 +0000

thanks Molly! Yes, that snacking-while-driving-five-minutes-home kills me. Snacking plays into the whole culture of instant gratification, which I suspect may be the subject of my next blog post, so stay tuned!