How often do you treat your child?

Jewel_2

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

My children (7 and 4) have never had sweets because we don't feed junk. They have treats such as blueberries which are quite expensive but they don't have them everyday.

Serious question, how does your 7 year old refrain from having sweets etc at parties (or do you just mean at home they don't have sweets).

nottslass_2

My DS is 9 and doesn't eat sweets - I never introduced them to his diet when he was small and as a consequnce he doesn't actually like them,he's the same with crisps etc.



When he gets sweets in party bags etc they always get left.

jakes-mum

My 2 get pocket money on a saturday (DS 10 = £1.50, DD 3 = 70p) which is theirs to do as they wish with. They earn it through chores, DS gets more because he does more. DS will happily blow the lot on sweets and share them with all his mates, DD likes to use 50p toward an icecream from the icecream man once a week and saves the other 20p in her money box. I've never made sweets a reward and though they both like them it isnt the be all and end all, if they do ask when we are at the shops, I ask if they have pocket money left, if the answer is no then they cant have any.
To be honest he brings a stream of mates into our house and they always seem to have sweets that they have bought from the shop, so I think im probably rather stingy with pocket money.
I treat them after tea with icecream, angel delight, jelly or if I can be bothered to make one trifle.

Jewel_2

The other way of limiting the amount is to buy those horrible hard boiled lollies that take a lifetime to eat, rather than just sugary sweets.

My husband wasn't allowed sweets when he was a kid and now he has three sugars in his tea, and if allowed would drink litres of coke. And he still only does this behind his mum's back and he's 40!!!

mummyroysof3

i guess it depends on what you class as a treat though doesnt it? my kids dont have days out as often as alot of their friends or holidays abroad etc but they do seem very happy with the odd day out or trip to soft play etc and keep themselves amused the majority of the time so i class them as treats but other parents might not

nottslass_2

Jewel wrote: »

The other way of limiting the amount is to buy those horrible hard boiled lollies that take a lifetime to eat, rather than just sugary sweets.

My husband wasn't allowed sweets when he was a kid and now he has three sugars in his tea, and if allowed would drink litres of coke. And he still only does this behind his mum's back and he's 40!!!

There is a difference between not allowing something,thus making it coverted and simply just not "buying it".

I don't buy certain food stuff's such as raspberrys,brussle spouts and liver and my Dc's have yet to stand in a shop "begging" to be allowed to have some sprouts!!!

rosalie-lavender

We had big issues with my MIL stuffing my kids full of sweets, crisps and chocolate when they were small. Apparently it is a "grandmas priviledge" to treat the grandchildren to sweets. If she had only seen them occasionally it wouldn't have been an issue but she saw them at least twice a week and would buy them a chocoate bar, a packet of milky stars and a packet of crisps and give them to them to stuff at one sitting. Then she would comment when they didn't eat their meals. Dh had to have words in the end. The trouble was it was then very hard to break the childrens' expectations and bad habits they had got into. We set a specific day for sweets/chocolate and made it Sunday when they saw grandma so she could still treat them. We managed to cut it down to two things which I still thought was too much and in the end we split it to one thing twice a week.

It is fine while they are smaller but it is true that once they get to Secondary school it becomes a lot harder to keep tabs on what they are eating. Op I think you are right to set a sensible amount of sweets etc now. Good eating habits stand them in good stead later and help them to make sensible choices when they have more independence.

I do know one or two children that are totally banned from having any kind of sweets, chocolates and even chocolate type cakes. Having seen the way they pig out on the banned food whenever their mothers back is turned, I am not sure I think a total ban is such a good idea.

One thing I did with mine was collect cheap second hand books from fairs and sales and kept them in a box. Particularly good behavour or good reports from school etc meant a trip to the book box to choose a book. Mine loved it and all still have a love of reading. It could be anything, it doesn't have to be books. Ours got quite enough sweets from Grandma without us having a treat box of sweets.

I have to say the worst culprit in our house for sweets and chocolate is my husband. Give him a box of chocolates and they could be gone in half an hour, in spite of the fact he is supposed to eat a low fat diet. He has no self restraint at all.

KiKi

I genuinely don't understand the notion that chocolate or sweets are every day foods, and that parents who provide their children with a small chocolate bar after lunch or after school think it's part of a balanced diet. The sugar alone is so bad!

My goddaughters have a packet of crisps every day - it always gobsmacks me. One of them is only four, and she eats an adult-sized (ie, normal) packet every day.

I think once a week for a small packet of sweets, or small chocolate bar is fine. But it should be something small for a child, esp a young child...consuming adult sizes of sweets and chocolates can't be good for them! Once they're teenagers you won't be able to stop them getting stuff they want if they have pocket money, so the earlier you can instil good habits and practices the better.

KiKi

sock-knitter

nottslass wrote: »

There is a difference between not allowing something,thus making it coverted and simply just not "buying it".

I don't buy certain food stuff's such as raspberrys,brussle spouts and liver and my Dc's have yet to stand in a shop "begging" to be allowed to have some sprouts!!!

this post reminded me of my ds1 a few years ago, throwing a temper tantrum in asda for frozen sprouts, everyone was looking at me weird, as they had probably never seen a child scream for sprouts before.
my sons are 16 now, and hopefully arnt buying too much junk, i always buy plenty of fruit and other healthy treats such as yogurt and smoothies for them.

Jewel_2

nottslass wrote: »

There is a difference between not allowing something,thus making it coverted and simply just not "buying it".

I don't buy certain food stuff's such as raspberrys,brussle spouts and liver and my Dc's have yet to stand in a shop "begging" to be allowed to have some sprouts!!!

I wasn't disagreeing with you, I believe his mum was wrong to 'not allow' him sweets, and certainly I agree that there is a big difference between buying something and stopping them ever having sweets.

Diet in general is a massive issue as they get to secondary school. I always try to balance food and put much more of an emphasis on exercise because I really don't want my daughter to see food as something to feel guilty about. There are far too many parents nowadays who don't get the balance right (one way or another) because it's so difficult when there are outside influences. I do think parents who don't 'allow' their children any sweets are in for a massive shock as they get older.

My daughter has described the dinner table at lunchtime at school. There are girls who don't eat anything, girls who push their food around their plate, girls who stuff their faces. Most of them moan that the food is horrible and already they talk about diets, thin waists, etc. And you can see it replicated in the adults!

To be honest it scares the living daylights out of me, so I just give her healthy food, turn a blind eye when she wants sweets, and ensure that she does loads of exercise. Input, output. Moderation. And she doesn't have a filling yet!