It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

QueenJess

I sometimes have a snack in the afternoon and my kids need afternoon snacks as well. Not loads, but they do need something to carry them through to dinner, and particularly in the week when DS has dinner at 7:30pm due to timings with DD sleep, work and nursery pick ups. It’s just not possible to feed him before then.

I don’t see anything wrong with having a healthy snack. Neither me nor my kids are obese.

ladyholly

I don't know about now but school dinners were about midday and as I had working parents dinner was about 6 30pm. That is a long while for a child to go but we always had an apple or if very hungry a slice of bread and butter. I left school over 50 years ago.

Bluegreen143

My kids do get an afternoon snack too, or my DS (7) always does anyway as he is completely ravenous at 3.30pm when picked up and his mood will not be improved by making him wait to eat til 6/6.30pm. 

DD (4) isn’t usually very hungry, as her nursery provide a snack immediately before she leaves, but I allow her a little bit of her brother’s if she wants it.

We go to the park every day after school, and currently are doing the school run on foot so they’re certainly running it off and getting hungry. I am not “pro-grazing” for kids though so once the snack is done, it’s done, and our routine is they don’t eat again til dinner. But I think going from 11.30am school lunch to 6pm dinner is quite a long time for small tummies personally. 

(I always had an after school snack as a child too 🤷‍♀️)

However we don’t have junk food for snack, and I don’t usually buy prepacked snacks except value brand yoghurts.

Occasionally they get home baking (flapjacks, muffins or cake) as a treat but it’s usually fruit and/or veg sticks with yoghurt or milk and nuts. Or some toast and peanut butter or oatcakes with hummus if we’re home. I do think you can do children’s snacks very cheaply and healthily by sticking to the above, but I completely get the barriers that stop parents being able to do this (time, energy, cooking skills etc). 

Longwalker

When we were at school we either had school dinner , which was expected to be your main meal, so it was something on toast when home about 5pm and a biscuit with a milky drink for bed at 8. OR if we were on packed lunch, it was tea and a biscuit ( maybe 2) to keep us going till supper at 6;30 - and just the milky drink before bed

Dinner is 7:30 here. I might not take my lunch until 3 ( I eat when Im hungry not set by the clock ) so will invariably pick and then pick again at this time of night 

Being off work right now - with all the Christmas stuff ( gifts )  id have unloaded in work usually - Im going to need a crane to get me off the sofa !!  Im near 60, I know what foods are good for me , but like Im not going to eat a salad when theres shortbread needing using

Pollycat

-taff said:

We always had a tea time snack when we came home from school, usually some toast or the heady delights of bread and nutella if we were in Italy...in fact, we still did that last year and we've been out of school for over thirty years...

I'm going back almost 60 years to when I was at grammar school.
We had substantial meals - breakfast, lunches (school 5 days a week) and high tea.
We didn't need snacks.

Pollycat

QueenJess said:

I sometimes have a snack in the afternoon and my kids need afternoon snacks as well. Not loads, but they do need something to carry them through to dinner, and particularly in the week when DS has dinner at 7:30pm due to timings with DD sleep, work and nursery pick ups. It’s just not possible to feed him before then.

I don’t see anything wrong with having a healthy snack. Neither me nor my kids are obese.

Looking at that shopping list, I doubt those kids would be having a healthy snack.

Pollycat

Bluegreen143 said:

My kids do get an afternoon snack too, or my DS (7) always does anyway as he is completely ravenous at 3.30pm when picked up and his mood will not be improved by making him wait to eat til 6/6.30pm. 

DD (4) isn’t usually very hungry, as her nursery provide a snack immediately before she leaves, but I allow her a little bit of her brother’s if she wants it.

We go to the park every day after school, and currently are doing the school run on foot so they’re certainly running it off and getting hungry. I am not “pro-grazing” for kids though so once the snack is done, it’s done, and our routine is they don’t eat again til dinner. But I think going from 11.30am school lunch to 6pm dinner is quite a long time for small tummies personally. 

(I always had an after school snack as a child too 🤷‍♀️)

However we don’t have junk food for snack, and I don’t usually buy prepacked snacks except value brand yoghurts.

Occasionally they get home baking (flapjacks, muffins or cake) as a treat but it’s usually fruit and/or veg sticks with yoghurt or milk and nuts. Or some toast and peanut butter or oatcakes with hummus if we’re home. I do think you can do children’s snacks very cheaply and healthily by sticking to the above, but I completely get the barriers that stop parents being able to do this (time, energy, cooking skills etc). 

Any yoghurt on that shopping list?
Any full fat milk for healthy kids' bones?

As the "parents editor of the Manchester Evening News", it's a pretty poor selection of food for a Mum - imho.

YorksLass

SM delivery has arrived, two out of stocks (one I fully expected and the other was a promotional item that I was half expecting) and two subs, one of which has gone back for a refund.  Sorry, I don't want a small tin of brand name corned beef at £2.85 when a SM own large one is only £2.20.      It didn't take long to put everything away as it was a very small order and there was nothing destined for the freezer so no portioning up and no freezer tetris to play.  My fingers were happy about that!  

We seem to have accumulated a milk surplus so I've used some for a SC rice pudding (that's afters sorted for a few days) and we'll have a milky coffee later this afternoon.  And maybe most likely a piece of cake.    

Our budget runs from April to March, like the tax year, and I'm already thinking ahead.  I know full well we'll be paying more for rent, CT, water rates and the phone/broadband bill will be going up too by the rate of inflation plus 3% (I think that's right) as per the contract.  And of course the gas/electricity £400 household help will end in March.  As pensioners, we'll get a 10.1% pension increase (old rate) that will help but I think it's still going to be tight.  We're unlikely to be able to claim Pension Credit either - we always seem to be just over the qualifying criteria - although I'll definitely be checking, so belt tightening mode will have to continue for the foreseeable.  Sigh.

Floss

Maybe that MEN writer has a milkman for dairy & a F&V box delivery. Or maybe she buys those at another supermarket. Let's not slate her just on the contents of one shopping trolley.

Pollycat

Floss said:

Maybe that MEN writer has a milkman for dairy & a F&V box delivery. Or maybe she buys those at another supermarket. Let's not slate her just on the contents of one shopping trolley.

Maybe she could have (and should have) chosen a different angle on her article. 
Maybe she does have a milkman and fruit & veg box (although the skimmed milk and of bits of fruit and veg she bought from Tesco lead me to think not (again imho).
She still has a load of sugary junk food in that shop. 

When you put yourself in the media, expect to get criticism.
Especially if you are a journalist.
Criticism is not trolling - I'm not saying you said that, but criticism is a part of the world of journalism.