I have friends who are athletes. They participate in marathons, half-marathons, triathlons, and duathlons. While training and on the actual race day, they carry gel packs or some other form of nutrition to give them energy because when you’re exerting your body for two to four hours without stopping, you need the calories to keep you going. Fueling your body is an important part of endurance sports.
RELATED: How NOT To Raise An Olympic Athlete
However, when you’re a seven year old kid playing soccer, or baseball, or hockey….or whatever other recreational sport your kid is in, he doesn’t necessarily ‘need’ a snack after every practice or game.
I don’t know who started the whole “one parent brings a snack for the whole team each week” thing but I do know we need to stop this snack insanity.
Newsflash: My kids can actually go an hour without eating.
Also? I don’t consider Rice Krispie squares, chocolate covered granola bars, cookies, or goldfish crackers to be a snack. They’re a treat. And if I feel my kids need to be re-hydrated, they drink water. Not juice, not a sports drink, and definitely not Freezies. Water.
I’m fine with you feeding your kids juice and treats, I’m not here to judge. And I completely understand succumbing to the pressure of bringing a “fun” snack when it’s your week. Nobody wants to be the Orange Slice Mom when last week little Tommy’s mom brought brownies. My younger son once begged me to not bring orange slices to his baseball game.
I brought watermelon instead.
And you know what happened when I opened the cooler to hand out the slices? One boy asked, “Where are the Freezies.”
We’re enrolling our kids in sports to be active and healthy yet we give them cookies, freezies, and juice after an hour of playing on a field. Conflicted messages much?
Honestly, our kids don’t need a snack every time they have a practice or game. And if they do? Well, here’s a cool concept...
How about each parent is responsible for bringing a snack for their own kid?
How do you feel about team snacks after a game or practice?
Now that we've stopped snacks we can stop giving our kids sh*t to do because boredom is a good thing. Oh, and here is how NOT to raise an Olympic athlete.
Printer-friendly version