Children's Sports: No more snacks

My son, Tad, has played recreational sports for years in various low cost programs that provide year round opportunities for all children to play sports. What I have come to dread is the snack schedule--not that the program is suggesting that we do this--but any time Tad plays a sport, some one comes up with a snack schedule. It was kind of cute handing out the juice boxes and little packages of cookies when he was four, but now that he's twelve, I have my doubts about the 20 + ounces of energy drinks or electrolyte replacement fluids or other beverages. Wait, I know, I'm supposed to be talking about snacks, and here I am stuck on talking about the junk calories from drinks, not to mention the weird adulterants (high fructose corn syrup? vitamins? caffeine?). A few of the parents have started bringing bottled water, which is a great improvement, but please, I'm hoping not to get started on the perils of plastic today. As the children have gotten older, the snack packs have gotten larger, and my concerns have grown. I really don't want Tad to have that giant package of salty pretzels just before dinner (most summer soccer games are in the evenings around here) and if he's eaten a light dinner, I don't think he needs to top off the tank with that much salt. Or sugar. Or fat.

As a child, I never played sports with snacks. Even in high school. riding the bus to games or meets, there was no communal snack sharing. At best, we might get to stop at a grocery store, which was pretty much a bust for me, since I never had any money. I do remember when Beth brought some exquisite lemon bars (back in the day when you made lemon bars from scratch).

So, here's what I have to say. You're killing my kid. Stop giving him snacks. He doesn't need a 500 calorie donut, especially if he has only expended 150 calories playing a game. Forget the drinks, too. He can bring his own water, find a water fountain (ever notice that water fountains, like pay telephones, are disappearing?), or wait until we get home. If he runs for 15 minutes in a soccer game, I can promise you that he is not going to starve to death or die of dehydration. Not on the Kenai Peninsula.

Update: I am in Seattle now. I signed Tad up to play soccer this fall. His rec team starts practice next week. The coach has already mentioned a snack schedule. I e-mailed him back and asked if we could skip the snacks. I know I'm probably in the minority on this, but it makes no physiologic sense to feed Tad breakfast, have him play, and then have a snack. I think it's important to make the request. How did it go? I did not hear back directly from the coach and I think that my request might have been buried in all the e-mails he received from parents. I didn't give up. When the coach sent out a request for one of the parents to make up a snack schedule, I e-mailed the group. A fair number of parents said they also didn't want snacks, so we are now officially a bring your own snack group, which makes more sense. Some athletes on the team have allergies, others are picky, others have weight issues, some will play only one game while others will have two games that day--how can you meet all of these needs? Oh, I know, a few good Washington apples would do the trick. Tad brought tap water and didn't have a snack. He didn't starve either, although he did have a great appetite for lunch when we got home.