Super Policy or Food Police Gone Wild?
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I don't understand why it's the school's job to celebrate your kid's birthday, or the job of your kid's classmates to celebrate someone else's birthday.I guess I'm kind of sentimental - the idea of a child taking 10 minutes of the day to share a treat with friends and to let the spotlight shine on them seems a sad thing to say goodbye too. I was also shocked when I found out that the kids get 1 15 minute recess per 6 hour day (we had 3 when I was growing up in the 1970s). Perhaps if they would introduce more recess the kids would burn off the cals from the 20 cupcakes (1 per birthday) that they bring in each year...
I guess the constructive thing to do would be to work with the school on some type of alternative birthday celebration.
I just need to wrap my head around the fact that we no longer seat 6 unbelted 7 year olds in the back of mommy's station wagon - 1 per booster in her SUV. And we don't send in cupcakes anymore. Perhaps it isn't as bad as I initially thought.
... maybe because it's nice to make someone feel special?
it's not like this happens to just ONE kid out of the entire class. everyone takes a turn at being the birthday kid. why is that bad?0 -
I wonder when the schools will institute a policy that bans giving gifts (non-food or otherwise) to teachers.0
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For those who had summer birthdays. I was always jealous. Sure, I could bring something to school.. but that was it. For me it was no birthday party at all unless I brought something to school. No sleep overs. There was just no time for it with the school schedule. Not like those lucky kids who had summer birthdays and could have those things because they didn't have school on their special day. Because it didn't matter if their birthday fell on a Wednesday, there was still no school to be at that day or the day after.
Just some food for thought. It is super duper normal to be jealous of what someone else has that you don't. It is also kinda screwed up to tell someone they can't have something just because you can't. Great meme about it out there, but it is typically attached to another subject that is unrelated to the topic of this thread.0 -
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Even back in the olden days when I was in school I don't recall people bringing in treats for the whole class because it was one child's birthday. You'd get homemade treats for holiday parties (like Halloween) and other special events, but not everyone's birthday. So I guess I don't see it as a bad thing. It seems awfully disruptive and to take away time from real school stuff (like learning) if it's done for everyone's birthday, and I kind of do think it creates a weird dynamic if some moms do it and others do not.
When I was at school (olden days also :laugh: ) we got to stand at the front whilst the whole class sang Happy Birthday. Didn't bring cakes for the whole class. I don't have any little ones but my friend's children take cupcakes to school (Australia)
I can see that there could be allergy issues etc. and that could be why the school said no cupcakes, strawberries or grapes.
I find it horrific that teachers patrol children's individual lunch boxes - and to insist that everything be pre-packaged - ridiculous! Definitely not affordable or healthy.0 -
at one of the preschools that i was looking at for my 2 year old, I had to provide a doctors note if I was going to provide my child his own food from home because we follow a vegan diet. That REALLY bothered me. He is my child, I should be able to decide what he eats, not a freaking school, not a doctor. Me. (well and of course his father)
That said, it's because they lose government funding if the child doesn't eat there.....Which I understand...but it still really bothered me.
School is for learning, not for celebrating birthdays. I think cupcakes are unnecessary personally. And it isolates kids.0 -
A lot of schools don't allow birthday treats anymore. There are allergies and it's a distraction in class. If they took 30 minutes out of the day to eat treats every time a kid had a birthday, they'd lose a lot of time.0
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The restrictions these days are brutal. I'll feed my kid whatever I want. Within reason of course.0
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My son goes to a private school and they still allow treats brought in. A few kids have allergies and the teacher informs the parents about the issues and the parents are usually really good about making sure all the kids get to enjoy. Most of the kids in his class are summer babies so they don't really get too many parties, and it only takes 10 minutes.0
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my elementary school did one thing for the summer birthdays.
Maybe a smart idea would be to once a month just give the kids a break, throw a mini party or something. But I agree with 30 plus kids in a class, that's a lot of cupcakes!!!0 -
we had birthday parties and Christmas parties and Halloween parties and random cookie and cupcake days. I don't remember any of my classmates hospitalized or committing suicide over them.
I say the school keeps pushing the boundaries of sanity just to they can feel good about themselves.0 -
Yes, back in the 50's when I was a toddler we brought home cooked foods from home and by the end of the year we were all obese and medicated..........glad they're finally putting their food down.....whoops Freudian Slip.0
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... maybe because it's nice to make someone feel special?
it's not like this happens to just ONE kid out of the entire class. everyone takes a turn at being the birthday kid. why is that bad?
But not everyone gets a turn. Summer birthday kids and those who can't afford to bring treats for everyone don't get a turn.0 -
god forbid someone doesn't get a turn!?
that's life. blame the parents for having the kid in the summer. perhaps if they weren't bad parents and cared enough about their kids they would have made sure they were born during the school year.0 -
This is typical school BS coming from washington DC on down. At our schools they'll confiscate anything you pack in the lunches they don't approve of. I'd be down there raising hell. It's just another case of the jackbooted food gestapo running wild.0
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I remember the old days when someone would bring cupcakes to school for their birthday and nobody was jealous because everyone just thought "YAY! WE ALL GET CUPCAKES!!" And then "Oh, it's someone's birthday? Whatever." And shoved the cupcakes in our mouths.0
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I attempted cup cakes for my eldest birthday at school, but they didn't turn out lol. So both my girls had bought cup cakes for their birthdays lol.
Kindy (4 and 5 year olds) is nut free. Trace of nuts is okay, and they are teaching the kids about food safety. One child doesn't eat cakes, so her mother has given them a bag of chocolates. She gets one of them. The other kids in the class all had the cakes.
At school they haven't said no nuts, but one girl in my eldest class is allergic to peanuts. So we aren't sending peanut butter etc in lunches. On birthdays she goes to the office and gets a cake her mum has sent for her treats. So she doesn't miss out.
I couldn't imagine not sending them lunch. In Australia it's rare that lunch is supplied, though most schools have 'tuck shop' and they cook at a kindy sometimes. We have trouble getting my eldest to eat her lunch, so tend to pack her high calorie options. A couple of weeks ago I found out kids were asking for food from her lunch box. We had a 'chat' about why that's not a good idea. My daughter is borderline with her weight, so needs the food. Some kids may not and also it isn't right that they share.0 -
Leave me and my food alone!!!0
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I think it's a bit over the top that you couldn't bring in anything. I've always asked when bringing in treats due to allergies. There are none in our home but I know others do so I try to be cautious; especially with kids.
My son still refuses to take PBJ to school even though he absolutely loves them, because of a girl with nut allergies in his Kindergarten class. He's in third grade now! Their teacher would make all of the kids with PB go to the end of the line & sit at the "back" of their tables away from the girl with the nut allergy. All of the kids without got to be at the front. I think he saw it as a punishment because the entire year he had to be in the back. It wasn't until towards the end of the year he told me he didn't want PBJ anymore and why he was at the back. I figured it was because they lined up alphabetically & we have a Y last name. Once he told me I sent jelly or meat sandwiches.0 -
With all the crazy intolerances and allergies kids seem to have these days, best to just play it safe. (I babysit my niece, who is deathly allergic to EVERYTHING; for the first two years of her life, she ate the exact same thing every day I watched her, because I was so terrified of killing her, and there was only a small handful of food I knew FOR SURE that she could eat. :ohwell:)
Why not send in little individual bubble jars, or bouncy balls or stickers, instead?0 -
Many schools are going to this. I teach preschool and we have a no food donations policy. We tell parents that if they want to bring in pencils or stickers or even special napkins for lunch that they can do that so they do have alternatives if they want to send something. There are so many kids with food allergies that even sending "healthy" treats may cause problems. I am thinking of several kids with peanut allergies. I have bought treats like granola bars that were chocolate chip and the ingredient list said nothing about peanuts but in very small print on the box was "May contain peanuts". If someone bought that and parents and teachers didn't catch it, that could cause huge problems. So yes it is a pain but I am sure the teacher has a wonderful way of acknowledging your child's special day.0
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Coming from a school/government system that has classified pizza as a vegetable this policy must seem brilliant to those who created it.0
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I got to my first mention of the federal government "ramming things down our throats" and decided not to read this whole thread, haha. So I'm not sure if this has been said yet.
I think that with all the possible issues with kids feeling left out, with food allergies, special dietary considerations, etc. it's probably for the best that this is the school's policy. (How would you feel if you had an obese child, who you were working very hard with on healthy eating, who snuck two cupcakes every time a classmate had a birthday? Talk about a sugar rush!) Not to mention, there's no saying what is in the home-made treats brought in by other families, whether they used clean hands to make them, etc.
I would ask the teacher if there's anything else she/he could suggest to help your child celebrate their birthday at school? I'm sure you're not the first parent to ask this. The school is trying to do their best to help all the students; I guarantee there's not a conference room of evil administrators cackling at all the insane restrictions they're cooking up just to make your life hard.0 -
My son goes to a private school and they still allow treats brought in. A few kids have allergies and the teacher informs the parents about the issues and the parents are usually really good about making sure all the kids get to enjoy. Most of the kids in his class are summer babies so they don't really get too many parties, and it only takes 10 minutes.
My daughter's birthday is today. She also goes to a private school where they still allow healthy treats. One kid had a gluten allergy and I accommodated for that. My kid brought chocolate beet cupcakes and gluten free brownies. They sang happy birthday, ate the treats during lunch and got back to work.0 -
At my youngest son's school we can bring in store bought stuff, no homemade. ..and he's in kindergarten, so at the beginning of the year they asked all the parents to bring in snacks for the kids to have throughout the year, with no restrictions.0
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I think it's ridiculous. You can't even breathe anymore without someone having something to say about it. I'd be pissed off if they did that at my kid's school. What about Valentine's day? Or Halloween? Are those off limits too? Ugh! LIfe is no fun anymore.
As a suggestion, though, maybe you could send in pencils with birthday balloons on them, or party hats, or something like that just so your little one can celebrate.0 -
that was the policy in my kids elementary and that was ten years ago now. THey did let me come in with balloons,sing happy birthday and pass out goodie bags to the kids in the class. its the new thing to get our kids eating right. I am so happy that Michele Obama and her myplate movement has helped kids have better food choices in the schools. Well that is until they hit high school. ugg then its a different story. My kids all hated cake so it wasn't a problem anyways. You can always join PTO if you want to be part of the policies. That is what I had done for everyone of my kids school years.0
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Thank goodness our school district doesn't food police to the extreme like that. My kid IS the multiple allergy kid in class, and at a young age we've had to coach her on what foods she cannot eat. Allergies are common enough that the teachers let the parents know at the beginning of the school year who has what allergy as a guideline for birthdays. Anything that's questionable gets sent home with the kid for the parents to inspect and give the treat at their discretion. My kid is so used to it, it doesn't phase her. Is
it extra work for everyone involved? Yes, of course. But it's kinda worth it to let the kiddies have their special days in class throughout the year.0 -
For a long time now schools in my area have had a no home made food policy. I haven't heard of a "wellness policy" before, but I don't have kids in school any more.
The same for our school(s) here...this is to protect Everyone.
IDK about the higher grades but in grade school they've now implemented 1 day in a month period where everyone who has a birthday in that month is recognized.
1 yr the teacher made banners for the birthday people and all the kids got to sign them....the birthday kids would get a tiara or king crown at the end of the day w/ a blue ribbon sticker saying "birthday girl/boy"
I want to say that on this day (which would be done on a Fri), parents would get sent a paper w/ their childs birthday and you could check off if you wanted/could bring Paper towels, Fruit, Plates, Napkins, Cups, Spoons, Drinks, (cup)Cake BUT you could not have made it at home.
The way the teacher explained it is that it would be so time consuming if they had to take a day for everyones birthday.
Like someone else said, the teachers time is already limited by the kids not getting as many breaks as "She" used to get when she went to school.
Yes, you can provide your Own child w/ whatever you choose for their school meal because only you know your childs dietary needs and kids here are asked Not to share food(s) w/ each other!
All 29 parents had to rotate through the school year based on the childs last name initial on bringing snacks on Fri.
While most only had to do it 2 times we had to do it 3 times and 1 time I volunteered for someone who I knew could not financially afford to provide enough for the whole class for both of their times.
The rules were a little restrictive...no candy, no nuts, no homemade and no cake/brownies (I think this was because they wanted to reserve this as a birthday item).
So you could do fruit slices, veggie slices...I don't know if they would've allowed for any jar kinds of dips but I didn't provide any kind of veggies on my 4 times...(fish)crackers, pretzels, dry cereal (fruit loops, cheerios) etc.
Around Christmas time I bought the class as a treat the single snack Christmas rice crispy tree.
I believe 1 time I sent 2 containers of strawberries (prewashed and air dried)
Another time I bought a bunch of bananas and explained that all her classroom helper needed to do was cut a banana in 1/2, that way 2 kids could share and there would be less waste, whatever was left others who wanted more could have them.
Another time I cut up a bunch of oranges for their little hands to hold.
I believe I also did grapes...not knowing what color they preferred I got green and red (seedless of course)!
Then I just paired those w/ something else.
It was only suppose to be a snack....not a meal!0
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