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Providing snacks before and after meals, on the road, and after events such as soccer games, packs on too many unnecessary calories. I spent two years coaching soccer and baseball for my son's leagues. It surprised me the first season when a parent wanted to send around a snack schedule. According to the parent, her daughter and many other children looked forward to getting their snack after the game. The game started at 12:00 pm and ended at 12:45 pm. I expected that the children either ate lunch before the game or soon after. I considered no one wanted a snack so soon after or before lunch. Furthermore, I almost fell over when I saw what type of snacks the parents brought. Ding Dongs, Twinkies, Fritos, and juice boxes topped the list of popular after game snacks. A friend of mine said once she packs her car with a cooler of juice and other snacks for the road. My mother in-law does the same thing, so I assume this is a trend of parents feeding their kids all day while in the car? Having food available at all times makes it to easy to eat at all times whether hungry or not. I suggest unless traveling for several hours on the road, feed children a well-balanced meal at home and avoid the snacks in the car or at the game. Children learn a bad habit of eating all day long. They pack on extra calories they really don't need. Overeating causes obesity. .
A sedentary lifestyle of watching TV, playing video games, and computer surfing reduces the amount of calories children burn throughout the day causing weight gain. Parents continue to feed their children three meals a day plus snacks, but fail to encourage them to exercise. Most parents spend over 40 hours a week working and then come home to the kids, eat dinner, do house work, and go to bed. Most parents themselves do not get enough exercise. Unless children take part in after school sports or other physical activities such as dance, they too go home, eat dinner, do homework, play on the computer (while snacking), and go to bed.
