Soccer parents: What is your post game snack?

[Happyinwonerland]

DD (4) is playing soccer for the first time and apparently we have to pick a week to bring team snack. I didn't realize kids need a snack after playing for 30 minutes, but I digress.


What do you all usually bring for snack? Today was our first day and DD received a small bag of graham cracker bites and bottled water.

I don't want to offend people by bringing something unhealthy but I also don't want to be the boring mom who brings gross healthy food. I was thinking string cheese and packaged grapes plus a mini bottle of water. Or maybe a granola bar and mini water.

What does everyone else do?

 

[Southernmiss]

DD (4) is playing soccer for the first time and apparently we have to pick a week to bring team snack. I didn't realize kids need a snack after playing for 30 minutes, but I digress.


What do you all usually bring for snack? Today was our first day and DD received a small bag of graham cracker bites and bottled water.

I don't want to offend people by bringing something unhealthy but I also don't want to be the boring mom who brings gross healthy food. I was thinking string cheese and packaged grapes plus a mini bottle of water. Or maybe a granola bar and mini water.

What does everyone else do?

Your suggestions sound ok to me. DD is 14 so we are removed from the team snacks era. I think we brought little debbie cakes and bags of chips or goldfish crackers at that age.

 

[Meeko5]

Juice boxes and little bags of cookies were my go to.

I admire the healthy snacks, but the kids like the sweet stuff better. I figure they earned a good treat!

 

[Kae]

I think your snack sounds great. When my kids were little String cheese was always a hit.

Kae

 

[disneychrista]

Bring what you want. Or if you "turn" is not for a few weeks, see what others bring and go with that. Be warned though, some moms are "those moms" who go over the top with snacks, while other pick something up on their way to the game.

We never did drinks, the kids all brought water bottles with them. We usually ended up bring individual packaged crackers, cookies, or granola bars. Sometimes fruit snacks or fruit roll ups. I usually let me kids pick what they wanted.

When I was a kid it was ALWAYS orange slices for half time and Gatorade after the game. Back in the 80s they didn't want us drinking during the game to avoid stomach cramps.

 

[mombrontrent]

My go to was always yogurt tubes. I would freeze then first and put them in a cooler.

 

[anniemae]

I think your suggestions are fine. Kids like string cheese, goldfish crackers, cheeze-it's, granola bars etc. I never understood why everyone can't just bring their own snack and drink?

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Since she's only 4 people probably won't get too crazy with the snacks. At least not at first. In my experience, these snacks get ridiculous quickly. By the end of the season, parents will be giving out treat bags as big as your 4 year old's head, filled with enough calories to substitute for a meal, plus some little toys and crap. So, if you want to do something reasonable like a cheese stick and a juice box, I'd sign up early, before all the team mommies start competing to out-do one another.

 

[aprilgail]

. I never understood why everyone can't just bring their own snack and drink?

I agree- we always ended up bringing our own anyway because people would come with things like string cheese, yogurt in tube, fruit roll ups or oranges all things my daughter hated. We would bring goldfish or those packages of crackers with peanut butter on them or even just a couple cookies that she would eat. I would still have to bring team snacks on my turn but she rarely ate anyone elses.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Last week after my 5th graders football game he got:

A cup of cup up apples
A yogurt
A bag of crackers
A Gatorade
A banana
A steak dinner with a twice baked potato and a glass of chardonnay

Ok...kidding about the steak dinner. But true for everything else!

When I used to have to bring snacks for soccer/little league/football/etc, we brought bananas. That's it. And I coach a sport and so does DH, so we've pretty much been exempt from snack duty for years now.

I loved the years my kid was on the team with the crazy team mom who collects 10 bucks from everyone, then buys and brings all the snacks herself. My kids end up with better food than I'd ever buy them!

 

[mjkacmom]

First of all, I'm a mom opposed T o these silly snacks. They don't need them, they leave garbage behind, and it's just one more thing to worry about. DH never allowed the practice for travel soccer, starting in 3rd grade, all three teams he coached.

That said, I'd sign up for my slots, buy a couple of those large boxes of chips at Costco at the beginning of the season and leave them in my van, bring them out when I was told it was my week, put them back in the van for the next time (multiple kids close in age).

We rarely have chips in the house, but I wanted cheap and easy.

 

[Thing 1]

We were baseball early instead of soccer but same practice. The big thing is individual packs. We often did not get dinner before a game and would make DS wait until we ate to enjoy his snack. When they are really little its mostly juice boxes replaced by water bottles and Gatorade by 6 or so. One team we played on had a local soft drink company for its sponsor and brought the kids a can drink every game. Yep, a caffeine-sugar drink an hour before bedtime! We always let him have it even though we rarely allowed soda...BUT he got it the next day.

 

[xjillianpaige]

When I was a kid a lot of the parents brought orange slices and I hated orange slices. Don't bring orange slices.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

First of all, I'm a mom opposed T o these silly snacks. They don't need them, they leave garbage behind, and it's just one more thing to worry about. DH never allowed the practice for travel soccer, starting in 3rd grade, all three teams e coached.

^^^^LOVE ^^^^^ with the power of 1000 suns!!!

I coach two competitive/sideline cheer teams and don't ever allow my girls to eat or drink anything other than water in their uniforms, so they don't get snacks from me or the team! And they must change out of their uniforms before they get anything from the concession stand if they stay for the next game.

I have a $100 deposit check from each parent that I WILL cash if I see my girls eating in uniform.

Somehow, after two hours (of constant stunting, tumbling, and dance routine work), they live to compete again without grapes, oranges, or cheezits waiting for them on the sideline.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

Wow have times changed. When my boys were little, there were no after game snacks by parents.
Each coach was different, and usually the coaches of the youngest teams brought candy or lollipops as after game treats. And I think that was only used as a tool to get the kids and their parents over to the sideline so he could make his weekly announcements before the kids and parents ran to their cars and drove away.
As they got older, they were conditioned to go over to the coach after the game, so he no longer needed to bring "bait"
My youngest one had a coach who liked to give the team a treat now and then, so once a month, unannounced, he would have pizza after practice, and his wife would bake cupcakes for that months birthday kids. His motive was multi fold, he liked the kids and wanted to treat them now and then - most of the team played together from age 4 to age 14. His other motive was to get kids to the practices....everyone wanted to be a star on the field, but no one wanted to come to practice.
Other than that, my kids regular after game snack was dinner. We spend Sunday mornings on the fields, and Sunday afternoons had a big family dinner with my sisters family and my mom.

 

[Meriweather]

My kids are grown now, but we had snacks for many, many years.
Juice boxes are good for a drink
Granola bars, fruit snacks, fresh fruit are good.
I am now aware of allergies since DGD has one.......so check that out before you decide. She has a dairy allergy so no yogurt, goldfish, etc.......we have learned to bring out own, but she does feel left out sometimes.

 

[fly girl]

I'm cool with whatever. It's a free snack being handed out, so roll with it and be grateful.

This week parents brought gummy fruit snacks and juice. Last week it was Gatorade and pretzels.

I've brought prepackaged popcorn, chip-ahoy, and Rice Krispy treats. The winner was the Rice Krispy treats. Least favorite the Chip Ahoy. Popcorn was a hit too. Doritos are always a kid pleaser here as well.

The only thing about the cheese sticks is if a child can't have dairy. Only had that once, so it's probably not a frequent occurrence. And you'd have to bring a cooler to keep them chilled, and I'm all for easy with snacks (it's a chore with drink detail -- but our field is far away from parking though).

 

[jormom1030]

I am very opposed to the fact that we are conditioning kids to think that if they are doing some kind of physical activity they must be rewarded with a snack (that is usually not even healthy). It is no wonder so many kids are obese.

 

[disneychrista]

I'm cool with whatever. It's a free snack being handed out, so roll with it and be grateful.

I never thought of it has a "free" snack because it cost me money when I had to bring it.

 

[fly girl]

I never thought of it has a "free" snack because it cost me money when I had to bring it.

Everyone takes turns. It's free every week but yours. So i think of it as a nice gift from parents and to be grateful for whatever they bring.


ETA: we only do one snack or (not and) drink per season. Your league could be different.