They think they’re hungry; you know they’re bored. It’s the child-vs.-parent argument as old as time, and with everything else in our lives going to hell in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, none of us really wants to get into a snack battle of wills. But in recent days, two very smart parents may have come up with a couple of creative solutions the rest of us can benefit from.
The “just have it all right now” strategy
This idea comes to us from Random Thoughts Uncensored on Facebook. Each child gets their own basket. Each basket contains the day’s snacks for that child. Want to eat it all before 9 a.m.? Fine, but that’s all the snacks you get for the day, so you might want to think about how hungry you really are.
As a bonus strategy, they also put the kids’ cups for the day in their baskets to reduce the stacks of dirty cups that can accumulate by the end of a day.
Turn snack time into a maths lesson
I wish I could attribute this genius to its rightful owner, but it was posted in the COVID-19 and Keeping Kids Busy Facebook group last week. Want a snack? You have to pay for it— with money you earned by doing some academic work. And junk food is pricier than healthy snacks:
I like this because they have to do some work anyway, they don’t have to do much of it to earn a healthy snack but if they really want that lollipop, they can dig in and ramp up the learning. Plus, maths transactions.
More snacky tips
Snack battles are not brand new to the COVID-19 situation, so here are a few more ideas from our archives that may help you now:
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If Family Dinners Aren’t Working, Have a Late-Night Family Snack
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Give Your Kid Who Hates Vegetables Some Frozen ‘Pea-sicles’ Instead
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Have a Pre-Dinner “Veggie Happy Hour” to Get Kids to Eat More Vegetables
And finally, there is no better time than now to simply start feeding your kid dinner at 3 p.m.
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