Mid-term break rules for Pudd’ng

Our daughter is now home for the mid-term holidays. Which I think are too long. They are home from Wednesday until Monday. In our days, I think we just had one Friday off.

During this time that our daughter will be home, I can bet my bottom dollar that she will eat tons of snacks. She is a snack-aholic. Which is why we have come up with the following rules to make sure that snacking does not go out of hand …

No snacks after 6pm

To Pudd’ng, and I think to every child her age, every time is snack time. If she is not stopped, she can take snacks nonstop.

We have come up with a rule that there will be no snacks after 6 pm. Because, after this time, it is not a snack but dinner.

No more than 100-grammes of crisps per day

Moderation is the name of the game. Baby girl loves her some potato crisps. If left to let her devices, our daughter can eat a whole factory of potato crisps, in one seating.

Before we came up with this rule, Pudd’ng would make endless trips to the kitchen to have all the helpings that she could.  

Fruits, fruits, fruits

We always try to have a variety of fruits in the house. But, since Pudd’ng started attending school, we have always ensured that there is a banana on the breakfast table. We don’t know exactly know what this does to her, but we believe it is good for health.

To balance the intake of snacks like potato crisps, during this mid-term, we also have fruits, which Pudd’ng eats or she makes into salads or juices.

Child, you’ve got to move it

Nowadays, children are mostly sedentary. They spend inordinate amounts of time watching TV, playing computer games or hunched on top of smartphones.

In our days, our parents did not have to tell us to exercise. All our activities involved some form of exercise. The playing grounds and open spaces were not grabbed by private developers.

For our daughter, we try to make her use her skipping rope as much as possible. This is one area that we need to work more on, and enforce it more.

Pudd’ng sees it differently. She loves dancing. And she says that, when she dances, she is doing exercises for her whole body.

Water, water, water

It is hard to get Pudd’ng to drink water. And one agreement that we have come to is that, to have her snacks, she must drink water.

Pudd’ng is every kid. Sometimes, she tries to get out of “agreements”, thinking that we have not been there. Her most common ploy of wiggling out of drinking water is saying that she will drink water in the kitchen.

“You want to tell me that it’s only in the kitchen that your stomach is able to take in water?” Tenderoni will ask. “Don’t think that I don’t know that you want to pour the water down the kitchen sink.”

Bedroom is a no-snack zone

Tenderoni came up with the rule that the bedroom is a no-snack zone after she found cake crumbs and bits of crisps on Pudd’ng’s bed and bedroom floor. When Pudd’ng is hibernating in her bedroom and using my phone or when she is doing her homework, she likes to keep her taste buds busy.  

Knowing how baby girl loves her snacks, I would not be surprised if she smuggles a handful of crisps in her bedroom when she goes to sleep, which she snacks on as she counts sheep.