Breakfast Time Limit??

[Unregistered]

I seemed to be very upset about this and wanted to get a second opinion about it;

My son who is 2 1/2 goes to a Methodist Preschool and I have noticed that the rules there are very strict from others and they put new rules up constantly, to make the their lives as easy as possible. Anyways, so going on I drop my son off to school this morning and as usual we take his breakfast inside and let him sit down and eat his breakfast at his chair. This routine has been going on for a year and a half now, but this morning the teacher wanted to inform me that my son couldn't eat after 9 a.m anymore?!?!

The Asst. Director stairs at me opening up my sons granola bar asking, "Is that his breakfast?" I reply, "well, yes it is." She turns around looking at the clock at then looks at me and says, "Well it is nine o'clock and the kids should have their breakfast before nine bc then the other kids see your son eating and think it's time to eat again." I thought to myself are you kidding me? With my busy life and the same thing has been going on this long, on top of that my son may take less than 10 minutes to eat his meal! The woman then goes on saying as I'm walking out, "C'mon kids and hurry up and eat, I'll give you just two more minutes to eat." I thought this rediculous, when after paying so much for my sons tuition at this preschool did they get the right to even the point to say when my son had to eat his breakfast by a certain time! It's not like I'm feeding him at noon and then feeding him breakfast!?!

I just need to know how other parents feel about this, or am I just overreacting.

[Meyou]

I don't allow breakfast after 8am and I expect the children to have eaten before then. It's disruptive to the group to have one child eaten when the rest aren't. They don't understand why Johnny gets to eat and they don't. You may be arriving at 9am but some of those children have already been there for hours with no concept of time other than knowing that first we play, then we snack, then we go outside, then we have lunch, etc etc. If I let a child eat here at 9am the whole crew would assume it was snacktime which would throw my whole day off. For me personally there is a safety risk as well since we eat in a different room from my daycare space.

I think you need to get up a few minutes early and feed your son at home.

[Unregistered]

Breakfast time limit

Good morning. I am registered (MARSTELAC) but have a password issue this morning. My contract reads: breakfast 7-8 a.m.; lunch 11:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.; afternoon snack 3:30 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. (only this long because I serve in two shifts to accommodate children coming home from school on two different bus schedules). I allow no food from home. If parents bring something from home (it's usually a bribe to get the kids in the car), I toss it in the garbage. It causes too much commotion. Kids want what everyone else has.

I only allow seconds if the first plate is eaten. Then children get to pick what seconds they would like. I also have a "take a bite, be polite" rule. They must try a bite of everything! Food is taken away at the end-time. I try to get the kids to eat quickly as our schools only allow a very short time to eat. I try to get them used to that schedule so they get their food in.

I have VERY strict rules about manners at the table and kids learn them very quickly. These are not in place to make my life easier. I am trying to raise good little eaters and kids with exceptional manners.

[nannyde]

It sounds like the center needs to cut breakfast off in house completely. That would work best for everyone. That way the kids would come completely fed and they would not need staff to supervise the eating and clean the child up.

Maybe you could talk to them and let them know that the changes in times and new rules are too confusing to you and you are going to go ahead and just feed him a wonderful breakfast at home. You will find that he LOVES sitting at the table with you to a healthy hearty home made breakfast. It's an awesome time to cook for your child and spend some REAL quality time with him before he starts his day.

Preparing and serving the breakfast is the EASY part in group care. The WORK is in the supervising the child eating and cleaning it up. The work is in supervising the other kids while one or two kids eat and supervising them while you are cleaning it up.

So the part you are doing (giving a ready to serve food and sitting him at the table) is not really doing them any good. You are still leaving the bulk of the breakfast work for them. When they have numerous parents deciding when their staff will supervise and clean up individual breakfast they are loosing money. They are most likely WAY too busy to do individual attention at that time of day. A worker who has multiple children from multiple families is just WAY busier than any single parent with one, two, or three kids.

She may have asked about the granola bar because most granola bars kids will eat are actually candy bars nutritionally. When other kids see them they think the child is being candy. They have had them before themselves and they know how sugary and fatty they are. They are most likely have kids want them because the other kids know the granola bars they have had taste like candy.

You think nine a.m. is reasonable. The next parent thinks ten. The next thinks ten thirty. There's NO way to get a group of parents to agree on what is best for the GROUP. That has to be done by the center.

They should NOT have sprung this on you. It sounds like they need to completely cut off breakfast or set an EARLY time when it must be DONE and only allow the kids to eat the center provided food. No food from home would solve this really quickly.

[jen]

Yep, it's pretty tough on the other kids. They see your child having something to eat and of course they want to eat too! I understand why you are upset, it is always hard when the routine gets changed up. The Center should have said something immediately. My guess is that they were trying to accomodate you, but it just got to be too much of a disruption.

I would get up a few minutes early and feed your child a good, healthy breakfast!

[Cat Herder]

In my experience that is a very standard policy.

"No food from home. Breakfast is served from **** to ****. Arrivals after this time will have to wait until AM snack at ****."

It will also follow you all through the school years.....

Most daycares/schools are on a federal food program that requires them to offer healthy balanced meals that are approved through their CCR&R. I do know a granola bar would never be an approved meal and could cause issues and fines for the center.

What does your contract say?

IMHO, The bigger problem here is that they allowed it to go on for so long. Inconsistent enforcement of policies is one of the greatest problems in daycare. I am willing to bet they were following the new guidelines after the latest monitoring visit showed they were still allowing parents to bring in treat foods.

The new Government Nutrition Rules are stringent...you should see the menu changes our local Public Schools are having to make. Our cost went up $.75 a day for lunch and $.30 for breakfast to meet the cost of fresh fruit, whole grain breads and side salads everyday.

(The teachers cost is nearly $5 a day...I think they will be brown bagging...)

[nannyde]

I would get up a few minutes early and feed your child a good, healthy breakfast!

Yeah yeah

[AfterSchoolMom]

This won't end by the time your child gets to Kindergarten. If they haven't eaten breakfast by the time they get to class, they have to wait until lunch. If they don't eat all of their lunch during lunch time, it gets thrown in the trash, and no one polices their eating to make sure they're having everything (believe me, I volunteer frequently and see a ridiculous amount of food being thrown away). The younger grades sometimes have morning or afternoon snack, but that ends by the 4th grade here.

Yes, they were totally wrong by springing the new rules on you...and I think the teacher probably didn't handle it as well as she could have. However, think about not what's best and most convenient for you, but what's best for your child. I agree with the others in that the best solution here is to get up a bit earlier (15 minutes is all it really takes) and feed him at home. If that's not enough sleep, then go to bed a bit earlier at night.

The benefits far outweigh the hassle - your child gets to eat at home, with you, doesn't have to rush or fend off other children, and you're setting him up for a successful school career by teaching him healthy eating habits.

[GotKids]

imagine it this way. Your child's teacher has a bunch fun activities planned for the morning that your son is really excited to do. The problem is he gets there at 7 and has his breakfast and anxiously plays with other toys waiting for the fun to start. In comes johnny at at 7:30 for his breakfast. He eats and table is once again cleaned and johnny joins your son. 8 arrives and little Suzy shows up with her breakfast, again we repeat the process. This continues through 9 am and your son is bored, he wants to do the fun things the teacher mentioned but all she is doing is feeding his friends and cleaning up their mess. By the time all his friends have gotten their and eaten breakfast and the tables have been cleaned the teacher looks at the clock. It is now 2 1/ 2 hours until lunch and she has to decide which fun things your child can't do today because breakfast lasted over 2 hours. Now your son is disappointed, the lessons of the day suffer and teacher is frustrated.


I don't think they should have sprung the change on you but it is more than reasonable to have a time frame that meals are served and eaten. Group care means your child's needs are balanced with the needs of the other children and parents and teachers need to respectful of that.

Is there a way to get your child there earlier for breakfast or for your child to eat before he gets there?

[Mom_of_two]

I agree that the center should not spring new rules on you like that, but should try to give some advance warning (at least a day) if it is a schedule change. (Not sure if I understand that this was a new rule, not something you might have been misinterpreting...)

If a child arrives here after 7:40 I don't serve breakfast.

I would clarify the expectations with the center, and feed your son at home if they do not offer breakfast as late as you would like. I like doing an early breakfast because it starts my kids with the habit, as when they start actual school it will need to be early. Good luck!

[Crystal]

For a center I can see the need of limiting breakfast times. For me, I serve breakfast from 7 a.m. -8:30, but would NEVER not give a child breakfast due to the parent neglecting to feed them before arrival if I am not serving breakfast still, I don't care if it's 8:35 or 9:30........IMO making a child go hungry is NOT okay, and the child doesn't have the choice of telling the parent they better feed them before school.

My suggestion to the OP is, since the center is enforcing these new rules, get up 10 minutes early so that you have time to feed your child before preschool.

[dEHmom]

I cannot believe the variations you all have for breakfast time! . 7-830! my goodness.

Generally I would allow about 20 minutes for any meal or snack time. If you haven't eaten it by then then too bad. Because some of the kids are so much younger and still learning to eat, I am more lenient on this but usually kids are done within 20-30 minutes and by 30 minutes they are dying to be out and playing.

I serve breakfast at 730am everyday. If you arrive at 745 you are too late. I make enough breakfast for whoever is HERE and ready to eat at 730. What doesn't get served at that time I eat Of course if there was circumstances out of the parents control, I would never starve a child, but they would get a light snack to hold them over.

All parents are aware of this and drop off no later than 715am and if they aren't going to make it, the kids are fed before they leave home. I have one dcb who eats breakfast at home (at 6am) and has a top up here before nap.

I have a different nap schedule than most on here as well, so that might be why I'm so strict on the breakfast time. My dcbabies go for nap at 830am-1030am (if they get up earlier that's fine with me).

If kids were coming in at 9 with a granola bar, I'd be ticked.
Although I agree with the rest that your center did not handle that appropriately. Could you eat a granola bar or 2 for breakfast??? I cannot imagine even a baby finding a granola bar for breakfast as sufficient fuel for the morning. Even with a snack halfway through.

[jen]

For a center I can see the need of limiting breakfast times. For me, I serve breakfast from 7 a.m. -8:30, but would NEVER not give a child breakfast due to the parent neglecting to feed them before arrival if I am not serving breakfast still, I don't care if it's 8:35 or 9:30........IMO making a child go hungry is NOT okay, and the child doesn't have the choice of telling the parent they better feed them before school.

My suggestion to the OP is, since the center is enforcing these new rules, get up 10 minutes early so that you have time to feed your child before preschool.

I agree...I have kids who arrived without breakfast even though it was past breakfast time....which for me is 6:30 to 8:00. I did have one family that intentionally and frequently violate the breakfast schedule. When I informed her Mom that I wouldn't feed her child if they arrived after 8am any longer...after several warnings...Mom said, "fine, then I guess she just won't eat" in a tone that meant I was the bad guy. I said, No....if you bring her without having had breakfast, you will be taking them back home.

[Crystal]

dehmom....I serve that way because my children all arrive at different times. They arrive, wash their hands and sit down to eat. It really isn't a hassle at all to serve them as they arrive....it seems it would be more of a hassle for me if they arrived in shifts, played and made a mess in the playroom while I prep breakfast, have to cleanup and then all sit down together. That's how lunchtime works....and I say breakfast time is much easier for me

[Crystal]

I agree...I have kids who arrived without breakfast even though it was past breakfast time....which for me is 6:30 to 8:00. I did have one family that intentionally and frequently violate the breakfast schedule. When I informed her Mom that I wouldn't feed her child if they arrived after 8am any longer...after several warnings...Mom said, "fine, then I guess she just won't eat" in a tone that meant I was the bad guy. I said, No....if you bring her without having had breakfast, you will be taking them back home.

That woulld make me livid.....I would tell her the same thing, and I would also tell her I would be keeping track of the times she failed to feed her child, as it is neglect and I am a mandated reporter.