Parents The cupcake Gym

[dmytv]

I am the one who started this thread. I put it in the parent forum rather than the coaches forum because I wanted a parent's view. Whe I started working at this gym a year and a half ago we had a rag tag crew of 12 team members. I have grown it now to 35+ with, I hope to 50 or more by the time fall starts. I am coming from this as a coach but also a parent. I have a gym rat who is 6 and new level 3 this fall, but she is always at the gym. We must have alot of summer birthdays because it seems lately, every time I turn around someone is bringing in those store bought cupcakes with icing taller than the cupcake. Ever since states it is like cupcake wars at the gym. I am not some sort of health crazy but I just don't like the trend.Should I have it in the team handbook or some sort of policy? Would I seem like a crazy coach for saying lay off the cupcakes after 8:30pm. My oldest dd goes to another gym and no one does this. It is like "oh yeah, Happy Birthday" and that is it. I like the fruit thing.

 

[2G1B]

dmytv - I'd check out the roster and see if it might just be that you lucked up and got tons of summer birthday kids. You might encourage the parents to only bring in treats for the kids on their child's team rather than ALL of the kids. I do think that my kids would be really sad if they couldn't bring a treat in to share with their gym friends for their birthday (since those kids tend to be their closest friends due to the amount of time they spend together) and since practice gets out late it would stink for them to not get to do it just because their practice doesn't get out until 8:30 - KWIM? You could also encourage the mini cupcakes instead of the big ones. I do know that a lot of us parents are "trained" to do store bought because that is what we often have to do at school - with the store boughts you can check the ingredient lists to make sure the cupcakes are safe for allergy kids. Also we are often told about how people don't trust things made at home because you never know if the cook keeps a clean kitchen.

 

[gymdog]

I am the one who started this thread. I put it in the parent forum rather than the coaches forum because I wanted a parent's view. Whe I started working at this gym a year and a half ago we had a rag tag crew of 12 team members. I have grown it now to 35+ with, I hope to 50 or more by the time fall starts. I am coming from this as a coach but also a parent. I have a gym rat who is 6 and new level 3 this fall, but she is always at the gym. We must have alot of summer birthdays because it seems lately, every time I turn around someone is bringing in those store bought cupcakes with icing taller than the cupcake. Ever since states it is like cupcake wars at the gym. I am not some sort of health crazy but I just don't like the trend.Should I have it in the team handbook or some sort of policy? Would I seem like a crazy coach for saying lay off the cupcakes after 8:30pm. My oldest dd goes to another gym and no one does this. It is like "oh yeah, Happy Birthday" and that is it. I like the fruit thing.

If it's really happening that often, then yes, I think it would be appropriate to suggest bringing non-food items to celebrate (like stickers or something).

 

[nevertooold]

In our gym it is a spoken but unwritten policy. Most of our parents know that the rule is no gum, no candy, no soda, nothing with orange dye (Cheetos, Doritos, etc). The coaches are not allowed to eat/drink junk in front of the kids and while we acknowledge to the kids we all eat some amount of junk at home, it doesn't belong in the gym.

Just this week a parent asked about bringing in some cupcakes for dd birthday. After explaining that we preferred to model healthy eating habits the parent went home, got creative, and today the almost 6 yr old came in and told me they would be bringing in a watermelon carved into the shape of a doggie!!! Kudos to this creative mom.

Whatever we all choose to eat at home I feel as a business of sport/health/fitness we should model that for our students (and their parents). And out of respect to our most conservative eating families I don't want to be the one that gave their child sugar, or white flour, or dairy or what have you,

 

[BlairBob]

dairy

Seriously, I always kept a gallon or two of whole milk in the fridge. My boys could always have free reign of my food. And when it was a gazillion degrees, they asked for pushpops or popsicles though they did like my iced fruit juice cubes (besides the awesomeness of bratwurst).

I dunno. Tell your kid they can have a bite or two. Then they learn portion control.

But honestly I would probably push for the creative food treats. I'm the annoying person who brings guacamole and veggies to dip them with. I like chips, especially really good mexican chips or homemade chips. But veggies work and I get veggies and guacamole at the same time.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Personally, with the obesity epidemic in this country, I am working hard to help my daughter identify simple carbs and sugar as junk foods. We try to avoid white flour, sugar in all forms, and most starches. Most of our meals revolve around proteins and vegetables. I live in a permanent state of ketosis and only indulge in the above kind of foods on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And even then, while I partake, I limit my intake so that that glucose burns off fast and I can get back to ketosis within a few days.
==

OMG, I think I love you...

 

[wallinbl]

Personally, with the obesity epidemic in this country, I am working hard to help my daughter identify simple carbs and sugar as junk foods. We try to avoid white flour, sugar in all forms, and most starches. Most of our meals revolve around proteins and vegetables. I live in a permanent state of ketosis and only indulge in the above kind of foods on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And even then, while I partake, I limit my intake so that that glucose burns off fast and I can get back to ketosis within a few days.
==

OMG, I think I love you...

Sugar and simple carbs, as in fruit and honey, both of which are good for you (honey is especially good at combating allergies if you buy honey made by local bees)?

 

[wallinbl]

Parents really should stop getting the blue or red icing - that stuff is awful! And you can't take a picture of the kids after they eat it because their mouths are bright blue (or red), along with their teeth! I avoid those colors if at all possible.

DD knows to scrape the icing off the cupcakes before eating them. I'd rather there be no cupcake (especially the store bought ones that were made with all sorts of terrible stuff), but without the icing, they're not so bad. As to what this country's obsession with food dye is, I'll never know.

 

[TeamGram]

This may be a mute point to make, but I am one of those moms who takes cupcakes for my DD's birthday (in fact, I just did 2 weeks ago when she turned 13). Not only does she think of these girls as her gymsisters, but her birthday is in the middle of summer. She has never gotten to take treats to school, and trying to have a party for her in the middle of summer (and so close to July 4th) is a constant challenge.

I guess if a parent doesn't want their child to have a cupcake occasionally, then teach your hold to politely decline. But why should all the kids miss something (especially when the HC says its ok) because one or two parents don't want their child to have it. You never know how special that small cupcake may be to that child.

Thank you gymmom 1974, my DGD also has a summer birthday and does not have the chance to celebrate with her classmates. I have brought in cupcakes for her birthday, and I have also brought popsciles on extremely hot summer days and even brought a rose for each of her team mates before winter nationals. My feeling is they can either accept the treat or not. I would think most of the girls in her group (between 9 & 12) should know by now what they can have. These are athletes not kids sitting around playing video games all day.

 

[3gymgirls]

I, too, just had my daughter bring treats to gym. In her case, it was her rec class of five kids. She turned three. Like others have said, she has a summer birthday and won't be able to bring treats to school on her birthday. In addition, since her birthday is June 24, she won't be in school on her half-birthday either so she can't do school treats then, either. I'm not sure what we will do when she goes to school, but her gym friends appreciated snack packs of Oreos and her coach helped hand them out

 

[cbifoja]

Sugar and simple carbs, as in fruit and honey, both of which are good for you (honey is especially good at combating allergies if you buy honey made by local bees)?

As my daughter hates honey (says it is bee vomit) and likes few fruits, I don't find this to be a big issue. About all she will eat is bananas and grapes. However, I would much prefer that she eat fruit than cupcakes!

 

[cbifoja]

OMG, I think I love you...

Yeah, but your love will go away when you find out that I stay during 95% of DD's practices.

 

[wallinbl]

Thank you gymmom 1974, my DGD also has a summer birthday and does not have the chance to celebrate with her classmates. I have brought in cupcakes for her birthday, and I have also brought popsciles on extremely hot summer days and even brought a rose for each of her team mates before winter nationals. My feeling is they can either accept the treat or not. I would think most of the girls in her group (between 9 & 12) should know by now what they can have. These are athletes not kids sitting around playing video games all day.

Bring in something reasonably neutral, so kids don't have to reject them. Being the kid that has to repeatedly turn down treats from other parents is no fun, either. If you're going to bring popsicles, get the ones that are actually made from fruit instead of sugar and dye. And for cupcakes, I just looked up the cupcakes for the big regional grocery chain here, and they're atrocious (well worse than I imagined).

It's a spot where many different people are coming together, and there's going to be conflict. To say you shouldn't bring anything in would be imposing on those that want to. To say that you should just bring any old thing in would be imposing on those that have some dietary restrictions. Work out something that works in your group, but do be mindful that even the "harmless" act of bringing in cupcakes every month can negatively impact the kids that can't eat them.

 

[skschlag]

our men's team went and had free slushies yesterday.......

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Yeah, but your love will go away when you find out that I stay during 95% of DD's practices.

==
It will come back when you finally realize that your DD actually progresses faster when you are not there.

 

[gymmom1974]

the truth is, i hate getting that blue, yellow and red stain out of my carpeting each and every time they drop the frosting. and i don't know what's in that stuff, but it's the damnedest stuff to get out of the linoleum in the kitchen also. i hate that.

That's why in our gym, the kids have to have their bags packed, shows on and grab a cupcake on their way out the door! (And for the record: I agree that blue and red frosting are the worst!!)

 

[Deleted member D3987]

==
It will come back when you finally realize that your DD actually progresses faster when you are not there.

hahahahahahahahaha lolololololololololololo to both of you! <3

 

[Gymdaddio]

My dd brought in dark chocolate covered strawberries. Coach noticed right away that it wasn't milk chocolate and was very happy. Oh, and the girls loved them.

 

[gymgal]

My dd brought in dark chocolate covered strawberries. Coach noticed right away that it wasn't milk chocolate and was very happy. Oh, and the girls loved them.

That's a great idea!

 

[profmom]

I think our gym staff greatly prefers cookies to cake just because it's not such a freaking mess! I usually bake gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies for mine to bring in if they have practice on their birthdays. I try to have some idea of the teammates' dietary restrictions so that I have at least one option that every child can enjoy. If any of their teammates didn't do processed sugar, I'd bring fruit.

When our guys took second place team at a meet last spring, their coach bought them all PIZZA! And some of them ate four+ slices!! Superfood!