A Mom Shows How Much After-Sports Snack Duty Has Changed Since The ’90s

Remember after-school sports when we were kids? At halftime or after the game, an assigned parent would break out a snack, and it was usually a couple of Ziplocs full of orange slices, a bunch of bananas, or a bag of chips.

Not so any more! It seems like in at least a few regions of the country, after-sports snacks have gone the way of the Boo Basket and Valentine’s Day card: totally, totally over-the-top.

One mom on TikTok, Chrissy Horton, shared her take on today’s after-game snack situation by showing what she now has to pack when she’s the mom in charge of food at sports practice.

“Oh how things have changed since I played sports in the 90s,” she captioned. “Is this the new mom? Back in my day, we got ONE thing from this snack pack, now these kids are getting a full lunch sack of goodies.”

In the video, the busy mom is busy stuffing brown paper lunch sacks with all sorts of goodies — one for each player. She’s surrounded by bags of chips, Gatorade bottles, and sweet treats.

“Can someone explain to me when the after-game snack protocol changed? When my kids started competitive sports, I was shocked that the after-games snacks were literally a lunch sack,” she begins, while frantically stuffing bags. “I kid you not: This is the formula wherever we play: all snacks packs includes some sort of sports drink or juice box, chips of some kind, cookies or a little fun dessert. And of course fruit, to balance it all.”

But while she seems overwhelmed with the new assignment, she also defends the processed food contents.

“And I know that so many of you are seeing these snack packs and are mortified at how unhealthy it is — and all of the food dyes and America and obesity. And I get it,” she says. “But once a week for two months and the kids don’t even eat everything in it. My kids always share it with their siblings. I know it’s the internet, so you’re going to come at me — but I didn’t come up with the formula!”

And while her bags seem totally over-the-top, it’s not even as bad as it gets.

Some parents, she says, are even putting things like football or baseball cards in the bags, depending on the sport they’re playing.

She also wanted to know if other parents are seeing these intricate sports snacks in their area.

Down in the comments, many responders compared the haul with the food they’d get in the ’90s.

“And all we used to get was one big Tupperware of grapes to share amongst the team,” one person wrote.

“We used to get a juice box and a Little Debbie,” another added with a skull emoji.

Other parents chimed in that it is just as intricate in their area, with full-on lunch-sized sacks. Some moms even reported custom water labels with kids’ names and jersey numbers — or custom-made cookies with jersey numbers. What?!

On one hand, it’s nice that kids are getting such nice snack bags at their games. On the other hand, how much is too much, and how many parents are having to deal with one more thing on their already long to-do list? Are we one-upping each other’s parenting, and when will it stop?

Personally, I’ve always loved a good communal bowl of orange slices.