Food stories

Birthday child doesn’t treat: more and more schools are banning it

If you have children of primary-school age, we’re curious what birthday treats at your school looked like before corona..? Now that schools have started up again, it turns out that many schools have a strict policy when it comes to homemade birthday treats. And be honest, who misses the late-night stress of putting together Oreo spiders?

Foto van culinair journalist Delilah Warcup - van Eyck

Because if we’re seeing it correctly, the parents who were always in the ‘keep it nice and easy’ camp are finally getting their way: nothing wrong with a few large bags of crisps to hand out…

Just don’t

Since March, when the shit hit the fan, schools have had their hands full figuring out how to teach the country’s children (safely). For many schools, the issue of birthday treats is one where, for hygiene reasons, it’s best to be clear: don’t bring anything, or only bring individual, pre-packaged items. How are parents taking that?

Justice at last

FavorFlav’s Sharon breathes a sigh of relief (especially now that her child is happily at secondary school and treating is a thing of the past): “I always gave my son those pre-packaged bags of Croky crisps for his birthday, and then simply kept them packaged in that huge Croky bag containing all the little bags. No complicated fuss with bells and whistles, and certainly no responsibly assembled treat (when, exactly?!) — yet I always felt somewhat embarrassed. Because the other mothers made profiterole castles with candy princes, or got their husbands involved too and stood handing out ice creams from a self-built ice-cream stall in the school playground, complete with an Italian O sole mio choir. But corona is a huge stroke of luck for (lazy, efficient?) mothers like me: all of the above is extremely unhygienic during corona. Ha!” (*does a little celebratory dance).

Cross it off

I myself was (especially during the first two or three years they went to school) somewhere just over the halfway line in the ‘over the top’ camp, I freely admit. Not totally hysterical, because I hate crafting, but twice a year I still found myself at the kitchen counter at night with my husband, dipping strawberries in melted chocolate and threading them onto a skewer, for example. By the last birthday before corona, I had already escaped the guilt and simply sent along popcorn in a bag (okay, secretly a nice bag), and I called it a day. And now? Our school has put a stop to it for the time being. It was too much of a grey area, and hygiene comes first. Did my children shed a tear over it? No, of course not. They think it’s a shame, but it slides off them just as quickly.

What’s new

So now that we’re all trying to find our way in a world with a really stupid virus, we have to learn to accept changes. For some, that’s pleasant, and for others, frustrating. And if you really can’t do without stacking candy burgers, decorating rice cakes and sticking ninja apples together, then do it with your child on one of the many days when the teacher has a runny nose and your little darlings have to stay home. And then happily eat them all together. Enjoy!