For those who are unfamiliar with this tradition, Field Day is the day at the end of the school year where the teachers herd their young charges out to the fields around the school to play games. They do tug-o-war, and relays, and 50 yard dashes, and basically run the kids around until they’re exhausted. Then during the “lunch” break the PTA raises funds by selling the kids sugar. Lots of sugar. All of it highly refined with artificial colors and flavors added. There is one hell-food that doesn’t even pretend to be anything else. It is colored, flavored sugar powder in a straw. Then with the kids so wired they can’t see straight, they run a few more games to work the sugar into the system and send the kids home for the parents to deal with.
My kids had a great time at field day. Kiki’s team won the tug-o-war. Link got to show off his newly missing tooth to all and sundry. Gleek got to run around in large open spaces and climb on things that weren’t meant to be climbed. Even Patches had fun. He got a lollipop which he applied in a sticky layer all over his face and hands. Then he got cheetos which adhered to the layer of sticky creating a substance previously unknown to man. He added a second coating of sticky from a ring pop as a kind of varnish. He loved it. (Note: I don’t think Patches actually ingested any of this sugar in measurable quantities, smearing was the game of the day.)
And then there was the aftermath. Patches crashed into a nap during the five minute drive home. I also discovered he acquired his first ever facial sunburn. (Bad mommy, forgot the sunscreen) Gleek also crashed into a nap, but only after the sugar high had worn off. I think she’s a little sick as well, she had croup last night. Now she’s up and I hope tonight will be better. Link seems to have suffered no ill effects. Kiki, on some kind of not-thinking-things-through sugar high, played a game out back which involved stripping all of the petals off of all of the in-reach roses from all 10 rosebushes. There were multicolor petals strewn all over the backyard. She topped it off by accidently breaking a branch off of one of our Silver Maple saplings. Fortunately it was a branch that we were going to have to eventually cut off anyway, it was too low. As restitution Kiki had to trim the rosebushes correctly so that in about a month they’ll all bloom again. That’s the nice thing about plants, they survive and grow back.
Anyway, we survived field day. There won’t be another one for a year. And my kids will have no more sugar for the next month at least.
Ah yes. Field Day. This year Goose came home soaking wet because they gave the kids sponges and buckets of water and were told that the object was to get the other person as wet as possible before relaying the sponge down the line.
I don’t recall things like this when I was in school. But then I went to a private K-12 school with 350 kids. We did standing broad jump, relay races that involved spinning around a baseball bat before running back, kickball games, and concerts by the high school band.
Anyway, we survived field day. There won’t be another one for a year. And my kids will have no more sugar for the next month at least.
Good Luck!! I made the rule that the girls get no candy whatsoever and their grandmother (my former mother-in-law who is biologically Goose’s grandmother only) still gives them all the candy they want when they are up at her house. It’s 200 yards away from us. So they’re up there quite a bit. *shakes head* This is also the woman who got her stomach cut and stapled because she couldn’t control her weight and diabetes. I’ll be so glad when we can afford to move.
Then with the kids so wired they can’t see straight, they run a few more games to work the sugar into the system and send the kids home for the parents to deal with.
This is their revenge upon the parents, for all those mornings kiddo wolfed down sugary breakfast cereal and was bundled off to school before the bloodstream caught on.
And my kids will have no more sugar for the next month at least.
You hear that, Howard? No bringing home candy surprises from Africa for the kids!
Hey, any chance you could get a patent on the sticky-mixture Patches devised? Maybe the royalties could put him through college? (how’s the sunburn, by the way? poor kid. Poor Mom, too, first molars and now sunburn)
Croup in our family was handled with things like cool humidifiers, cool washcloths to breathe through, etc.
As if a mechamom like yourself wouldn’t know, but just in case it comes up.
I’m surprised that patina of Cheetos and sugar didn’t protect Patches adequately from sunburn. 🙂
Best wishes on the no-sugar rule!
No Sugar
To clarify: The comment about “no sugar for a month” was half in jest. What will actually happen is that we’ll return to our normal consumption habits which are within managable bounds. Most of the sweet stuff the kids consume isn’t the kind of sugar which goes straight to the brain, but requires a little more processing first. Cookies rather than Candies for example. I wish I had the fortitude and energy to require healthier eating all the time, there are just so many things to do every day all day long. I wear out. “Sure have a cookie, just leave mommy alone for the next 10 minutes.”
Re: No Sugar
We got incredibly lucky with our girls. Their favourite snacks are granny smith apples, carrots, grapes, strawberries, and torilla chips.
I’ll occasionally have oatmeal cherry cookies or banana almond muffins for them to snack on but that’s sort of rare because the oven heats up this tin can way too much so if I bake it’ll be around about midnight.