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AIBU?

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Original poster

About the bloody packed lunches?

108 replies

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 04/07/2025 16:19

I have 2 DC at primary school. One has packed lunch every day, the other 3 times a week. Every day, they eat about 3 bits of sandwich and leave the rest. Or dc2 will leave the crackers

Today he asked for chicken pieces and bread and butter. He also had some cucumber, some Greek yogurt, and a slice of Swiss roll. He left most of the bread. Yesterday left most of the sandwich. Weds left the crackers.

They go straight for a snack when they get home and it drives me nuts to find uneaten sandwickes/crackers/whatever in the lunchbox.

Several times I've said to eat the sandwich first. Yesterday I made a big point of it . Today, dc2 has snuck the uneaten bread into the bin.

Aibu to just give a sandwich and piece of fruit next week? Funnily enough it's never the "treat" that's uneaten.

For context, it's a 1 slice folded in half sandwich. They sometimes have wraps or bagels but do the same with those too.

I'm so fed up of throwing food away.

OP posts:
Cakeandusername · 04/07/2025 16:42

If they are having a decent breakfast and a snack after school it may well be they aren’t particularly hungry at lunch especially if it’s really early time and prefer to play.
Just send sandwich and see how goes.

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:40

BusWankers · 04/07/2025 16:36

How are you going to make these kids eat their sandwiches?

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I didn’t say they should eat the sandwiches.
Plenty of sensible alternatives available.

Needmorelego · 04/07/2025 16:37

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:35

It’s the middle of a busy school day. They need something filling and substantial.

Can you imagine if school dinners was a salad and a yoghurt?! There is a reason it’s pasta, jacket potato, curry and rice etc. with a biscuit or cake after!

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Have you seen how little amounts of food children actually eat at school and how much ends up in the bin?
Packed lunch or hot dinner - HUGE amounts are simply not eaten.

Shatteredallthetimelately · 04/07/2025 16:37

Nothing wrong with just putting in a sandwich and piece of fruit, it's plenty as they'll be having their dinner at home soon after anyway.

On a side note I only put a minimal amount in my DC's lunchboxes when they'd come home with foods still in them. They said they didn’t eat it all because they'd rather be out playing than sitting in the dinning hall, so I'd put in things that were protein packed and quick to eat...Chicken chunks, chopped ham, squares of cheese and fruit/yogurt, much preferred and none left over.

BusWankers · 04/07/2025 16:36

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:35

It’s the middle of a busy school day. They need something filling and substantial.

Can you imagine if school dinners was a salad and a yoghurt?! There is a reason it’s pasta, jacket potato, curry and rice etc. with a biscuit or cake after!

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😂 the reason it's cheap carbs....is because it's cheap.

BusWankers · 04/07/2025 16:36

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:35

It’s the middle of a busy school day. They need something filling and substantial.

Can you imagine if school dinners was a salad and a yoghurt?! There is a reason it’s pasta, jacket potato, curry and rice etc. with a biscuit or cake after!

Show quote history

How are you going to make these kids eat their sandwiches?

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:35

Needmorelego · 04/07/2025 16:29

It's just lunch.
They can get plenty of carbs for breakfast and tea.

Show quote history

It’s the middle of a busy school day. They need something filling and substantial.

Can you imagine if school dinners was a salad and a yoghurt?! There is a reason it’s pasta, jacket potato, curry and rice etc. with a biscuit or cake after!

acounsellorsopinion · 04/07/2025 16:34

The rule in my house is if you're hungry when you get back from school then you eat whatever you didn't from your packed lunch (because there is ALWAYS something). They get a variety of things in there to cover all bases. If they genuinely are hungry then that will suffice. And if they're not then that's when you get to teach them about food waste, the joys 😂

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:33

TheyreLikeUsButRichAndThin · 04/07/2025 16:29

You know there are carbs in fruit, veg and yoghurt??

To @DownsideUpside

Edited

They’re 8 and 9, not a 30 year old woman on atkins. They need carbs and calories not crudités.

Original poster
Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 04/07/2025 16:32

TheNightingalesStarling · 04/07/2025 16:30

Ask them what they do like as its obviously not bread. Wrap? Pasta?bread sticks?

They do like bread. And bagels, wraps, crackers, breadsticks. They just don't eat it at school!

One of them will take a food flask with pasta and will eat it all. But doesn't want it more than once a week.

OP posts:
DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:32

BusWankers · 04/07/2025 16:29

Did you read the bit where the kids don't eat the bread? Or can't you read?

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Pasta, breadsticks, noodles, pancakes, pitta, wraps….

DiscoBob · 04/07/2025 16:31

Do they not like bread? If so just give ham/cheese and salad separately?
But yeah, I'd stop the treats in the lunchbox as they're asking for more treats at home anyway.

Put fruit, veg, yoghurt and sandwich (bread seperate or missing?) only and see how they get on. If they then ask for snacks after school it's more justified if they've eaten nearly all the healthy stuff.

Once they're a bit older they may well just always bin things and lie they've eaten them so there's only so much you can do.

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:31

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 04/07/2025 16:23

Oh and they'd eat the sandwich at home.

Have you checked they have enough time to eat it all? At our school we ended up complaining as the kids were half eating lunch so that they had time to play, lunch time just wasn’t long enough for both.

TheNightingalesStarling · 04/07/2025 16:30

Ask them what they do like as its obviously not bread. Wrap? Pasta?bread sticks?

Katemax82 · 04/07/2025 16:30

Needmorelego · 04/07/2025 16:22

I'd not bother with the sandwich and just give a selection of fruit, salad and veg and the yoghurt.

Edited

Yes get one of those 4 compartment tub things to put chopped fruit/veg in

craigth162 · 04/07/2025 16:30

I'm.not a fan of sandwiches etc in a packed lunch.just my preference. How do they do if you give them for example chicken pieces and maybe a few breadsticks instead.

Original poster
Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 04/07/2025 16:29

Cedrabbage · 04/07/2025 16:24

Remove the junk. If you're dead set on giving it to them every day save it for pudding/snack at home

They get a "treat to kind of line up with the school dinner dessert. I think you're right though. It's not necessary.

They eat a lot of good healthy food also.

It's more the waste that bothers me.

Also, pretty sure school would have something to say if I sent only Swiss roll and yogurt for lunch 😂

OP posts:
BusWankers · 04/07/2025 16:29

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:28

Awful lunch. No carbs for a growing child at school? You know the brain needs carbohydrate to function??

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Did you read the bit where the kids don't eat the bread? Or can't you read?

Needmorelego · 04/07/2025 16:29

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:28

Awful lunch. No carbs for a growing child at school? You know the brain needs carbohydrate to function??

Show quote history

It's just lunch.
They can get plenty of carbs for breakfast and tea.

TheyreLikeUsButRichAndThin · 04/07/2025 16:29

You know there are carbs in fruit, veg and yoghurt??

To @DownsideUpside

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:28

Needmorelego · 04/07/2025 16:22

I'd not bother with the sandwich and just give a selection of fruit, salad and veg and the yoghurt.

Edited

Awful lunch. No carbs for a growing child at school? You know the brain needs carbohydrate to function??

Needmorelego · 04/07/2025 16:28

Freshly made sandwiches are always nicer than one that's been sat in a lunch box for ages.
I do quite like the meal deal sandwiches from the shops but one of the shops (Boots I think??) you can now have a large fruit salad as the main so the other day I had that, a yogurt as the snack and a drink.
It was actually very filling.

HelloGreen · 04/07/2025 16:27

If it’s sarnies, wraps, bagels they’re leaving then it’s bread they’re struggling with. I’d leave it out entirely and switch to pasta or noodles.

DownsideUpside · 04/07/2025 16:27

I can’t get worked up about one meal a day, so they eat a bit of Swiss roll instead of a sandwich? Either way they have had some carbs to give them energy for the rest of the day. Hungry kids can’t learn.

Newmeagain · 04/07/2025 16:27

Also, what is the after school “snack”? If it’s more junk then stop it. Offer real food and they will get used to it.