Extravagant Pack Lunches

My two often take a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel in, they even add some lemon juice and black pepper. It's great for kids to enjoy real food, and a variety of it. In most of Europe the expectations are that children enjoy a much 'fancier' meal for lunch than you've described OP.

Wow! I pack some of those things & many others for my children! We aren’t loaded, mortgage free high earners. I do, however, want my kids to have lunches they will eat & enjoy. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that at all. I feel like whether it is a jam butty or a salmon & cream cheese focaccia, if the kids like it & will eat it, where is the harm?! I would be cross if I felt we were judged for our packed lunch choices 🙄

Exactly. There seems to be a misconception that healthy food is universally expensive. It's isn't. It's UPFs that are expensive.

Case in point: I stayed over for a surfing weekend on the North Yorkshire coast. We ate at the local pub there, which abutted a caravan site. TripAdvisor was full of comments from those at the site as to how eating at the pub was prohibitively expensive. But every evening, pizza menus were shoved through the handles of each caravan door and across the three nights we were there we saw umpteen deliveries arriving from the same pizza place.

All the pizzas were more expensive than the most expensive item on the pub menu.

That’s good food OP. Perhaps raise your own bar?

Not sure what’s over the top about it. Is there an age when kids should start eating quiche??Everything is fresh and healthy. Many kids eat a completely processed food packed lunch. Good for them giving healthy food.

It looks like a lot of food to me. Teo sandwiches, including a focaccia!

I get what you are saying, chocolatemademefat, but smoked salmon has not been expensive for many years. Steak is of course though there may be cheap cuts that can go in sandwiches, I honestly don't know. Unless it was cut very thin I think it might be a bit chewy for a child's sandwich.

I had such a craving for smoked salmon bagels after reading this thread I had to get all the bits to make one when I went shopping.

Pack of bagels was less than £1 for five. Cream cheese was about £1.30 for a bigger than average tub and the smoked salmon was about £3. So £5.30ish for five lunches. Pretty good going. If you added a piece of fruit, crudités and a biscuit you could easily do a week worth of lunches for less than £10.

Lucky child! If you can afford it, you have the time & the child eats it all I see no issue at all.

Am I the only one periodically popping back to this thread for new lunch box ideas??

My daughter doesn't eat bread. Dunno why, she just won't eat it. I often send her in with sushi, it's her favourite food. I've no doubt she gets judged, but she eats intuitively and very healthy. I've struggled all my life with weight and my relationship with food. So I'll give her what she enjoys, which is usually seafood of some description and I don't care how it's perceived.
My son, on the other hand 😬 beige, and sweets 🤦‍♀️

Indeed, plus the absolutely dreadful "I'm sat..."

I hope I wasn't the only one who packed their kids an extra bougie lunch today in honour of this thread.

I see we have met 😉
make the monster munch beef, that’s the best one

Righto OP. Can of Monster, bag of Takis, some dodgy Haribo knock-offs and a vape from the local minimart instead, then.

Not at all - they are lucky ! I'm more concerned that a TA calls it a "pack lunch" ... instead of a packed lunch though ! Hopefully just a typo 😅

Sounds amazing. How lovely for that child. A nutritious and delicious lunch should be the norm. Why shouldn’t they give their child good food? Perhaps they are wealthy or perhaps they prioritise decent food over other things. I’m way more angry that it’s just accepted that some parents can’t feed their kids so rely on FSM. What kind of country are we living in when people can’t afford to feed their kids?

Ok. If that's your opinion, take it up with those posters rather than just make generalisations.

What a daftvthingvto say. Why would they be spending their lives in the supermarket replenshing smoked salmon any more that they would ham or chicken or beef sliced meat? Most cooked deli meats come in packs of 5 slices. Surely people just buy what they need for the week.

It is not about the salmon, steak or guacamole for that matter. My point is really that some views on this thread have made unreasonable assumptions about OP's motivation for the post; have been quite unpleasant and judgemental whilst accusing OP of the same. Of course everyone has the right to make choices for their children and spend their income they wish - I choose to give my dogs fresh chicken fillets rather than Bakers Complete - but I do not judge others for their choices, what they can afford it whether they refer to a pack lunch.

My initial reaction is that it's a bit fancy for a 5 year old. However, things like that should really be the norm! Well done to the parents for making an effort to ensure their child eats a healthy and varied diet. Too many kids these days that only eat bland foods like chicken nuggets and chips!

Also…you only get like 5 slices of smoked salmon in a pack. Are people spending their lives in the supermarket replenishing stocks for lunch? (And breakfast, dinner, etc). I’m not sure I could be arsed with that!

Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel is a pretty standard lunch and smoked salmon isn’t expensive in most supermarkets. They sell them at my kids secondary. I am more interested in how a TA knows if someone is on 6 figures and mortgage free. I don’t even know my own friends mortgage status or income let alone people i only have a passing acquaintance with

Think this is great!

The time we instill healthy habits is in childhood. Is it not better to spend more (if the parents can afford too) on healthy nutritious food to in-still in them this is normal from a young age? rather than having them break bad habits in adulthood?

Also this is the time their brains are growing as well as bodies, so giving them salmon etc is brilliant at this point and super beneficial.

My son has smoked salmon and avocado on toast every morning. He is 8, at nursery his nursery teacher always used to laugh at me (jokingly, she was great, loved her) for giving him this. However to this day it remains his favourite food.

He eats way more healthily than me. I love beige food and sugar. I believe this is because that’s what I had in childhood. I have a battle with food now and ‘food noise’ and trying to make good decisions. My son however shows me up because all the ‘good stuff’ is his norm.

Of course it is. Smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches are available in every supermarket meal deal for gods sake. A packet of smoked salmon is similar in krice to a packet of ham or the equivalent weight of tinned tuna.
Thin frying steaks are sold as sandwich steak for the purpose of having a sandwich with steak on. It's no different to roast beef slices in a sandwich. Some people prioritise decent nutrition. The OP sounds ridiculous.