Extravagant Pack Lunches

Why are you judging people who have made nice lunches for their kids? People have done their best and you’re sitting there sneering!

Why don’t you know that it’s “packed lunch” not “pack lunch”?

I think you’re in the wrong job.

@Diadrie you sound like an asshole.

@Diadrie YABVVVU about the lunch and even more unreasonable with your reverse snobby attitude.

I pack lunches like that for DD...who is (in the nicest possible way) a little bit "extra"

Crudites and hummus is standard
Smoked salmon bagels have been known
Pickles have occasionally been sliced and placed in little sandwich bags

I do feel its extravagant and I do take the piss out of myself for it.

That is exactly the type of lunch my dc get. Usually featuring leftovers. Should I be giving them Quavers, Fruit Shoots and Bear YoYo rolls instead?

Don't Infants get free school lunches? Though they would probably be less nutritious and tasty than this child's packed lunches.

When it's nothing you can't find in the sandwich section in Tesco, it's hardly extravagant 😂

You are being unreasonable unprofessional and youre a reverse snob

Is this a joke, was expecting you to say Caviar based on the description. This is totally normal food 😆

YABU, I'd love to be this mum, I did send in pasta shapes in homemade pasta sauce for about a week before he decided he didn't really like it and it was far more hassle than it was worth! He went back to ham sandwiches with a frube etc then the free school meals for KS1+2 came into place, now he only has school dinner and it's great. I'm not bento box mum material!

Surely the first thing you do after you've spent 25 years paying your mortgage, is run round the school and tell your child's TA?

After you've asked them for a list of acceptable meals of course.

How do you know if people are mortgage free? 😵‍💫

I love the responses on this thread!

@Diadrie I hope you return to your thread and read what people say - and learn from it. Take a leaf out of Ted Lasso’s book and be curious, not judgemental.

A child eating a packed lunch that is lovingly made is a looked after child. What more could you possibly want for the children in your care.

One of my daughters regularly takes avocado on toast with serrano ham, vegetarian sushi, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, artichoke, gherkin slices etc. We are an ordinary family with a mortgage, it's an ordinary school, and she is an ordinary girl who just happens to be an adventurous eater/lover of strong flavours. It's not a statement; it's what she likes. My other daughter is a little more traditional in her tastes - chicken sandwich, cherry tomatoes, grapes and strawberries or apple slices, carrot sticks, crisps, yoghurt, mini chocolate bar. Though she took a chicken samosa today and has some fish sushi for tomorrow.

They both like smoked salmon and I've got some in the fridge so they can also take that soon. Shoot me. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Sounds perfectly fine to me. My 4 year old starts school next week and will be having school dinners but steak and salmon are two of his favourite foods so he would love that lunch box as a lunch option!

It sounds good to me, a lot healthier than many and if the child eats it, that's great. I'd eat that. It's not extravagant in the sense of being costly, eg salmon isn't expensive nowadays, but it does show care which I think is nice.

I'm amazed you have the time to note what kids have in their lunch boxes, I'm sure that never used to happen.

Why on earth should the children eat crap beige food with few nutrients just so the TA won't judge the lunch provided. I think it's great that families are providing varied and nutritious food. And since when is quiche and dips extravagant, over the top and absurd?

I’d bloody love it if mine ate anything like that! I think it’s a great sounding lunch and obviously liked by the kid if they finish it so I can’t see the problem at all.

I think you’ve misjudged this one badly OP.

Sounds amazing; need to ask the parents for the ideas/menus. Can you please start sending the daily menu?

They may buy everything in weekly shopping and pack same for themselves.

I used to do those sorts of lunch boxes for my kids - including when they went to secondary. Olive and feta, fruits, all kinds of grain or noodle salads, cream cheese and pastrami bagels, chicken tikka wraps, chicken and stuffing sandwiches (if leftover from Sunday lunch), bacon and fried egg rolls some days (the kids would have to be judicious where they cracked open the egg or they'd be bullied for the fart smell).

I couldn’t bear the thought of sending them with some sad billy bear ham sandwich on cheap white bread with crisps. Nutrition is important.

Are you a little bit jealous?

Really OP you should know better. The packed lunch sounds delicious - lucky child! I remember one child's packed lunches from when I was a teacher, nothing but chocolate bars and those pink wafers. Every. Day.

I'd rather go for 'extravagance' than 'zero nutrition' any day!

It’s a chat forum, not a thesis! Doesn’t it make you sadder that TAs earn such a low salary? Why are you expecting perfect grammar from them?

🤣 kid eats better than me i take in a ham sandwich and shove a packet of salt and vinegar crisps on it and think thats a bit fancy.

My DS loves stuffed vine leaves, and physalis, weirdly given he is a beige food lover normally. I could only get them from waitrose - literally the only time i shopped in there was to get them for him. He begged me to put them in his packed lunch a few times a week and i felt such a twat when one of the other mums mentioned that apparently there was always a bit of excitement in the canteen when he shared out the "posh yellow balls that taste like perfume and took in the green rice wrapped up in leaves" 😂

They make tasty, healthy food for their child. Good on them!!