Extravagant Pack Lunches

If that’s what they eat at home why shouldn’t they have it in their packed lunch??

I am with you on quiche!

I low carb so my go to "cant be arsed to cook properly" dinner is a crustless quiche, takes ten minutes tops to prep and DD and I both have the leftovers for lunch the next day. The absolute opposite of fancy in this house!

For anyone wanting healthy packed lunch ideas that would send OP into a tailspin then this is a good page to follow: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FH4nNfsRr/

They’re probably making the same thing for themselves and just doing a bit extra for their child. Hats off to them - it’s a lot healthier than Dairylea Dunkers and a capri sun. They’re instilling good eating habits! I wish my kids would eat that kind of food!

I find it extremely concerning you seem to disapprove of children having a varied and healthy diet!

I hope they don’t pick up on your vibe as you sound like the last person who should be supporting them during meals if this your attitude.

I find it amusing that you think quiche is fancy - it’s the most bog standard boring lunch food that I can think of (yummy but definitely not fancy). My kids love smoked salmon, as do I. However I wouldn’t send smoked salmon sandwiches or bagels to school only because they don’t keep their packed lunches in a fridge and lunch isn’t until 1:30pm, so I think any meat or fish fillings might be a bit iffy by then after 5.5 hours out of the fridge. I do often however pack them things that might appear slightly mad, but that they enjoy. One of mine does a lot of sports so he eats his lunch at playtime at 11am and has a school lunch in the dining hall at lunch time! I expect there may be teachers who judge him for that but he is slim, athletic, very active and growing so I have no problem with it.

god it's actually really horrible that you work with children and would come online and sneer at a family - especially when they are feeding their child good food made with love.

you must have a very poor understanding of nutrition if you think a smoked salmon bagel is 'over the top'

Meh. Offspring #2 liked salmon & cream cheese bagels. She also went to school with gyoza or duck spring rolls/cucumber sticks and hoisin sauce if I bought a whole duck at the weekend and the fruit she'd eat was strawberries, purple grapes or melon.

She wouldn't have entertained a sweaty cheese and cucumber sandwich and a banana if I'd offered her a tenner a day to do it. That and her other preferences wouldn't get past either the Healthy Packed Lunch inspection (Dairylea lunchables, chicken dippers, cheese and crackers, jerk chicken, rice and peas, leftover pizza, yum-yums and sausage rolls) or Not Killing the Kid Over There (peanut butter sandwiches, sushi with sesame seeds, prawn cocktail on Turkish bread from round the corner with sesame, nigella or poppy seeds on top).

She wasn't particularly motivated by food and could easily go 10 hours without thinking about it unless it was physically placed in front of her, so I decided to just give her what she wanted as she'd actually eat it.

As they say with babies, fed is best. No point chucking away money on school dinners she wouldn't eat, no point chucking money away on packed lunches she wouldn't eat or would have a dinnerlady saying was unhealthy and I certainly wasn't going to risk another kid's health by hoping she didn't sneeze over him after lunch, so she got stuff you'd clearly turn your nose up at for being fancy.

My child has smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels. He loves smoked salmon and sushi. Didn’t realise it was over the top and absurd.
Why assume that kids just want to eat beige, processed food?
Its like restaurants that only
offer something and chips for the kids menu, my kids would rather have a smaller version of a proper meal. I think children have more varied tastes these days

I thought you we’re gonna say sushi and sashimi 🤣

So, the mum loves her child and is super thoughtful about their lunches. Why do you seem so, so bitter about it? A bit jealous maybe? Does it make you feel inadequate? What a ridiculous post, would you be happier if the kid had a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar?

You are there for the benefit of the children not as a critic or a chef. Your comments about "mortgage free' etc says it all.

A salmon and cream cheese bagel is hardly extravagant? My daughter loves salmon and if we where not completely skint she would have it more.

Since when is a quiche extravagant?

A bagel with smoked salmon & cream cheese isn't either really

I've sent leftover steak sliced up on a bagel for lunch before! Its just normal food

Why is it absurd?

You say yourself the kids eat it, so they are fed.

It's not processed crap and sounds like a healthy balance, that's a good thing.

It's what the family have at home. Wouldn't it be more bizarre for the parents to enjoy steak and smoked salmon but feed the kids on cheap upf rubbish?

When my eldest was little a friend seemed horrified that he was eating asparagus tips and parma ham. Apparently kids should only be allowed prescribed kid food like nuggets and cheese and tomato pizza.

my youngest far prefers the crap but never mind

As an unqualified teaching assistant, how do know if a family is mortgage free and making well into six figures? Do you have access to their bank accounts? Do the infants tell you that mummy and daddy have no mortgage? I really wouldn't want any child of mine coming into contact with you in the classroom. You lack any sense of discretion and are unprofessional.

Sounds absolutely unremarkable to me

Not a single thing in that lunch sounds odd to me

This is really true. I think I can do a really nice lunch with 3-4 fruit / veg, protien for 1-1.50. School lunch is 2.50 for mainly beige and massively overcooked veg.

You’d love my son’s packed lunches - he’s partial to homemade sushi. And no we’re not rich - I just like packing lunches he enjoys, that are healthy. I’ve also been known to pack focaccia, quiche, cold marinated salmon with salad, quinoa and miso roasted veg... all of those can be made for cheaper than the price we’d be paying for school dinners.

I think it sounds lovely tbh. My dc love a bento box, oatcakes with cream cheese, smoked salmon, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes and they make their own. I do think children are more likely to have a broader palate these days. Mines are very judgey if it’s beige stuff from freezer.

Post and Run ?

It's not about envy, it's just asking for fairness.

I’m more concerned about the fact that you work in a school and don’t know how to spell packed lunches.