Packed lunches - am I the boring mean mum?

[rumpleteaserspaws]

I hate doing packed lunches with a passion and am dreading doing them daily when the DCs return to school!
My DC's have had a few days at holiday club over the past three weeks, and I've had to do their lunches for that. They have been complaining (albeit nicely ) about them having a "healthy" lunch, because their HC friends have nicer (so read more sugary) stuff in theirs.

So, I'll tell you the contents and you can tell me if I'm boring;

Sandwich of choice, usually tuna or egg mayo, or cheese w/ tomato or cucumber.

Veg pot - carrot, cucumber, tomatoes.

Piece of fruit, sometimes two.

Squeezy yoghurt of some kind.

A treat type item, either crisps, a club-type of biscuit, mini Soreen loaf.

To me that seems like a perfectly normal packed lunch, mainly healthy but with a bit of fun stuff. We are not a mega healthy household in that they get sweet stuff more often than I'd really like. They certainly aren't deprived of anything. This type of packed lunch is what they'll be getting daily when they return to school, but I can already envisage the complaints I'm going to get, argh!

I used to make the packed lunches while the children ate their tea. Everyone now and then they would be allowed jam sandwiches so they could swap with their friends. No one would swap for pate

My son has been at holiday club all week, standard pack lunch is sandwich (cheese or ham usually), tub of grapes, banana, crisps and a yoghurt pouch. Usually eats the banana as mid morning snack. He usually has school lunch so pack ups are a treat to him at the moment.

Pretty standard I'd say. I usually do sandwich/wrap, then they each have a Tupperware type box with 4 compartments. They have veg in 1, fruit in one, few crisps in one (less than half a bag) and biscuit/flapjack, chocolate in the last. Plus a yogurt

I also hate making packed lunches but I’d usually put in the same.... if I can really be bothered/organised my dd might get her favourite tuna pasta salad and some fruit.

The Hummus Brigade seems to have been replaced by the Curly Vegemite Sandwich Brigade today...

My kids eat very similar lunches to the OP’s (and most other people on here). There will always be somone who sends their kid in with a vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, raw lunch, and fair play to the kids that eat that widely, but I’m afraid mine are firmly in the Ham Sandwich/Cucumbers/Pombears Brigade.

This thread made me scowl, smile and laugh out loud!!
They will always compare to friends.
The lunch seems reasonable, sometimes I would sneak in one little sweet treat an I mean little as a surprise every once in a while especially when they have been good for them to find.

I’m even more mean than you OP.
Plain yoghurt decanted into pot with perhaps some fruit in it or cinnamon/ginger/whatever. And mine don’t get a whole bag of crisps, they just get a small handful.

They’ve not complained yet (ages 6 and 8) so I’m carrying on until they do. Then negotiate some changes.

U can do me a packed lunch any day 😋

I think this sounds like a good lunch personally. Eating habits are created early on and if this lunch is healthier than that of their peers perhaps your kids will also be in the minority when they grow up that aren't overweight? Plenty of examples in history show the majority was not always right - smoking habits some years ago, the world being flat, the election of Donald Trump.... I'd say stick to your guns!

Very normal packed lunch!

That would be my standard packed lunch for primary school DC, DH or I - what on earth must be in the other lunch boxes your DC are comparing to?!

It does sound normal... But maybe ask your child the sort of food he or she sees their friends having at lunch and maybe you'll get a better idea what your child is referring to as being a more exciting or better lunch.

Personally my kids lunches depend on place we go... School, day out or a long train trip etc.... But my kid likes babybells or other little chesses.... Sometimes mini crackers and cheese. We usually put in a innocent fruit smoothie or supermarket own brand... Banana or raisens... Yogurt coated raisins.... But we always put in a treat and usually its something along the lines of the kids mini treat bags like animal biscuits or gingerbread man biscuits, Little mini cookie biscuits or the packed lunch mini jaffa cakes. I think it depends on age too as I could even get away with an animal bar or a few little jelly babies. Basically the treat is 100cals or less and they will burn that off easily.

I think that's pretty standard.

Sounds absolutely fine.

If you want to mix it up maybe get a lunch box cookbook for ideas and get the kids to do it, most fashionable lunches are just lots of simple stuff put together.

You could always do a big pasta salad at the start of the week too and let them take that for a few days.

My two have a sandwich, cheese, crisps yoghurt and fruit. I have had some success with pasta pesto and veg sticks and houmous but it just gets so messy. They love veg sticks at home so I do it here as it's easier.
I also, when I have them add falafel, cocktail sausages, mini sausage rolls, brioche, and often a whole carrot.
As a child in the 70's. I had a white bread sandwich, crisps, club bar, juice, yoghurt and possibly a bit of cake. I grew up healthy and slim and now eat really healthily. I don't think the odd bag of crisps will damage them as long as they're eating normal healthy food at home

Superb choices! Children will survive the sorrow of having "unfashionable" lunches. When my children were half grown, 40 or so years ago, I switched over to wholemeal bread. There was much complaining for a while - and I recall one coming back from a birthday party and announcing in a powerful voice, "We had WHITE bread!"

Totally normal and well balanced pack lunch

Is there maybe something specific they would like as the treat item that is more similar to what their friends have or more shareable? You would have to ask them but it sounds like a very normal lunchbox and all things they like so it's hard to see what they think they're missing out on.

Sounds pretty normal. You could always try switching the sandwiches for a roll / wrap / pitta for a change. Or something like cheese and crackers. When mine were at primary age they did consider those dairylea dunkers a treat (I’d occasionally buy them if they were on offer). Or making a batch of pasta salad they could take in a Tupperware pot?

Just a banana.

When mine were at school (they’ve been home educated for a few years now), I did one main (sandwich, wrap, pasta salad, homemade lunchables, breadsticks with soft cheese, cold homemade pizza, etc), one portion of fruit, one portion of veg and a yogurt type item. Sometimes I would put in a little treat, small biscuit, half a nutrigrain Type bar, hm popcorn (if old enough) .

So I think your lunches are fine. Kids don’t need biscuits AND crisps in a lunchbox everyday.

Tbh I’m kinda shocked at the people on here that give that to their kids in a lunchbox. And things like sausage rolls, pepperami and cocktail sausages. They are not good for you and shouldn’t be eaten every day. I’m not a, like a prude but with food? A food prude? I dunno lol, but that seems excessive! Do kids, or even adults, need that amount of crap in one day? In fact in one meal?

Nutritious food will only do a chid good if they eat it, Heismyopendoor.

Meanwhile, less nutritious items at least have the advantage of keeping the wolf from the door.

mathanxiety or you could perhaps argue that the wolf encourages children to eat what they are given. When less options were available and parents couldn’t afford fussier children, most ate their cheese sandwich and apple without complaining.

I have a mental image of a bin full of cheese sandwiches and half eaten apples from a school in a south Dublin suburb circa 1974 that is telling me otherwise, CherryPavlova. And fond memories of a lot of lunch swapping.

Fond memories of salmon paste white bread butty and an orange Club biscuit in my 1970s childhood