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!

Bread sandwhich: my nephew has a very specific recipe for bread sandwhiches.

White crusty bread on the outsides
Real butter
Brown sliced bread filling

@MyPersona competitive under eating is not a term I’m familiar with to be honest!
All I know is when my DD is older enough to eat, I will not be stressing over calorie counting. As long as you have a balanced and varied diet, no worries! What other people feed their children is not my concern.
Unless I’m at work... then on very rare occasions, it is my concern and even then it’s mainly because they have eaten something stupid like a battery

My sons pack up is always left overs stuffed into a roti or pitta, veg sticks, bit of fruit and an oreo. If he doesn’t want it thats fine, he’ll just have a hungry tummy

My kids have bread sandwiches and butter sandwiches which are the same thing. Bread and butter made into a sandwich, only bread sandwiches have three slices stacked and butter sandwiches just the two.

If you make sushi how long can you keep it in the fridge for? If on Sunday I made a batch how many packed lunches would I get out of it?

For an all day camp where he will be doing lots of activities I give DS a sandwich, pack of crisps, yoghurt pouch, a piece of fruit and a cereal bar. This is to cover lunch and morning and afternoon break.

He also gets a juice or smoothie carton as well as having his water bottle to drink from.

@OhioOhioOhio

If you make sushi how long can you keep it in the fridge for? If on Sunday I made a batch how many packed lunches would I get out of it?

Same day only I thought

If you used smoked salmon, veg and/or cream cheese for sushi I would have thought it would be good for three days. Less for raw fish and prawns.

Somebody on here told me she cooked sushi rice, and daughter made her own sushi for the next day - it can be as simple as shape a little bit of rice and cut a piece of smoked salmon to sit on top. I keep meaning to try making it!

Stop calling it a 'pack up.' It is a packed lunch or a lunchbox.

Sounds very nice to me. I put similar stuff but not necessarily the veg. Usually confirm with the dc whether they will eat it or not before putting it in.

@HoppingPavlova

Never ceases to amaze me how much people's children eat for school lunch. Mine always had a piece of fruit for recess and a vegemite sandwich (on good quality low-GI bread) for lunch and a water bottle. They got a lunch order of their choosing, I didn't care how unhealthy, once a month. If more food was added they wouldn't be able to eat it all - and that's from Kindergarten until end of high school. I'm certainly not saying what people give their kids is too much or is bad food, I just can't wrap my head around kids eating that much.

Sounds like my lunch - vegemite crackers for recess, vegemite and cheese sandwich for lunch, fruit, water or cordial. When I ordered my lunch (once a month) I would have... a vegemite roll 🤣 I did quite like vegemite.

Moved to the UK at 12 and could not believe my eyes when I clocked crisps & chocolate biscuits in lunch boxes. DM eventually relented & we were allowed a penguin biscuit (quite specifically penguin) on very rare occasions.

ChickenWing that's a colloquial phrase and why should they stop using it?? It's normal in parts of the country.

Where I'm from, it was called "Snapping" "Have you got your snapping?" NO idea where that comes from.

Or, due to our tendancy to drop gs, it usually came out as "Snappin'" "What've you got for your snappin'?"

"tendency"

Haven't read the full thread but Couldn't get much past the parent advising to swap the fruit for crisps as it's less calories and no sugar on their teeth 😩

Nee naw nee naw

Sounds fine to me

"If you make sushi how long can you keep it in the fridge for? If on Sunday I made a batch how many packed lunches would I get out of it?"

If you ask a Japanese person they will tell you that it must never be refrigerated and therefore has to be eaten that day. In fairness to them it is a general rule that sushi rice must not be refrigerated, even during the cooling process.

I find keeping it up to 3 days is absolutely fine, it just means that the rice isn't as delicate as it could be. Fortunately I am Asian living in a predominantly white country so when I break the sushi rules people just assume we're Japanese and don't dare question it

DS 9 gets a wrap or sandwich (filling is either salami with balsamic glaze, or salad with salad cream!), plus a packet of crisps. Thats all!! We initially sent him with sandwich, crisps, veg sticks and a muffin or cereal bar, but after a few days we were told he should have just a couple of items as he was a slow eater and wasn't managing all of his lunch in the allotted time slot (of around 15 mins). We just give him two breakfasts and a snack after school, instead.

@PyongyangKipperbang
"Also, are you sending the egg or tuna salad sanswiches with an icepack or are the lunches refrigerated?"
"Anything with mayo/egg in it needs to be kept chilled or you run the risk of it going off and causing illness"

Not likely in the three short hours between drop off and lunch....Get a grip lovey

Not even in the hot weather?

And where did the OP say it was three hours between drop off and lunch?

I personally wouldn't touch an egg or tuna salad that had gone unrefrigerated for three hours (hours are a standard length, btw).

@LunchBoxPolice

Nee naw nee naw

Sounds fine to me

😂

Sorry, I should clarify - i put it in the fridge. I don't just leave it out for 3 days lol

Stop calling it a 'pack up.' It is a packed lunch or a lunchbox.

Newsflash - some things are called by different names in different areas. Stop calling it a lunchbox- that's the container, not the contents.

Normal. DS at holiday camp today. He has cheese and cucumber sandwich, 2 small tomatoes, pack of crisps, banana and an apple with water to drink.

He's begging me for a jam sandwich!! Apparently "all the others have them everyday mum and they always get chocolate and crisps too". I find this hard to believe somehow but you never know

@rumpleteaserspaws I wish I saw more children's packed lunches like the ones you provide, where I work. The "nicer" lunches your DCs are after contain 75% chocolate/ sugar/salty items. Keep doing what you're doing. BTW after 13 years of packed lunches I loathe them

I hate it to. It's so boring in action and content.

Can't be arsed to do my own for work either.

Have you seen the yummy mummies on Instagram and Pinterest making bonkers animal shapes etc? I wish I had that much time on my hands.

too