This was the contents of an 8 year olds lunchbox.

[IAm1]

Nutella sandwich
Bar of dairy milk
Pot of joy
2 custard creams
Cheese string.

Dd asked me if she could have a big chocolate bar in her lunch box. I said no so she declared that Chloe gets all of the above.

I didn't believe her at first but when dd said at the school gates ' my mum doesn't believe you get a whole chocolate bar for lunch'
Chloe nodded and showed me the contents. Her mum stood smiling and nodding and I felt embarrassed.

I didn't really know what to say so just laughed and said goodbye to dd then walked off.

Would you feed your dc that?

It should be the other mum looking embarrassed rather than you.

No it’s not great. But it’s also none of your business and I find it quite hilarious that another child’s lunchbox had so much of an impact on you that you felt the need to post on here

@Rocket1982

I'm not sure what the answer is but all the comments of 'mind your own business' aren't sensitive to the wider impacts. (i) If the child eats this every day their long term health is going to suffer. (ii) Children see what others are eating and want it in their own lunchboxes - cue lots of different households having to deflect requests from their kids for junk items in their lunchboxes. (iii) At least one poster above said their kid likes healthy food but now won't take it to school because she gets bullied for it. Bottom line - most kids love junk food and parents collectively need to change their availability so it isn't perceived as a normal diet. There were also comments about special needs, but surely good nutrition is even more important for children with SN?

But as another parent you aren’t in a position to do anything about what another child is eating. You can only focus on your own child.

If a school feels their is an issue then it’s up to them to tackle it.

As for your comment on children with additional needs, yes good nutrition is important for everyone but you can’t force someone to eat.

Do we know it's Nutella? Other chocolate spreads are available and not all contain nuts.

@GoodbyePorpoiseSpit

Ah I see the competitive under eating has started: “that’s a big lunch, me and my 6.4ft teen boys eat half a homemade oat cake, a baby bel and maybe some fruit if we are still hungry after all that”.

Assuming that's directed at me, if a packed lunch fills a standard sized lunch box then it's obviously not under eating.

Ah I see the competitive under eating has started: “that’s a big lunch, me and my 6.4ft teen boys eat half a homemade oat cake, a baby bel and maybe some fruit if we are still hungry after all that”.

^lol! 😂 so true
Why is this so common on MN, do they want a medal?

Bloody hell that is an awful pack lunch. I was going to assume DD had made a mistake. My DD once swore blind that Jack had a tub of ice cream for lunch (he actually had sandwiches packed in an ice cream tub). I wouldn't judge a parent of a child with sensory issues giving them anything they'll actually eat but otherwise yes that's pretty bad.

Some health conditions require children to have these sorts of lunches. I wouldn't expect the mum to disclose if she had one

i am glad the mum laughed tbh! she brazened it out.

Well no, because if I gave that to my son to eat at school id receive a very shitty email informing me of my misdemeanour.

I’ve no issue with chocolate as long as it’s eaten alongside savoury items.

Yes, OP that is a despicable packed lunch and you are the superior parent

OP I wouldn’t feed my DC that, and I can understand why you assumed your DC was lying about the whole big chocolate bar as it just seems so unlikely.

I’d just say, stick saying ‘different families have different ways of doing things’. As whatever you say to your child will no doubt get repeated back to the child and then to their parents. And do think carefully before having that child over for play dates (if they’re still allowed where you are) - my experience is that its very hard to feed children like that if you don’t have the specific things they eat to hand, and since I don’t buy chocolate / crisps / cheese strings then I have ended up with a rather hungry child as nothing I can offer is what they’ll eat.

Mind your own business. My child is on a medication that supresses her appetite, she has been on it now for a tad over 12 months and the side effect has lessened somewhat but when she first started you can bet your nelly I would have packed anything that I thought she would eat, including cheerios, milo, tiny teddies, nutrigrain bars, yep, even chocolate. If i didn't pack 'treat foods' she just couldn't face eating anything. For breakfast, before her medication kicked in I would give her scrambled eggs with cheese, smoked salmon, avocado and toast to balance it out.

On the flip side I have been luck that we have managed to work through it a lot, today she took a 15cm skewer with apple cubes, cheese cubes, pineapple cubes and chicken loaf rolled in a tube and sliced in to 4 pieces (lunch), a pack of grainwaves(afternoon tea) and diced avocado (fruit break). She ate 1/2 the skewer and the rest of it....that is a win for me.

People have their reasons that you know nothing about.

Mmm pot of joy 😍

But now you can polish your little halo, OP, and feel smug about how much better you are than that other mum!

That's shocking IMO,

Not just the nuts but the lack of fibre, and the massive sugar content.

Surprised the kid doesn't have a crash after lunch.

Our school doesn't allow chocolate bars, the yoghurt would be at a push too.

My dd takes a sandwich or pasta, salad, fruit, crackers and something like a biscuit or alpen bar.

Why should the mum feel embarrassed that someone else sees a snapshot and makes assumptions?

You would have loved my lunchbox - 18 months all I ate was sweetcorn and boneless chicken. 6 months toast. 2 years plain jacket potato. 7 months chocolate. 3 years pasta. Could go on.

Forgive me, MN, for I have packed penguin bars in my children's lunch boxes today. This is my first confession this term & that is all I remember.

Off topic but on the subject of pack up vs pack lunch vs packed lunch: I was a Brownie leader for a while and for camp one of the other leaders put 'pack tea' on the list of things to bring as the girls were arriving at 3pm.
Out of 21 girls, 3 of them brought a pack of teabags instead of a packed meal.

@Pelleas

What's a 'pot of joy'? I think I need a pot of joy ...

I think all of MN needs a pot of joy one way or the other .

Not your business op, yes you can think it is unhealthy, but posting to shame others?

Just wait until they are at high school! On Friday my daughter had a chicken naan, a muffin and a slice of pizza! I just make sure she always has a healthy evening meal and breakfast as there is no school dinner policing at that age.

You'd be better with a bar of chocolate than an Alpen bar

@IAm1

Nutella sandwich Bar of dairy milk Pot of joy 2 custard creams Cheese string.

Dd asked me if she could have a big chocolate bar in her lunch box. I said no so she declared that Chloe gets all of the above.

I didn't believe her at first but when dd said at the school gates ' my mum doesn't believe you get a whole chocolate bar for lunch'
Chloe nodded and showed me the contents. Her mum stood smiling and nodding and I felt embarrassed.

I didn't really know what to say so just laughed and said goodbye to dd then walked off.

Would you feed your dc that?

No, I bloody wouldn't. Is this made up??

That's a recipe for hunger, poor concentration and obesity when they're older. It might be cheap in some ways, so I would reserve outward judgement, but I wouldn't copy the diet. If she had the money and is still feeding the child this, this woman has no sense and no idea what food actually is.

Nutella sandwich - 'Nutella' and 'lunch' are not words that should be in the same sentence. What should be on their sandwich is eggs, a bit of ham maybe, hummus, cucumber, tuna or salmon, cheese maybe - take your pick, just not Nutella.

Bar of dairy milk - a whole bar for a small child?? I can attest to how quickly someone can get used to having a hit of sugar every day. I could break it but it might be more difficult for a child.

Pot of joy - no

2 custard creams - maybe one as a treat, but to the exclusion of everything else on the list.

Is cheese string even proper cheese? If it is then fine, but otherwise it's just more crap.

@Doveyouknow I agree about schools picking their battles.

I remember a lad at DCs' primary school would have a tube of pringles as his packed lunch.

Sounds and was terrible. If that was taken off him then he would have nothing to eat. The background was that he had a very disrupted home life, bouncing from one household to the next (Parent, GPs, older sibling) he would be sent off to school with a few coins to buy his own lunch at the corner shop on the way. Being 10 he made the food choices a 10 year old would make.

By comparison at least someone is actually making something for the child in the OP.

@missyB1

Poor kid. But I thought schools checked lunch boxes these days and challenged the parents?

Same! I'm not a parent - but assumed from threads all this wouldn't have been allowed.

Energy needed and possible SEN like some other posters have said then I'm sure it's fine!

When I was a DC years ago and had packed lunches it was:-

• sandwich - cheese with salad/cucumber etc
• crisps (Monster munch?)
• Jacobs club choc bar
• fruit - apple etc maybe extra like yogurt

My DM knew of Dairylea triangles but wouldn't have let us have them and we didn't have frubes or other stuff like that not around then,

We didn't die - but then we were allowed out a lot to play out, ride bikes etc.