Done to death, I know! Dinner Lady AIBU

[GingerWrath]

Apologies in advance.

5 yo DD takes packed lunches to school everyday. I try to vary the contents so she doesn't get bored.

DD is a fairly normal height and weight, if anything she is a bit on the skinny side. Once a month or so I pack her half a small pizza, knowing that pizza sometimes features on the school dinner menu.

The other day her pack up consisted of:

Half a ham and cheese pizza cut into 3 slices
A small bag of slightly salted popcorn
Mixed berries (eaten at play time)
Cucumber sticks
Yoghurt
2 squares of chocolate

As soon as I picked her up at home time she was telling me she was hungry. Her pizza and popcorn were still in her lunch bag and I assumed that she was in a hurry to go out to play and rushed her lunch. No.

Later in the evening she informed me that the dinner lady told her that popcorn and pizza weren't allowed in packed lunches and she couldn't eat them. So basically DD had cucumber, yoghurt and 2 bits of chocolate for her lunch.

Here is the AIBU bit.

a. AIBU to be annoyed that DD was made to go hungry?
b. AIBU to think that popcorn isn't that bad for you?
c. AIBU to think that DD should have been allowed to eat her pack up and that I should be contacted if there is a problem with the contents?

No, microwave meals are not homemade.

You're all trying to twist everything I write here

Do you think he fussy as food such a big deal sorry HH if you think a lot of assuming going on but you have made your healthy point so strongly we do assume that your house is resrtictive so give him packed lunch pizza is healthier than nothing at all poor kid

Kids are supposed to eat fat. Be careful that by all the avoiding you are doing he is not missing out.

He's probably fussy because his mum is!

Damn microwave meals not homemade you are so funny HH

Food isn't a big deal and I eat anything.

I think you're all feeling a bit guilty because you're giving your kids junk food and you know you shouldn't be doing it.

My DD was told off for having a chocolate biscuit in her lunchbox. the school dinner that day was cake and chocolate custard .

I told the head I'd stop sending her in with one when cake was taken off the menu (it's on everyday), haven't been bothered since

I know someone who is very restrictive with their child's diet in the same way as you hh. The child is allowed a biscuit on a Tuesday or something.

Child now 7. Child is very worried they are fat and is scared to eat pudding. eating disorder Im the making.

Pizza isn't junk food.

I am so not giving kids junk food just a balanced diet !! yes they eat pizza yes they eat my home made shepherd pie sometimes egg and chips and sometimes homemade pasta with a homemade sauce and my kids can cook a mean chilli and spag bol and then they have a bar of choc now and again and eat fruit until it comes out of their ears you feeling guilty for being so uptight as i said some food better than no food at all !!

Pizza is quite a balanced meal,

Dairy:cheese
Protein:ham
Cereals: the base
Vegetables:tomato sauce, olives etc

Pizza is not junk food!

Ginger you know I am going to be soooo disappointed if you now find out the school didnt ban it and there's been a mix up......gutted in fact.

Make sure you update us so we can have a MN campaign!!

GingerWrath - what really matters here is where the school's responsibility starts and where yours ends. IMO what your child eats is up to you and is none of their business.

Maybe what she normally has will give you some perspective.

Today she has:
Ham sandwich on 50/50 bread
Olives
Mini cheddars
Mixed berries
Cereal bar

Joining in here....

Personally wouldn't have put the mini cheddars (too high in salt) or ceral bar (too high in sugar) in there.

Would have put a packet of baked vegetable crisps (I love the Pret ones) and oat cakes in instead.

Im my house the toppings we putput on our pizzas are-

tomatoes
cheeses
mushrooms
Olives
Sweetcorn
little fishes
onion
peppers
spinach
broccoli
garlic
herbs
Etc

HH you really don't know what you are talking about.

There is nothing wrong with a thinnish-based cheese and tomato/veg topped/lean ham topped pizza. Pizza is only really 'bad' when it's a deep pan pepperoni - if you look at the fat content for that, it's through the roof.

But the point is - as it always is on these threads - that when schools happily serve pizza, chips, double carbs (macaroni cheese with new potatoes at our school and I kid you not) and dessert twice a week - cakes, sponges, custard etc - then they really have no right to go through lunch boxes and remove the same foods which at least may have had the virtue of being home made. Makes me

Also OP no-one has complimented you on your sensible using up of leftovers, let me be the first given we throw away squillions of food each year.

You are definitely not being unreasonable. I don't know if someone has already linked this but www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/download/documents/pdf/sft_low_cost_packed_lunch_menus.pdf
The School Food Trust (recommended by NHS website) suggests 3 pizza fingers (purchased) as one day of a 3 week menu. The school would find it hard to argue that it should be banned from lunch boxes in this case I think.

And is there really anything wrong with a doulbe pepperoni deep pan with extra cheese now and again ... sounds like a lovely lunchbox my kids would enjoy that

cocolepew That is exactly what I will be saying when my son starts taking in his lunch box to school.

Wilson thanks, that's my first ever!

DH is huge on leftovers, he normally has leftovers from tea the night before the next day(currently eating leftover veg lasagne from last night), he HATES decent food being thrown away. DD has picked up on this and if we have had something she particularly likes, she requests leftovers in her lunch box. Healthy and less waste. Win/win!

"i don't think that pizza is suitable for a lunchbox".

Well if you believe that then you must also think that a sandwich isn't suitable either as it's essentially the same ingredients.

at OP. DH felt ill last night and didn't make anything so no lefties for me today... everything tastes better when it's a leftover.

Imnot I put 'bad' in quotes - I don't think there's anything wrong with it now and again, however we eat veggie pizza quite often and double pepperoni deep pan once in a blue moon IYSWIM. It's a LOT of fat

sorry wilson am multi tasking and skim reading!!

You need a pizza