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?

Not all schools are this crazy though tanfastic, my DD has a bit of cake or a biscuit every day and a jam butty on a Friday , all without comment!

How is pizza any different from a cheese and ham sandwich, except that in the former the cheese is melted? This is what stupid science-free 'nutritional advice' leads to,

My son can take what he wants in his packed lunch. Nobody checks and I'm happy with that.

It gets better, DD was unable to eat all her totally allowed lunch today as halfway through the lunch break, there was a fire drill!

Why don't the schools just have a policy of writing to the parent for each 'transgression' instead of interfering with a child's lunch - however bad it is. If they have to write to a parent too often, they could ask to see the parent but honestly... no wonder some schools are failing, they can't seem to keep their focus on their job.

Unfortunately many many 'dinner ladies' and 'lunchtimes supervisors' are jobsworths and let the power go to their heads.

They are untrained, unqualified, have ignorant simplistic views on nutrition (thinking a cereal bar is healthier than a small square of chocolate, for example) and not monitored very much by the head.

You need to complain, OP, loud and clear, to your Head. Let them know what is going on. No child should be stopped from eating what is in their luinchboxes. I hate controlling jobsworth dinnerladies.

Lying I suspect it is because the dinner ladies make up these rules themselves and the head would never waste their time writing letters to parents about 'naughty' lunchboxes.

Ginger they should have been given time to finish their food after the fire drill.

My DS has a mixture of school dinners and packed lunches. He doesn't like the menu for each day (a 3 week rolling menu). And surprisingly, he doesn't keep opting for the chips days. Some of his faves have been the roast dinners.

And I've no problem with packing cold pizza for him, it's all part of a balanced diet. This is a boy who perks up when I offer Savoy Cabbage at dinner

YANBU it really gets on my nerves.

At dd's school pizza is not allowed, nor are crisps, cheddars, any cake bars or any chocolate cakes, anything chocolate covered or anything containing chocolate and they are only allowed water, milk or 100% fruit juice!