AIBU to be downright p*ssed off at unhealthy parents?

[hannahopes]

I sent my six year old DD off to school this morning with a packed lunch filled with two ham sandwiches, an apple, yoghurtised fruit pieces and a bottle of orange juice. She came home with the remnants of the apple, an empty packet of space invaders and the wrapper of a chocolate bar. I've spoken to DD about and she says another friend 'gave it to her'. I'm partly annoyed at the dinner ladies for not stopping kids from swapping food at lunch (for allergy reasons, if anything) but also at this kid's parents; if I send my child into school with a healthy lunch, I do not expect her to come home with an unhealthy one. It's not the first time this has happened, I've been through the same thing with my older children and although I've ranted to a couple of people about it, I've come to mumsnet to vent my anger a little further. AIBU or just missing something?

15p on the packets I have.

25p in my shop quickhide :(

Now you see OP, if I was the type to get het up about these things, I could find myself horrified if your child gave mine yogurt covered fruit, or ham (however "naice" ) because I consider both those food items extremely unhealthy.

Possibly, the mum of the child your DD swapped with is incandescent with rage because her dd ate a piece of yogurty fruit!!

No policy as far as I know! I would like to bring it, and I used to be a dinner lady myself, lunch is hectic but maybe they could just scan over the lunches to see what the kids are eating? We used to do that and if we found a regular (if a kid has a packet of crisps it was no big deal) that ate a bunch of crap then we'd most likely bring it up with the teachers and they would ask the parents not to send their children to school with bad meals.
Also, don't think you can really say orange juice is that unhealthy compared to a can of coke or bottle of pop.

Well, it's ham or cheese here. I'll have to balance out the evil meat with wholemeal bread. Now, is butter terrible or margarine, I can never remember which, so tend to spread sandwiches with mayo.

Actually I would rate OJ with soda

So you've done a pretty poor job of educating her about healthy nutrition if she'll choose to eat unhealthy food. It's pretty weird to make certain food "special occasion" food, since then the food becomes wrapped up in the emotion of the good occasions, and you're developing a link between happiness and particular foods.

Also, your lunch wasn't particularly good, especially if the bread was white, but the GI response was likelly pretty rapid, and the relative lack of fat, fibre and protein and high sugar would likely leave DD needing more food later, probably why she went for stuff from her friends.

I also think it's rather small, depending on exactly how large and active DD is, but she likely needs ~1600 calories a day, and giving her a lunch of only ~300 calories or so seems rather too few and you should probably look to spread her calories out more through the day.

@GrownUPNinjaWarrior
I loved mayo and chicken sandwiches when I was a child, honestly don't understand why DH and DC won't touch the stuff. Brillient name btw!

Not to mention all that evil fructose fred

Are you sure this isn't your child. My DD's bestfriend gets sent in with very healthy stuff and was stealing everyone elses unhealthy stuff....

I send a sandwich, cheese string, frube, raisins and a bag of not too unhealthy crisps (skips / quavers / pombears)....

I thought five things was the rule (one for snacktime four for lunch).

laptopdancer did we actually decide it was evil? I got quite lost on that thread, even confused it with another...

No, just being sarcastic .
Corn syrup maybe....

I hope not, your lunch actually sounds reasonably like the stuff I send my DD in with; youghurts, fruit, babybells, and pombears occasionally. I don't think they're allowed to eat at break or snack time

Seriously? I put crisps and a small chocolate biscuit in my kids lunch and fruit and water and a healthy sandwich. I can't believe that I would be looked down upon.

They are kids they burn it off and I think that's pretty balanced we have a varied and balanced diet at home too, my kids know that too much of anything isn't great.

Seriously think some people need to chill out - as soon as your back is turned they will be gorging themselves on coke and chips and sweets anyway esp if they aren't allowed it!!

YABU for using the word "yoghurtised".

OJ when taken with a meal is just fine, the vitamin c aids iron absorption - so if, for instance, the yoghurt coated fruit was apricot - high in both easily digestible fibre and easily releasable iron, it could be beneficial to take them together. And ideally finish off with some cheese (babybel anyone) to neutralise all that fruit acid.

Im really surprised at this tbh. I thought all schools had relatively strict lunch box policies which mostly exclude crisps, juices and chocolate.

Nope - ours excludes sweets and fizzy drinks only.

oh, and I forgot to add - despite allowing crisps/chocolate biscuits/ cakes etc, we are a certified "healthy eating" school..... not worth the paper it is written on

Yes, talk to your child about eating her own food and not swapping

Yes, talk to the school - they should be supervising

Yes, I absolutely would judge a parent including Space Invaders in a lunch box, - that is not food.

I wouldn't judge what another parent choses to feed their own child .

My kids are all skinny, do loads of sport, hardly ever ill and have home cooked dinners with fresh veg and salad etc.

I am a mum - not a bloody nutritionist - I use my common sense.

Some people really are up their own arses.

Yes, we do walk along and scan (I help out as a midday sup)

We get asked to open a lot of x y and z as well so it is easy to remember who might bring in junk to eat on a regular basis.
Our school has quite a strict policy and OJ ranks right up there with soda/fizzy pop, not just for the sugar content but for being a sweet sticky liquid should it spill or leak - and you can bet it will.

I have spotted the odd space invader packet and fudge bar wrapper though. Oh and those processed cheese string things are horrid. I taste-tested once out of curiosity and couldn't quench my thirst for hours afterwards. The salt content is sky-high

We would report to the teacher if a child's lunchbox is consistantly unhealthy but what happens after that I couldn't say. It has only ever happened once.

I would say I lot can be missed when it's busy but if you have a good healthy packed lunch policy then it's a step in the right direction. The odd treat here and there doesn't hurt, sometimes I think they could be thrown in last minute as a subsitute but there's nothing wrong with speaking up about it and getting the ball rolling.

Children do swap though. It's getting them to enjoy their own lunches and catering for them that's key

The parents who give children crap in their lunches when the school operates a 'healthy lunch policy' are down there with those who park dangerously right outside the school when the school operates a 'park and walk policy' IMO

Tell your child not to swap her lunch.
Your issue is not with what other people decide to give their dc's for their lunch, it only impacts on your child because she deliberately chooses to swap.