to feel almost bullied by schools/packed lunches?

[SufferingSaffy]

Generally I'm quite supportive of schools trying to get childrens' lunch boxes in a healthier shape.
My DSs usually contain something like:
wholemeal cheese or ham sandwich
yoghurt
fruit
bread sticks/crackers.

(I used to send a cake bar instead of crackers but it got sent back home so many times for being chocolate)

The school are on yet another healthy lunches mission. This time they want to see all packed lunches contain 2 pieces of fruit/vegetable. They are also encouraging children to eat something other than sandwiches and will award children with an alternative to sandwiches with a certificate for healthy eating.

I personally find my DCs 1 piece of fruit enough. We like sandwiches in this house so why should they discourage it?

*and don't get me started on the ice cream/ cakes they dish up with school dinners.

AIBU? Go on, I can take it probably

These sort of threads always shock and annoy me. I don't have any kids in school yet but know I'll be pretty peeved when the schools start policing the food I send them in with. Is there anything parents can actually do about it?

Jeez, as if it's not hard enough finding interesting things to put in lunchboxes! I'd propb have a work with teh HT/school sec re school lunches and make it clear that as long as school lunches include ice cream, jelly, sticky cponge puds etc you will put whatever you want in your lunch box! Gah!

Arf at lobster and coconut

Funny, ours has just had a big push about this recently too. The children in DS's class give out treats like cake on birthdays to the whole class at the end of the day. We've just been told in a letter they're not allowed to do this any more and have to give out fruit instead. In the meantime, they are allowed jam roly poly etc after school lunch.

Yippee! A banana! Thanks soooooo much and Happy Birthday!

Killjoys.

Buy a lifelike plastic apple / orange / grapes / whatever. Leave it in the lunchbox permanently. Ta-da!!

Think yourself lucky that you are still allowed to take packed lunches. DD's school made school lunches compulsory at the start of this year (private school, so yes, they can do that) - only exception is for certain allergies/religious food rules.

DD is a vegetarian/pescetarian, and is a rather fussy eater. It doesn't help that due to having grown up partly in Japan, she has never taken to British-style food. In particular, she won't eat cheese (no pizza, macaroni cheese etc), anything recognisably eggy (eg quiche or boiled eggs), baked beans, or most meat-substitutes like Quorn. Put a plate of noodles, tofu, seaweed, fish etc in front of her and she will gobble it up, and she eats nearly all kinds of fruit and veg, but the options for school lunch are generally very stodgy British-style things, and the veggie options are nearly all cheese or egg based.

So every day she has a virtually protein-free lunch of baked potato (no cheese obviously) or pasta (plain or with tomato sauce) and some bits and pieces from the salad bar. There seems to be no effort to encourage them to try new things or to ensure they get a balanced meal, no supervision by teachers, and it all costs me £3 a day. I wish we could go back to lunchboxes and I could make her salmon onigiri or something healthy with fermented soy beans...

I can't understand why so many people are content to have their children's lunch boxes examined. As far as I can see your child's lunch box is your business. They cannot possibly know if your child is eating a balanced diet because they don't know the content of their other meals.
What would happen if you took them on ? I really dislike this 'big brother' stuff.

Just ignore them.

One word from the school about any of my kids lunch boxes and I will have several words about the 'tuck shop' the catering company has set up at break times currently flogging double chic muffins to primary school children.

But I am envious of the Japanese children's lunch boxes. They look beautiful and yummy.

We got a letter at the end of last term berating parents for including too many carbs. I am happy that DS eats a healthy lunch with sufficient calories for him to get through until tea time. For me that's enough and I file letters on the subject swiftly.

OP - your lunch boxes sound fine to me. DS moans if he has sandwiches too often so I do oatcakes/breadsticks/potato salads etc. Or I might make little mini pasties with ready made puff pastry if I'm feeling indulgent.

I do think that some schools go OTT with packed lunches. Fair enough they could say something if kids are being sent in with nothing but chocolate, sweets and fizzy pop - but to send a cake bar home is just ridiculous especially considering how balanced the packed lunch was.

DCs 1 and 2 are in secondary and there is no packed lunch police there. Apparently DC3's school has some healthy lunch reward scheme but I've never been sent any info home about it and DD2 has expressed no interest in trying to get the reward. That suggests to me it's not not promoted particularly strongly because DD2 loves getting stars and stuff like that. She usually has a chocolate covered cake in her packed lunch, I'd be annoyed if she wasn't allowed to eat it in school. The rest of her packed lunch is p.similar to the OPs child, though she's not so keen on sandwiches, prefers wraps or pasta salad.

If the supervisor did not look in the lunchbox, many children would not even eat their lunch. Boys, particularly, want to race back out to footie.

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=709&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=1wOlrk2ZxYf7sM:&imgrefurl=vkaey.wordpress.com/author/vkaey/&docid=sB3Vm1kJf6ZCKM&imgurl=vkaey.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/durian-fruit.jpg&w=400&h=300&ei=nMKqT9DEB6bPiAL87Mi-Ag&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=368&vpy=191&dur=597&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=119&ty=100&sig=114943231377014914740&page=1&tbnh=146&tbnw=190&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:100" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">What about this They are enormous and smell like human excrement. I'm helpful, me.

That was to Conference Pear,

bamboostalks, I have no objection to them ensuring that the children eat their lunch. I don't think the contents of the lunch box is their business.

The teahcers should worry about doing their own jobs and leave the parents to decide what is going in the lunchbox unless the school decides to make lunch available free.

They are acting no different t the cinemas who try to not let you in with any sweets you didnt' buy in their own kiosk.

Teachers have to 'do their job' and teach children for three hours after their chocolate and coke lunch that's the problem, they couldn't care less whether you have a flapjack or whatever. Just another box-ticking exercise for a Healthy School award that someone from County has dreamed up.

SufferingSaffy, could you ask around the other mums, and see if some or most are in agreement with you.Even if this was not mentioned back to the school, at least you would know you have other parents agreeing with you.

Tell them to go and swivel.

We once had a problem with ds1's ex-school because they complained there were four tiny haribo sweeties in his lunchbox (a one off treat) - realise this is not 4 bags or 4 big sweets, but 4 little tiny gummy bear type sweets. Needless to say, the sweets went back in his lunchbox the next day, with a note...

It's not the schools. It's the government. Schools have NO choice about health promotion. Take it up with your MP.

How very dare the school send stuff back home?! That means the child goes hungry, does it not?

I'll agree that some lunchboxes contain actual crap, but it's up to the parents. I've had discussions with parents at my school and I have to admit I've usually agreed with the parents (we have sensible parents mind you, not many of the type that send in Red Bull and jelly babies for lunch).