to think its a bit tight when parents count a school dinner as THE main meal of the day

[MariahScarey]

all other things being equal (money activities etc)

have a colleague who makes her kids have sandwiches for tea " as they eat at school"

they have money, they can cook - is this laziness?
I know they wont starve or out, but I wouldnt count a tiny school meal that is then burned off as a main meal.

USUAL DISCLAIMERS

Yes there are worse things to worry to about
YEs its none of my business
Yes I am judging

Meh. Not something I can get worked up over. Ds1 has asked for sandwiches for tea when he's had a packed lunch before now. In the summer I don't have a problem with that but I'd rather he had at least one hot meal a day in the winter.
Dh often wants two hot meals a day as that was how he was brought up, but that's odd to me.

What's your opinion on beans on toast for tea post school dinner? Probably less calorific than a sandwich, but hot.
incidentally a sandwich supper is never just a sandwich here, always with veg/cheese/houmous/something on the side, and rarely a smaller volume than a cooked meal.

and I wouldn't not cook a meal for them
Because I only have an hour if they are hungry they are hungry. You can do fresh pasta with broccoli and cheese in 15 mins easy enough...

i agree cock. It makes no sense. Baked beans on toast is ok ish. bUt in reality is little diff to a sandwich

i KNOW its probably me ;) I cannae help meself

Well, you got your answer Annie, she does work full time and chooses to cook.
As I have done when working as I'm never hungry at lunchtime.
I'm also a lone parent, but lucky that ds is 17 so can pretty much cook for himself these days.

My two dc only want sandwiches when they have had a hot dinner. And they want to eat instantly when they get home from school (its quite a late finish for a primary school.) if i cooked a full meal they would want snacks while they waited Sandwiches, fruit & yogurt is a perfectly acceptable tea.

Pizza is just cheese and tomato and stuff on bread.

What about toasted sandwich (in a machine that makes triangles of course)

Of course I know meals can be cooked in 20 mins, but I choose not to spend a third of my evening time with my children in the kitchen. And then they'd be spending another half an hour eating. If you have a kitchen that's big enough for you to be in it together with your children, fine. I don't. But why on earth judge people who do things differently. My children are not malnourished in any way. So why do you care?

Start a thread by all means asking politely if other people's children have two cooked meals a day if you're interested. But to post an AIBU calling other people tight for making their own parenting choices is just rude and asking for a bunfight.

I KNOW I KNOW

gnashes and wails you have HIT THE NAIL trilly

sings annie has a chip, annie has a chip

I would only be concerned if it was their only source of food all day every day.

I like chips.

My DM was a school cook of the generation that felt that a cooked meal was a 'proper' meal and everything else was a snack no matter how many calories were consumed.

DM insisted on school meals for us all so that then we could have 'tea' in the evening which didnt have to be cooked. This tea would consist of 3 slices of bread and 3 cakes. A calorie bomb!

As soon as a could I stopped having school meals and have always insisted on DCs having packed lunches so that I know what they are getting.

I have a very low opinion of the quality of school meals based on the school meals served at my school and also the quality of my mother's cooking (dire).

At my DC's primary school the take-up of school meals is actually lower than the free school meals entitlement - the only people having school meals are the ones who get it for free and even then not all of them!

Although my kids get a hot cooked lunch at school they are both starving after school. Only rule is no snacks after school although will allow apple / banana - would rather serve dinner early - DH not home until after 8pm anyway so can't wait for him.

Sometimes its soup and toast other times proper meat meal. Would never serve sandwiches, would always be hot, even if soup.

re: small meals - I suspect school meals are normal child sized portions and those who thing they are small are overfeeding.

Wow, what an insane OP.

My kids have a big bowl of porridge for breakfast, proper school lunch and a light tea of sandwiches or beans on toast etc.

They're thriving on it and wouldn't eat a full cooked meal in the evening even if I gave them one (which I would quite happily do because I am Supermum too like cooking).

INSANE? wow

Um..I quite enjoy eating with my son. But then I never see eating as a waste of time!
In my family everyone, all 8 of us, ate together every evening. Both my parents worked-sometimes we didnt eat til 7, and had to fill up on bread until then, but the evening meal was when we all sat down and troughed like pigs caught up.
Maybe it's a cultural thing, I dunno, but even now in my tiny family I think its important for ds to see me preparing food, for hij to learn to cook and for us to eat together. It's nice.

Nutritionally, the ideal is to eat a large breakfast, a modest lunch and a light meal in the evening but that's hard to achieve nowadays - so arguably a light meal of sarnies/soup is healthier.

However, everybody is different and (eg) a very active, growing teen or and adult who has a physically active job will probably need to eat more.

But really this is one of those thinly disguised "I'm a better parent than you threads", so it could be about anything, really.

kurt geiger link buggered too

oops wrong thread

As far as I know foreveronadiet (very relevant username!) a child of six, who is active, needs about the same calories as a middle age woman. Thats about 1700 a day.
I think some school meals are bigger than others. Ds's are SERIOUSLY tiny. I mean, when they say "baked potato" they get a slice of baked potato. It's tragic!

Calzone is folded-over pizza so that's almost exactly like a sandwich.

Or Fajitas. Stuff inside bread.

Years ago (eldest DCs now 18!), my friend stopped cooking her DCs a hot evening meal when they started school as they were having a hot school lunch. A couple of months down the line, her children were diagnosed with malnutrition!

Most school meals are very carb heavy and the veg have generally been cooked beyond the possibility of any vitamins being present. Combined with the fact that children frequently don't eat what they are given (the amount of waste I see scraped into the bins every day is shocking) can lead to children not getting what they need from their school lunch and making a hot dinner necessary. My DCs are generally fed very well at school, but are still starving by the time it comes to the evening meal.

Link us the Kurt Geiger and we'll get distracted by shoes instead :)

We have a cooked evening meal most days, so DD, who has school dinners has two cooked meals. But the rest of us have sandwiches for lunch. I never eat two cooked meals in one day though and neither does DH or DS. If both DCs had school dinners I would definitely do them a sandwich tea and have something cooked with DH later.

Actually I'd far rather have two sandwich meals in a day than two cooked ones.