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

But it doesn't have to be a cold sandwich - it could be beans on toast, or a boiled egg. That's hardly cooking, is it? And perfectly adequate/balanced etc.

Unless you are hard up it would be horribly mean to give kids sandwiches for tea. Unless that's what they'd asked for that particular night. If I was a child and got sandwiches for tea I'd be in

Er main meal of day should be at lunch

Mean to give a child sandwiches for tea? I take it you do mean tea and not Northern dinner?

Well, I'm surprised when I take my DC's friends home for tea, and their parent tells me I won't need to feed them because they had a hot lunch at school. I do feed them. Usually fish fingers and chips. then they tell me that's what they had for lunch.

I would love to only make sandwiches every evening. If I thought I could get away with it I would. I always feel the need to serve vegetable soup with sandwiches, though.

I went to high school in the 80's with people who were on free school meals, who openly admitted they only had a meal every other evening, due to lack of money. The other evenings they had toast/sandwiches. I think it's what's in/with the sandwiches that makes all the difference.

When my children were young they almost always did have a home-cooked meal, but if they had had a school dinner I would certainly not feel bad about giving them a pick&mix tea, or beans on toast on the odd night.

I never have sandwiches either Ivykaty, apart from bacon ones.
Or turkey, stuffing and cranberry ones on Boxing day.
They've never appealed to me.

Well the disclaimers won't really help you - knowing YABU doesn't somehow make you not unreasonable.

Before reading the post I thought: 'Yes, because they may be a) borderline poverty cases, b) working parents that are exhausted, or even just parents that are exhausted - let's not be divisive, c) it's not your business what other children eat.'

So you can have b) and c).

I can think of some non sad sandwiches:

A cuban sandwich: sliced roast pork, ham, swiss cheese,sliced gherkin, mustard-in a hot, pressed ciabatta style bread .

Smoked salmon and cream cheese sesame bagel

Pastrami on rye, with lots of mustard

Cheese and branston on lovely crusty white bread

Sausage and egg bap with HP sauce...

ggglllhhh

I'm hungry!

What's Northern dinner. That's a new one for me.

Fellation-when I say Tea, I mean the evening meal... Is Northern dinner the same as Lunch?

I am an ex-Northerner and tea/dinner are interchangeable terms in our house. Lunch is lunch and we don't have supper unless we are going to friends for dinner

I cook a hot tea/dinner 99% of the time. When the DC were small, they had school dinner as well (they only wanted it for the pud and custard!) and then they changed to packed lunches when the new-stylie lunches came in. They have always been slim/normal-sized.

Well yes, sorry, it depends on your perspective. 'Tea' is what you call dinner in the north, and Northerners call their lunch 'dinner'.

But for me, tea would be a light meal of sandwiches, or egg on toast, whereas dinner would be a bit later, and a bit more elaborate. They both happen in the evening though.

My DC ask if it's tea-time, and then I call them to say dinner's ready

Dinner is never at lunch-time.

I give DDs sandwiches, or a boiled/poached eggs, beans on toast, home made soup. They are 7 and 3, they don't want another main meal!

I cook a main meal at lunchtime and have mine then, and heat it up for DH later, so I'm not doing two lots of dinners in the evening. So DDs always have the option of another hot meal if they want, but most often they want something light when they've had a school dinner. Particularly as some evenings DD1 has swimming or dancing so doesn't want something massive lying on her stomach before those activities. If it's shepherd's pie though DD1 will always have that!

Also I don't know what they are likely to be having for school dinner, so sometimes would end up duplicating it at home if I cooked a meal in the evening!

In the spring and summer they have sandwiches at lunch time and a cooked meal in the evening - so what's the difference there, nutritionally???

I tell you what the difference is for me as well. Since I've been eating a light meal with the kids at 5pm I've lost 9lbs. I'm a bit overweight, not obese, and need to lose a bit more. I don't want something heavy in the evening when it seems to be working not to! DDs are both exactly in the middle of the healthy BMI range, are doing well at school/nursery, have good concentration for their age, sleep well and their teeth are fine, so no, I'm not worried about their diet.

To me, paying £2.30 for a school dinner then making them a cooked meal in the evening is like having a dog and barking yourself...

Am I allowed to admit that my kids have school lunches because we qualify for free school meals?

The little ones 'could' manage on soup, yogurts etc in the evening but eldest is developing a huge appetite, I also don't get a lunch break due to my odd hours so I cook a hot meal most evenings (sometimes from scratch, sometimes it's fish fingers and smilie faces)

Here dinner is at 12noin and tea is between 5pm and 7pm

My kids love sandwiches.

Lunch is not the main meal of the day regardless of how much you decide to eat. Dinner IS the main meal and imo should always be a nice hot meal. Sandwiches are for lunch, not dinner.

Although their prep school insists on calling dinner lunch despite being in the area it is in!

My kids have their school meal as the main meal of the day. If I try to give them anything other than sandwiches for tea they get in a right huff.

YABU. There aren't many countries in the world where it is normal to eat two hot meals a day.

Some of you clearly don't know how to make a sandwich if is somehow not as filling or nutrious enough. It is what you make it.

So all of you who reckon that to fill you up food has to be hot, what do you do in the summer when it is too hot to cook or eat hot food (a rarity in this country admittedly but it does happen ). Would you consider a salad with some sort of carbs (bread, potato salad etc) not a real meal then? Would you still consider it lazy/cheating/bad practice to serve a cold tea then?

I used to have school dinners(lunch) and sandwiches for tea as a child and never went hungry. I seriously don't get the problem or why anybody would want 2 hot meals a day.

We say Tea for what you have in the evening, except if doing a posh one, then it's dinner!
Its school dinner, Sunday Dinner and Xmas dinner, but I say lunch the rest of the time, although where I live this is not usual, as the meal in the middle of the day is always dinner for most!
(phew!)

No such thing as too hot to eat hot food.