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

Exactly, Ragwort. It's a very British thing, IME, that it's not a good meal unless it's hot or a roast or contains meat.

School dinners are mainly guilt-inducingly revolting, so DP and I do try and produce something nice to eat in the evening.

Most children and adults on this planet eat far fewer calories than we do, do far more manual work (or walk) and have fewer problems with obesity and obesity-related disease.

Our school dinners are really nice!

1 hot meal a day is plenty, that's all you'd get in my house.

Ours are, I suspect, rather horrid. DD2 did once point out tearfully that if she'd had a nasty lunch, she really did look forward to a nice tea.

It may be quite a straightforward sort of a tea, like Greek salad and pitta with hummus, but it does need to be nice, I do see her point.

We all parent differently, and we all do our best to make the right decisions for our family and look after our children as well as we can.

It's not the different choices we make that are the issue, it's the sneering that takes place at the choices of others that's rather unedifying.

That's the smug bit. Not thinking food has to be hot to be 'proper', or thinking sandwiches aren't good food, it's the looking down on others and judging their choices which is the smug bit.

To those who encounter this kind of snobbery, I advise you to answer,

"Actually, we follow the German eating style, with a large Mittagessen and then a simple Brotzeit in the evening. I find it much more bekömmlich.

Out of interest do those of you who think its dreadful to not give a child two full on hot meals a day know that sometimes those who wouldn't dream of giving two full on hot meals a day may be judging you as piss poor parents and thinking you are encouraging gluttony and ill health?

Horses for courses and all that.

Flowery you said it in a much nicer way than me

"Out of interest do those of you who think its dreadful to not give a child two full on hot meals a day know that sometimes those who wouldn't dream of giving two full on hot meals a day may be judging you as piss poor parents and thinking you are encouraging gluttony and ill health?"

My hands up. I wouldn't dream of routinely giving my DCs two puddings a day, every day, and two full meals a day just seems far to much food to me.

Those who do this do you also give large hot breakfasts?

Well I have one child that has a cooked lunch, one that has a sandwich for lunch, and one that won't take any lunch at all.

I cook of an evening and dish it up with what they might have already eaten in mind.

Sometimes if no one is really bothered what we have, then we'll have beans on toast, or a sausage sandwich or similar.

Did anyone else see the newspaper article that states that more people now die from obesity related illnesses than starvation?

Whether we eat hot or cold food/school dinners or packed lunches the sad fact is that the vast majority of us, and our children, probably eat far too much compared to what we actually need

Ragwort - you said exactly what I did further down the thread. Why does a meal have to be hot to be nutrious? I don't get it.

I wouldn't want 2 hot meals a day because they are often bigger but they don't have to be. The temperature of the food is irrelevant to its worth unless you live outside and are likely to get hypothermia if you don't eat something hot occasionally. I don't think includes many of us!

My DD get quite good meals at school, normally she only wants a small meal at home, eat like a horse at weekends tho.

A bog standard prepackaged blt sandwich is usually around 545kcal a home made one you can add about 100-200 kcals if not more.

That's a huge amount for one component of a meal

At least it is almost guaranteed her kids will eat their school lunch because they know they won't get much else later.

aaaarrgh. I don't think anyone has said "hot" is better. I don't think anyone has said "meat is better".
It's nothing to do with hot or not hot.
People going on about sandwich WITH soup or sandwich WITH vegetables etc etc are not, I don't think, what the OP was on about.
I know plenty of people who really do feed their kids junk, by which I mean mostly rubbish bread and sugary yogurt.
And I reserve the right to think that's lazy. Soz.

I think what people have reacted to here is the toxic combo of faux-jollity (aren't these folk just awful, lolz, tee hee) and snotty one upmanship (oh well, you only cook one meal a day. Well I guess your dc won't starve and it's not very nutritious but it's your choice , but wouldn't they prefer it if you cared enough to make an omelette or something ).

flippinada I think I have a little crush on you.

Was it the sad face explosion?

Your wisdom and the sad face explosion, yes. Will you be my BFF?

I suppose children just get used to as many meals and in whatever quantity as is served at home. School dinner around here are, according to the DC, revolting not that nice and the quantity is pitiful. I wouldn't dream of considering that it for the day and not giving them a proper meal at home. They are starving by the time they come home anyway. But we don't tend to do "snacks" (aka eating all day between meals) or dessert either.

I planned my budget around free school meals, thinking I could now save a little money to pay my rent by only eating cereal bars and toast myself and having a small evening meal, usually sandwiches/toast/omelette/soup.

Fortunately now I get DLA (for DD), so it's easier to pay the rent and still buy nicer (more wholesome) food, although sometimes I can't bear the smell of it cooking so we still have to have toast or a sandwich. Perhaps if I get my DLA I can afford to have someone cook meals when I can't, my carer can only really reheat, alas.

I used to stand and cook beautiful food every day for the children, but I just can't now. I send them out with hot porridge in their bellies (or whatever my DD will eat) and fresh fruit is always available to snack on. They have snacks at school, plus a hot meal and pudding. Then they get a plate of food in the evening. Surely that's enough?

YANBU.