DS made fun of at school for having Aldi packed lunch!

[bimbabirba]

More of a WYBU.
DS started at a private school last week. He's in YR 6. Everything was going well until we decided to switch to packed lunches because he hated the hot lunches the school provides for £3.50 a meal. Some kids have been noticing that the drinks and snacks in his lunch box are Aldi's and have been saying things like "Ewww... Aldi, that place is horrid! How gross!".
DS is so embarrassed that every morning he tippexes the Aldi brand or he goes over it with a marker pen but they recognise the packaging and still make fun of him!
I can't believe I have to deal with this! WYBU to mention it to his teacher? He's new and I don't want to make it worse by making him unpopular.

This happened to my brother back in the 90s, but we went to a bog standard comp

These kids sound very nouveau.

FGS! What are you doing to your child? you cannot send him to the shambles every morning, if you are sending him to private school you need to play the game unfortunately.

[Says she who attended private school dressed in horrible clothes as his mother believed "fashion was stupid". Obviously, what did she care? she was not getting the bullying each morning]

It really breaks my heart that your poor child is covering the branding of the packaging and you are still wondering whether you need to talk to the teacher...

Tippex and marker pen over the label in yr 6 is probably more of a problem.

Where is this private school?

I've sent my kids into private school with Aldi carrier bags (they're much stronger than Asda)

How horrible though. My parents are pretty well off. Mum shops at Aldi because she likes the food. Their chocolate is especially good and des loves their fruit juice.

Just buy a few fruit shoot bottles and tell him not to bin them. Things like Penguin bars can be bought at aldi.

I once had a child I looked after who declared "I only eat brand name foods, the others are disgusting" - I gently pointed out she'd been eating a variety of brands and non brand/ value for months at my house and had declared it all delicious!

No, not in London. I was surprised and quite disgusted too by this behaviour. It's not even a very posh school at all and most pupils come from family like ours which can hardly be said to be wealthy.
I could decant everything or send in home made stuff but it's yet another chore and I resent having to do it because of the bullies.
Thanks for the comments though. You've convinced me it's wiser to shut up about it and look fid another solution!

Or you could take this opportunity to reach him about decision-making in shopping; get him to find out how much things cost in the various shopping options you have available locally, how much you would save if you went with the cheaper option, what you'd do with the saved money, how much that'd amount to over, say, a term, and then decide together whether it's worth paying the extra and therefore foregoing the other stuff you / he could have had.

Or even work out how many school meals that extra money would buy for children in Africa (through Oxfam) and then decide whether you could donate the extra to the world's poorest people. (You can tell that my dc have to live with my principles!)

Why would a kid put Tippex on the packaging instead of simply re-wrapping the food in foil?

And why wouldn't he just fill a normal drink bottle?

I wouldnt change supermarkets but I might do the home made /unpackaged route for a few lunches.

This is one of the ways some children rag each other and if it wasnt his lunch it would be his bag or other 'home' item.

Maybe your DS would benefit from some help in coping with this sort of lowish level stuff .Give as good as he gets type of thing. That usually all it takes in many cases.

Greenbananas, your sentiments are very worthy I'm sure. However, knowing that snobbishness is wrong is not going to help the OP's son is it ? When you are the odd one out with no friends, the moral high ground is cold comfort.

Two girls in my class were ostracised because they didn't fit the mould. I was right down the pecking order because i lived 9 miles away and wasn't sporty.

At a state school it's easier to be different because classes are bigger and there are lots of children in the year group. My year group from 13 to 16 consisted of the same 20 girls. Small classes are great academically but they do magnify cliques.

There is another thread about why you can identify independently educated children. I'll tell you why - it's because we spend our teen years trying to be as much like everyone else as possible. I look at the pictures of my boarding house at 6th form, apart from 1 girl we look like clones

Tipex over the label is ridiculous and will be causing more problems.

He will either have to brazen it out, or you can buy him some 'branded' snacks or make some home made stuff of decant things.

Kids will pick on something/anything and in this case of probably isn't worth making a point, so I would just buy him some kitcats or something to go in his lunch box.

Apparently my brother came hole crying from (state) school in Y4 because he didnt have spider man undies and only white undies no remember something similar about my rucksack in Y6. Sometimes easier to just buy the dam thing for your DC to help them 'fit in'.

Nice kids these posh schools turn out innit?
Snobby little gits.

The bottom line is that the child is having a bad time, obviously the mum can continue making things worse to support the principle but please, children need to fit in, and no matter how right the mum is, if the child is being bullied in school thanks to Aldi branding, she needs to decant the products or buy some other stuff. It is not the child's job to put up with this even if in principle, the mum is right.

Conversation with the school... I just imagine, the headteacher talking to people about being kind to those who are not well off... he will be bullied for his lunch and for being poor.

Just teach him to say "oh do fuck off"

Ledkr. My son attended private school, and his experience was completely different to mine, he had however a really bad experience at his first state school.

It is just a matter of luck. Some private schools have some horrid children and so do the state schools.

Nigel, that's (sadly) the best argument I've heard in favour of state education for some time. As an aside / tangent, an Oxbridge tutor I know said that Indy-educated girls are most likely to get 2:1 and very few a first; because they had been inculcated to work hard but not to be independent thinkers or to take any intellectual risks. This is, apparently, more obvious in girls than in boys, but it bears out the conformity culture you describe in indy schools. Such an incredible shame and waste of potential.

This is bullying. Yes, of course talk to the teacher. Poor lad.

And to prevent your son turning into a snob like his peers, I definitely wouldn't swap over to a more expensive brand. I'd encourage him to rise above it and to be thankful his parents have the sense not to spend £s extra for a brand name. He shouldn't have to change who he is to fit in. If the children are horrible to him about a food label, then they aren't worthy enough to be his friends. Who on earth would want friends like that? I certainly wouldn't.

I got this with 5yodd (normal non-private school). I sent her in with pineapple chunks for snack time. One boy told her he was 'allergic' to them and started saying things like 'yuck! Stay away from me.' This then triggered the other children to do the same. No one wanted to play with her when she was eating pineapple chunks. So i then decided to send dd in with strawberries instead. Surprise, surprise, the children were 'allergic' to these too. Same with bananas. Same with tangerines. Etc etc.

In the end I spoke to the teacher. In turn, she spoke to the class. So far, so good.

If children want to bully someone, they will. Go ahead and upgrade your son's lunchbox. But next week he'll be getting picked on for something else. Then something else. It's not him that has to change. It's the attitudes of the other children. And the first step in doing this is talking to the teacher.

I also don't get why so many posters are telling you to accept this as it 'comes' with private schools.

Regardless of which type of school a child attends, no one should have to put up with daily bullying.

Go the other way. Give him the best coolest Aldi lunchbox ever. Olives and pate and smoked salmon sandwiches, lovely chocolate etc etc.

Tell them he has it all cos he shops where only the posh and the poor go.
Make sure he points out that it's so "middle" class to shop in Waitrose.

Vile kids - bullying little shits- speak to the teacher.

Funnily enough last year I used to shop at M&S quite a lot and he would go to school with M&S juice cartons or yogurts and his teacher would comment on it saying "how posh!"
I just can't believe that adults and children alike actually pay attention to the brand of what a child eats or drinks! What would be a neutral brand then? Tesco's?

I can never understand that people send their kids to private schools to be the 'poor child'. Surely you need to back it up with the French chalet and the Chelsea tractor so they aren't bullied.

It's shot being the poor child at any school and children can be so horrid, I would buy his packed lunch stuff elsewhere just to save him the heartache, poor kid

Last year he was in a State school, I should clarify

But igloo that's ridiculous! I'm not sending him in to be the poor child! I just happen to really like Aldi stuff and find it's good value for money.
I never thought that would get noticed and would label him "poor"

One of my good friends is married to a self made millionaire and they send their children to a very lovely, well known private school.
I know quite a few families from this school due to being in the same socialising drinking group as my friend and know their children well. It's a matter of pride amongst these families that they keep costs down, Aldi and Lidl bargains are, I kid you not, sent out by text to everyone in our group the minute someone spots them. The children of the group really couldn't give a shit. It's food. They're hungry. They don't look at the label. These kids could really do with being brought back down to earth quite a lot!
Speak to the teacher and ask them to incorporate snobbery into the next PSE/Foundation studies lesson, teach your DS the stare and to say the word 'So?' In that way that makes people feel slightly uncomfortable.

Things like this really annoy me...

Feelinglousy,
I suspect i am not the only public school girl to have an overwhelming need to fit in wherever they are. It's only as i've got older and become more confident that i am myself. At most of my previous jobs i would do anything to be popular. At one of them that translated into sleeping with most of my male colleagues.

Girls' school may equip you academically. However, i can think of no better breeding ground for crippling insecurities.