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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be miffed about ds getting 'told off' for the content of his packed lunch

294 replies

Squiffie · 25/09/2013 19:48

DS had a packed lunch consisting of:

A chicken wrap
Banana
Grapes
Rice pudding
A bottle of very dilute squash

In addition to this he had 3 or 4 jelly sweets that I'd popped in with his grapes as a treat, for which he got 'told off' by a member of lunchtime staff. Am I seriously not allowed to choose the contents of his lunch box?!

OP posts:
lagertops · 25/09/2013 20:30

What are play pieces like these days?

CreatureRetorts · 25/09/2013 20:30

Sweets every day is too much. Four sweets for a kid isn't the same as four for an adult.

No wonder we have a problem with diabetes and obesity in the UK! FFS.

ThreeMyselfAndI · 25/09/2013 20:32

school's have lunch policy's? Shock

dds school there are no rules kids can take anything they want for snack or lunch except cans, glass bottles and energy drinks.

I would not listen or allow anyone to tell ne what.my dcs can and cannot eat.

the world's gone mad Shock

Fairenuff · 25/09/2013 20:32

if anyone wants to dictate what I feed my children I expect them to demonstrate they eat healthily. "Do as I say, not what I do" the teacher's folly if you ask me

The rules are not made by teachers though, are they. The head is sent directives from the government and has to follow them. If anyone disagrees, they should write to their MP.

Original poster
Squiffie · 25/09/2013 20:33

If he'd had school lunch today his choices would have been:

Cheese & Tomato pizza or Salmon fishcakes

With potato wedges and baked beans or peas.

Pudding was chocolate sponge and choc sauce or jelly and fruit pot.

DS would have chosen pizza, wedges, beans and choc pud!

OP posts:
lagertops · 25/09/2013 20:34

CreatureRetorts

Four gum sweets. As in Haribos, I assume. Noone is going to get obese or diabetes because they had four gummy bears. That is quite an outrageous thing to say.

pippitysqueakity · 25/09/2013 20:34

*Four sweets for a kid isn't the same as four for an adult.

No wonder we have a problem with diabetes and obesity in the UK! FFS.*

REALLY????

ModreB · 25/09/2013 20:35

Sorry, your child your rules. I had this argument with DS1's HT at primary school.

I told him that what went into DS1's head was his responsibility, what went into DS1's belly was my responsibility, and that he should back off unless he was a qualified nutritionist.

He backed off Grin

Serialdrinker · 25/09/2013 20:36

I understand lunch box rules/ guidelines but I would have been mortified had I been told off for the lunch my mum sent me with. A little note or call with nothing said to the child (age 5 did you say) would be far more appropriate. I don't know if it was on MN that I heard it but there was a child who was told off for a generic chocolate bar so the next day sent a Go Ahead pack where the child was praised for having better food but actually the GA snack has more auger and fat that the chocolate did!

Fakebook · 25/09/2013 20:37

Why is it ok for children who have school dinners to have ice cream for pudding and packed lunch children aren't allowed one measly little sweet?

I give dd sweets on school trips and tell her to eat them on the coach or when she feels like it. She hasn't been caught yet. Why can't children enjoy their lives a bit?

PeppiNephrine · 25/09/2013 20:37

I don't care from a health point of view, your kid, do what you like. I do think its unfair for those children with sensible parents lunches to have other kids sitting there munching sweets in front of them.

CreatureRetorts · 25/09/2013 20:39

Yes really. (I'm responding to the comment about so what if every day). Sweets every day is hardly a treat, it becomes a way of life.

I didn't have sweets every day as a kid - they were a rare treat. Same with puddings etc. that's normal to me.

littlemisswise · 25/09/2013 20:39

I'm not into the lunchbox police on the whole because I believe that most parents are able to judge what is best for their children to eat. However, I totally agree with the 'no sweets' rule. If it wasn't there you would get children with packets of Haribo and no much else in their pack up.

When I worked in a childcare setting with pre-school children, we didn't have a no sweets rule at first and it was shocking to see what some children were bringing in under the term "lunch"! Not only that, other children were screaming and not eating their lunch because they wanted sweets too. Once the no sweets rule was implemented it was better for everyone.

Fairenuff · 25/09/2013 20:40

I don't think four small sweets on a Friday is really the problem. The rule is not there because of that. It is because of children that come to school every single day with only sweets and crisps in their lunchbox.

You can give your child all the sweets you like for breakfast and after school but during school hours, no sweets. It's not hard is it.

Bogeyface · 25/09/2013 20:40

I am very grateful that we dont have this policy at our school, although I am in no doubt that it will appear at some point.

What annoys me most about the lunch box policing is that, as the OP pointed out, the school dinners are far less healthy than most lunchboxes! They offer miniscule portions of veg, and carby and fatty dinners with sugar on sugar on sugar puddings!

TheOrginalPoster · 25/09/2013 20:43

Op maybe try putting in a packet of fruit factory stars? They taste like sweets but are natural fruit so hopefully its a happy medium!

monicalewinski · 25/09/2013 20:44

lagertops going by usual mumsnet rules, play pieces are chopped veg and bean dip (no crisps/breakaway allowed anymore!) Wink

lagertops · 25/09/2013 20:45

Peppi

When I was in primary school, my friend used to (without fail) have pancakes with jam instead of sandwiches, a Fruit Winder, a Pepperami, a packet of cheese and onion, a fruit shoot and an orange can hear the packed lunch police swooning. I was never jealous, I preferred my egg and cress sandwiches, orange juice and cherry tomatoes as I thought her lunch was disgusting Smile. But I don't see why people get chastised for allowing their child a wee sweetie. Your child, your rules.

phantomnamechanger · 25/09/2013 20:46

I think school puddings are healthier than the jam roly poly era of the 70s

a typical week here would be

apple crumble and custard
sultana flapjack
rice pudding
lemon cake and custard (no icing or sprinkles on the cake)
ice cream and tinned peaches

every day yogurt and fresh fruit is also available

yes those pudds are sweet, but they are also rich in good nutrients - which a handful of haribo is not!

diaimchlo · 25/09/2013 20:47

*Sweets every day is too much. Four sweets for a kid isn't the same as four for an adult.

No wonder we have a problem with diabetes and obesity in the UK! FFS.*

Sorry but I do not think that is the HT's problem with the sweets issue I think it is that they think that if a child has sugary things at lunch then maybe they will get an energy burst during the afternoon.... much better in their eyes to keep the children calm.

I pick my DGC's up from school every day and tbh the ratio of what some posters obviously think as obese is very small.

teacherwith2kids · 25/09/2013 20:48

The only thing about the school dinner puddings is that they are sweet 'in name' but the recipes have VERY little sugar in them.

Because the suppliers have to conform to strict nutritional guidelines, foods that 'at home' might be cooked with a fair amount of sugar / salt are served, in school, in very low sugar / salt versions.

You would be genuinely shocked by the contents of most lunchboxes, even in the naicest schools. Bag of crisps + chocolate roll would be one of the more nutritionally balanced...

skyeskyeskye · 25/09/2013 20:51

our school have a no sweets/chocolate policy. You can have a Kitkat because it has biscuit in it, but not a Milky Way, because it's all chocolate.

Original poster
Squiffie · 25/09/2013 20:51

Had I known the 'rule' existed I might have followed it but I didn't, I've never seen a copy of any packed lunch policy.

It's more about how it was dealt with and the discrepancy between what's allowed in a pack up and what's on offer with school lunches!

It's also the fact he was told that chocolate and biscuits were acceptable, why?!

OP posts:
lagertops · 25/09/2013 20:51

monicalewinski

Nooooo! Whatever happened to Calypso cups and Tangy Toms from the tuck shop!

CreatureRetorts fair play, if not eating a sweet treat every day is the way you were brought up, then okay, but to say a handful of sweets per day is to blame for obesity and diabetes is just silly and plain wrong. It takes a hell of a lot more than that usually.

phantomnamechanger · 25/09/2013 20:52

tbh the ratio of what some posters obviously think as obese is very small.

the stats say differently though

reception and y6 are screened weighed

obesity IS on the rise, and most parents of obese children are in denial about it

we have forgotten what healthy looks like

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