AIBU to think parents should provide a better pack lunch than this??

[neverlookback]

My dd goes to the local community nursery a couple of mornings a week and when I pick her up at 12 all the kids staying all day have thier pack lunches ready on the tables, today as I'm waiting for dd to come through I noticed someone had sent in a bowl of cold takeaway garlic bread and chips! You could tell it was takeaway there's only 1 in our village!

I'm all for takeaway sometimes but I don't think this is a nice, healthy lunch for any child to have to take to nursery and eat cold or is it just me??

My ds has autism and very limited in his diet.

I wouldn't want to send him with those foods (and not just those either) but they are two of the items he would eat!

No! Even as a one off it's shit! I can honestly say I've never fed my children cold chips and cold garlic bread in a Styrofoam carton. And my eldest are 13 and I'm no Annabel karmal either. As a parent surely there's a bare minimum requirement - and that's just not it.

That is a shit lunch. Some parents have very limited knowledge/skills when it comes to feeding their children.

It's not judgey at all!

It's absolutely shocking.

Whatever the reason.

My youngest spends a lot of time in hospital, we always manage to give my eldest a decent packed lunch.

If someone can afford takeaway, they can afford some bread, cheese and fruit.

Yanbu. That's a shit lunch. If it was pizza I wouldn't judge as much, but cold garlic bread and cold stale chips?! Yuck.

Only on MN woukd you get people defending it. It's a shit lunch and shit parenting. Shit parenting is everyone's business.

It's not as bad as one kid (primary school) I know who had to do his own packed lunch for a school trip and turned up with 2 cans of special brew because that's all there was in the house.

If someone can afford takeaway, they can afford some bread, cheese and fruit.

There was an article in the paper recently showing the extortionate prices fish and chip take always had reached.

Children need nutritious food to allow their brains and body to develop properly, I judge anyone who doesn't care enough to provide that

Why would you automatically assume that the reason behind a less-than-ideal packed lunch is that the parent "doesn't care"?

Hermione, your story wins, unless someone else knows of a kid who got 10 Regals too.

I get that cold takeaway is not a good lunch, and yes the op says that she recognised it as a takeaway from the only takeaway in the village (although not sure where the styrofoam container has suddenly come from!!)

But everyone is so absolute about it - cold chips - 'vile' 'minging'!!

Only on MN woukd you get people defending it

Are people defending the lunch itself though? Or are they suggesting reasons why a child might be given that lunch other than "the parent is a cunt who doesn't care about their child"?

It is perfectly fine to judge that as a rubbish lunch, even as a one off.

No one who has said as much on this thread is saying op needs to report the provider of that lunch to social services. Calm down.

Let's hope the community nursery staff are keeping an eye on this child and his/her lunches.

If op wants to do something, she could make a comment to nursery staff along the lines of "is this child's lunch always so awful?"

But cold chips are vile that's something we can be absolute about surely?

I think it's a fair point to blame the tories and cuts for malnutrition in some cases - DH regularly takes client group he works with to food banks directly as a result of benefit cuts. These people literally have no other choice..

But in this case I agree a take away is going to be far more expensive than buying fruit and veg - which has been remarkably cheap in supermarkets of late.

What happened to the child with the Special Brew hermione? Presumably the teachers on the trip reported?

Yanbu it is a dreadful lunch for anyone of any age.

Apparently we cannot be absolute that cold chips are vile .

Cold, leftover garlic bread & chips??

that sound disgusting & even my human dustbin DS would turn his nose up at that lunch

there's some very odd children about

Hazyjane - Sorry it was me that extrapolated the comment about recognising it was takeaway as the only one in the village from op. I assumed she'd recognised it from the packaging but you're right - that's not explicitly stated.

I said earlier my DD2 (5) pinches cold chips from the fridge.

For the Judge Judys though I'll say she also loves fruit and veg and the usual healthy home cooking.

Why would you automatically assume that the reason behind a less-than-ideal packed lunch is that the parent "doesn't care"?

If they cared, they would feed their child properly, or perhaps they do care, they're just too stupid to understand that cold chips and garlic bread is not a suitable meal for anybody, let alone a young child. Uncaring or stupid, it's still wrong.

perhaps they do care, they're just too stupid to understand that cold chips and garlic bread is not a suitable meal for anybody, let alone a young child

Or perhaps they're profoundly depressed and trying to do their best?

Or perhaps they're profoundly depressed and trying to do their best?

Sorry but that's crap IMO!

I've been depressed. It's debilitating, yes.

But if I could manage to get my dc to nursery I could manage to pack a better lunch than that.

walter perhaps not every single person's experience of depression is identical?

Obviously it's not but excusing this as possible depression smacks a bit of straw clutching!

You can get your child up, dressed, out to nursery but you're too depressed to stick an apple into his bag?