aibu to think the school can get fucked telling me what i can and can't put in packups

[InTheWhiteRoom]

ds is 8

he came home with a letter saying his pack up today was inappropriate. it was a very patronising letter "we promote healthy eating" and all that shit.... i can only assume this is because as I put a marshmallow in his pack up. a SINGLE marshmallow. along with his sandwich (cheese salad on granary) 2 bits of fruit and a yoghurt.

aibu to think I am the parent and I decide what goes in lunches?

jeez anyone would think his pack up was a can of coke and a packet of biscuits.

Actimels are bloody lovely. On offer you say...

Another thing is that schools spend all this time haranguing primary school kids about their diet, then they get to secondary school and sell them garlic bread and cans of cola. What's that all about? At primary school diet is controlled by parents and most parents do their best to feed kids well but at secondary school kids have control of their own dinner money and it seems that if the state is going to intervene anywhere it would be more sensible to stop crappy food from being sold at secondary schools.

an actimel has about 12g of sugar per serving, they are the work of the devil

she also has porridge with added maple syrup for breakfast and toast and marmite

the something like sheperds pie, broccoli, peas and then probably a yogurt

don't do puddings except a couple of homemade cakes a week

so she's prbably way off the charts for sugar and she doesn't have sweets except fridays and saturdays

she eats lots of fruit too which is also very high in sugar

totally agree Faux - we went from primary school thinking it reasonable to contact SS with a list of my faults that inc. 'DS seen drinking a fizzy drink' to a secondary that was making money from a fizzy drinks machine!

Note I'm not saying that every parent should or could be measuring out every food stuff to make sure our kids eat EXACTLY 12G OF ADDED SUGAR OR THEY WILL GET DIABETES!!!

Obviously that's mad. I'm just saying that how out consumption of junk has been normalised is way out of line with what a healthy diet actually is. The 'oh it's just one little bar' mentality is doing more harm than good, because it all adds up and we're all overeating every day without realising.

flowery, could the same person with any imagination not think it ridiculous that so many schools ban things like cake in lunch boxes when half the school ie those having school dinners, are sat across the hall eating cake, often with horrid custard.

The thing is though, in a school day from - what - 9am-3pm why is it so essential that kids have sweets in the lunchbox??

Pick them up, give them a treat then. Adhere to the rules at lunchtime

I'm all for challenging petty rules. But I'm also all for picking my battles and this wouldn't even be on the radar of worth bothering about.

And makes me even more glad packed lunches aren't permitted at my DD's school apart from school trips

And....to those if you saying that sugar in school meals has bed. Cut right back; how come school catering is allowed to be trusted in respect of making sure the meal is balanced and low sugar but not parents?

The answer is to stop food manufacturers from being able to pump food full of crap, rather than have a go at parents who just want to pack a lunch their kids will actually eat.

"flowery, could the same person with any imagination not think it ridiculous that so many schools ban things like cake in lunch boxes when half the school ie those having school dinners, are sat across the hall eating cake, often with horrid custard."

I'm sure they could, yes. No idea whether the OPs school would react the same with cake though, as in this case it was sweets.

Am jealous jacques. Would love to stop making packed lunches. I hate it more than I hate ironing and I really hate ironing.

We had to fill out a calorie intake survey thing with ds1 was 8. I was gently and patronisingly told that his calorie intake was too high for his I explained that he swam competitively and also played rugby and tennis. They then astonished me by saying that none of that mattered and shouldn't be taken into account! Really? His calorie intake was very protein heavy, not sugar heavy of even carb but no, his meals were too much for my skinny but very fit and active 8yr old. That's when I decided these initiatives were all bollocks.

A vast number of schools ban biscuits and cake alongside sweets.

All my children eat TONS

they are all like rakes and very sporty

the one thing they don't do is drink squahs/fizzy drinks

I truly believe its squash/fruit juice/fizz plus loads of additives in processed food that makes kids fat and unhealthy

Yep, no squash here and I give the butter rather than ultra low fat spread too. No diet anything allowed. Full of junk IMO and worse than a bit of sugar. They get a choc treat on a fri after school and sweets are rare but not banned. We believe in moderating rather than banning in this house.

I can't get away from the belief that a slice of home made cake is probably going to be healthier than a wodge of school cake and custard.

I accept that the sugar content is lower in the school cake, but I am deeply suspicious about the quality of the other ingredients - and about whether they use low fat fats rather than butter. I believe that butter is healthier than low fat spreads because it is more natural. I could make butter in my kitchen, with a minimum of equipment, and a maximum of two ingredients - but I would need all sorts of industrial and chemical processes to make something akin to low fat spread.

I might be totally wrong, of course - maybe school cake is made using the best quality ingredients, that are as 'clean' and unprocessed as possible. Maybe there's no palm oil or other nasties in them.

You shouldn't send your child to school with sweets in the first place so school are right to be annoyed. Why can't you just put him on school dinners?

Because school dinners are often minging gracie. There is food on school menus that I wouldn't want my kid to eat. Mechanically recovered meat sausages for ex - eurgh!

We had to fill out a calorie intake survey thing with ds1 was 8. I was gently and patronisingly told that his calorie intake was too high for his I explained that he swam competitively and also played rugby and tennis. They then astonished me by saying that none of that mattered and shouldn't be taken into account! Really? His calorie intake was very protein heavy, not sugar heavy of even carb but no, his meals were too much for my skinny but very fit and active 8yr old. That's when I decided these initiatives were all bollocks

omg

I would have been fuming.

i used to do school lunches and was delighted not to have to do packed lunches

but they are now being run by a different company and they are minging

plus too many times dd came home saying she'd had a bit of bread as she was late for lunch and they'd run out

anyhoo in the summer term they can eat outside if they have packed lunches

If OP had said "AIBU to think school is inconsistent to not allow treats in pack ups but serve sugary puddings for school dinners" I think everyone would agree. But whether or not you think the rules are draconian / petty / inconsistent etc, the OP basically said no one can tell her how to feed her DC and school can fuck off. Missing the point that that isn't how school works !

By all means challenge petty rules and how they are applied (for once the cliche advice about writing to the governirs might be best) but taking the view that school have no right at all to be involved in what DC eat is just wrong, combatative and unproductive. The other chestnut about home schooling if you 're really unhappy is also applicable here...

I'm from Norfolk and "pack-up" is common in place of packed lunch.
Yanbu.

When I was at school the dinners had a pudding choice including cakes, tarts, trifles, doughnuts etc. All small portions but infinitely larger than one single marshmallow. I like having a tiny bit of something sweet at the end of my lunch and dinner. Often just one chunk of chocolate. If I offered DD the same it would be in the context of no other sweets or chocolate ever except parties. She loves fruit as her pudding so not too worried about that at the moment but schools see a snapshot of a diet and make blanket rules. It leaves little room for parental judgement. YANBU.

I'm not generally combative with the school, and I don't go barrelling in complaining about inconsequential things...I'm generally very laid back.

But I do feel strongly that as a parent, I should decide what my dc eat.

Today's lunchbox had both 'chocolate' AND crisps and I'd still bet my last penny it was healthier and more nutritious than the equivalent school dinner. So I'd be very cross to be told it was lacking compared to the slop the school dole out (dollop of smash with a reformed chicken breast full of water and dextrose and brown carrots anyone? Yummy)

Typical day - chicken sandwich on w/m bread, a boiled egg, largish box of salad sticks, a small natural yoghurt, some cheese (cheddar sticks or Brie slices) a handful of 'naice' baked crisps and a choc digestive (two on Friday's! ) I don't give fruit because the school gives a piece of fruit on both play times.

Both of my dc play a lot of sport and on the couple of times they've had school dinners, they've come home starving as there's just not enough protein in them.

Ermm... I sent dd to school with a cheese sandwhich on white bread, a penguin biscuit and an apple. Im fucked.

I'm just about to pick her up, maybe I should just head to A&E.