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.

Hubert, are you saying sugary cake with custard everyday is acceptable? Or chocolate covered cornflake cake with pink custard (yuck) is ok??? Because school canteens are fishing these out everyday up and down the country.

dishing

I think my kids school has it right.
Packed lunches have to be healthy and they are allowed one treat in their lunch box but no sweets or fizzy drinks.
I'm glad they have that rule. Some parents idea of a suitable lunch for their kids is appalling. I feel really sad for the children who have cold chicken and chips from a take away or 1 ready made pancake and nothing else and other rubbish.
The rules need to be there as there are so many parents who are either clueless or don't care.

I 100% agree with HubertCumberdale - we have become desensitized due to culture at how ridiculous it is to think 20+ spoons of sugar a day (yep that's right that little mars bar is big in other ways) is a "little treat" or "only a mars bar". You wouldn't let your child tell you "it's just one fag a day". Sounds drastic but this shit leads to diabetes/high blood pressure, rotten teeth as smoking leads to other obvious horrid things.

But what about the sugar in school dinners?????
Why is it ok to police lunch boxes but not to inspect what county have sent in a can and reject that????

Only have experience of our local school but let me assure you

If there is sugar in those biscuits I've yet to find it

There is a little sugar...but not half as much as in a "normal" biscuit

In my family (of origin) it's not packed lunch or pack-up, but piece.

Where I come from a piece is an attractive young lady. I assume from 'piece of ass'

I stopped school lunches because a new company took over and they were shit.

slice of pizza with sponge cake and custard

wtf

Today she's had a tuna sandwich, a bag of cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks, a babybel, a packet of cheddars (which she won't eat) and some dried mango and an actimel.

most food groups represented!

I don't think a penguin bar a day is obscene

I really don't (although mine hate penguins)

And also I think it it's just lazy to say that one parent can't send a healthy slice of homemade in just in case another sends in a Mars bar. Why can't they just depend time and money sorting out the parents who send in Mars bars? Sort it out.
I never see politicians or HTs say 'it's utterly unacceptable that you regularly feed your child junk.' It's all let introduce this blanket policy which is nice and gentle and doesn't demonise those who feed their kids shit everyday .

Thank God our kids go to a school with a sensible headteacher who has better things to do than micromanage every child's packed lunch! I sometimes pop a (single) chocolate coin in their lunchbox as a wee treat. The day the school pull me up on that is the day I'll make my first ever complaint to the school.

this is why the whole thing stinks. I cannot stand this idea of needing to catch the lowest common denominator therefore imposing draconian rules. Oh one mum night just send in a mars bar so best not allow a slice of banana cake after a healthy sandwich. Just bloody deal with the bars bar parent FFS

EXACTLY

oh and this morning I had dd in tears saying she didn't want to go to school as yesterday at lunch she got told off for not finishing her food

FFS if a kid isn't hungry or doesn't want the food leave them to it!! if my kids don't finish their food at home I don't make them eat it if they are not hungry or don't like the food the world wont end will it

seems like there is lunchtime police at my kids school :/

homemade cake is a joy and a rarity and should be downright encouraged imo!

interestingly that dried mango and actimel probably has more sugar than the marshmallow, but would probably escape the lunchbox police.
OP just don't put sweets in the 'pack up' and you will be fine.

Torwood no that's no OK either, it's junk. I was talking exclusively about packed lunches and why this rule should exist.
School dinners are an issue all on their own.

yes I agree! Actimels are full of sugar but they were on offer

and I do think that if you eat a sensible meal, with protein and vegetables (tuna sandwich and raw veggies) then either an actimel, a penguin, a marshmallow isn't going to do an 8 year old any harm whatsoever

But marshmallows don't contain any nutrients whatsoever whereas dried fruit and yoghurt drinks do in addition to the sugar.

I disagree that the rule should exist because I think it's lazy. Someone is obviously going around checking the lunch boxes so it's ridiculous to say it would be too difficult to distinguish between the lunch of pepperami and a tub of Jaffa cakes and the healthy well balanced one that finishes off with a small treat.

And if we're really interested in the welfare of the Mars bar/Jaffa cake child then we'd be hauling the parent in after school and asking if they feed their child such crap at home. Oh sorry, is that unacceptable and none of our business??? Funny that!

mind you given the guidelines from change 4 life it isn't surprising that schools have not a clue what constitutes a healthy lunchbox

diet drinks instead of non diet

sheesh

It's like this with everything. At a previous job one colleague spent a lot of time on personal phone calls. Boss gets everyone in and lectures us all on having personal phone calls, even though we didn't or only did occasionally. It was admitted to me later that there wasn't a problem with people doing it now and then but was aimed at this one woman. Why didn't they just bring her and go through it with her.

Same thing applies here. Obviously it isn't good if child comes everyday with leftover takeaway and a can of coke. However, bring it up with that parent, not a blanket rule than banns children with a healthy packed lunch + 1 marshmallow or a chocolate bar. I work at my dc's school at lunchtime and if I see a child with a small pack of haribo's after eating a healthy packed lunch, I don't say anything. I would just make sure healthy stuff eaten first.

I like and respect dds teachers so I would never send her in with crack cocaine haribos

lemonhope It's advised that children should have no more than 12g of added sugar per day. A penguin bar (a good example of a choc bar) has 8.1g. Take into account that one slice of wholemeal bread has 1.6g of added sugar, a child with a 'treat' in their packup is having 80% of their recommended added sugar intake just in one meal. That's before we even consider if the child has a yoghurt or something.

If kids are having less than 2.4g of added sugar throughout the rest of their food and for the day, then yes a choc bar at lunch is fine, but I doubt it.

I think YABU. Whilst you may otherwise do a great healthy pack up for your child, there are plenty of parents that haven't got a clue about decent nutrition, hence why these policies are created in the first place. You agreed to these school policies when you accepted the place for your child. Seriously, pick your battles. This shouldn't be one of them

The school could either have a rule saying

"No sweets in packed lunches."

Or they could have a rule saying

"Sweets are ok as long as it's only a small number and as long as the rest of the lunch has been healthy."

Anyone with any imagination can see that the second option would be a complete nightmare to enforce and would result in a constant stream of parents outside the HTs office wanting to argue about the size/number of sweets and how healthy the rest of little Johnny's lunch was compared to little Dave's lunch.