To not give my kids sandwiches for lunch?

[NotSoDesperateHousewife]

Stupid, pathetic thread about lunch boxes. Please move on if you don't care

My Facebook feed is covered in posts about back to school lunch boxes, all creative bento style, they're lovely. Every single one I've seen has negative comments from friends about how "nobody has time for that." I do. I mean, I'm not moulding cheese into Peppa Pig but I do spend 10-15 minutes using cutters for cheese/ham to make "lunchables" or making wraps or other alternatives to a sandwich and a packet of crisps. If they do have sandwiches I do sometimes cut them into shapes.

Apparently I shouldn't bother because my children will be bullied and other children and their parents will get jealous. What the fuck? I don't do this for other children or parents, I do it for mine so they don't get bored. They eat a lot more, and more healthily, when I do this.

Why does it bother some people so much?

We don't do sandwiches, as DD will only eat them if they are "fresh" - which means literally just made in front of her, not that the bread and ingredients are fresh but made last night or early this morning.

So she has a hot food flask, a little one, and we give her chicken nuggets, fish fingers, sausages, plain pasta with grated cheese, etc in that. Along with some fruit of some sort (usually winders as she won't eat fresh fruit in school, and a tub of raisins in her bag for emergency snacking). Sometimes she'll accept things like carrot or pepper sticks, cherry tomatoes, chunks of cheese, some tuna/sweetcorn mix, crackers, cooked meat etc (some of those - not all together) and make up a picnic style lunch for herself.

But she is fussy, and the meds she's on mean she has a reduced appetite, so we do what we can to get actual food into her. Add in the school's healthy eating policy, and lunches are a nightmare. But just cutting a sambo into a different shape wouldn't tempt her. I did that for a birthday party once to a good reaction, but only a couple of times for school and they weren't eaten so gave up again.

oh dear. I guess it depends who your "friends" on facebook are.
Mine are close friends and family, I don't have 600 of them. I don't have time to fuss about sandwiches, but if I miraculously get organised and do something nice, I'd be quite happy to post it on facebook.

Why? To show my friends what we do in England for a start, none of their kids have pack lunch. My family would find that funny, and likes to follow little bits of our life. My friends would just ignore, or comment about how differently they live, based on wherever abroad they have been sent. I have never seen a mean comment about somebody amazing birthday creation for example!

If anyone has a problem with my photos, they are free to defriend me. If people are made to feel so insecure about facebook, they really should not go on it. It's madness! You actually ask to be bullied if you think about it!

I'm a bento mum. DD (4) hated last year's enforced school dinners. It takes me about 5 minutes to make her a yummy, colourful, healthy lunch. She's not a fan of lunch at the best of times, so it needs something interesting to make her want to eat. I don't share photos on FB, except occasionally on a dedicated group.

"Do you make lasagne into Tower Bridge"

I made Minas Tirith out of sausage and mash once, with an Orc army of peas at the bottom.

Not-so-stealth boast

Get off Facebook! If you feel insecure about anything then Bloody Facebook is sure to feed that insecurities and make you feel even worse.

I closed my account two years ago and haven't missed it at all (even though I used to check it loads everyday). Happy days.

I think a lot of it is to do with a competitive lack of effort over food.

If you show any interest in taking time to make anything considered unusual or outside the norm, you are considered to be a bit eccentric and old fashioned.

Those making the snidey online 'who has time for that' comments are simply choosing to use their time to make snidey comments online instead .

YANBU. I think I'd quite like to be a bento mum but my DD is BORING and wants the same thing all the time. DS is even worse and has school dinners. Plus I am cack-handed and clumsy.

We all have different achilles heels of parenting I think. I remember friends slagging off 'who has time to sew on labels, FGS get a sharpie pen' and sitting there thinking 'well actually I do it, because I like them to have sewn in labels for some crazy reason but it feels like it matters'. I also do the sort of parties which may be stupidly elaborate to some but to me I enjoy doing it. Its not competitive or showing off I just like doing it. (Then I moan about being too busy of course.)

My DD won't eat the crusts of sandwiches, so I usually use a sandwich cutter. It is quicker than using a knife and DD eats more than if I don't.

DD has cold pasta salad most days - no one has ever said anything to her.

DD's lunches have one of the following:

Wrap/sandwich/roll/toastie
Pasta salad - pesto and chicken/tuna and sweetcorn/ham and pea
Crackers with cheese and ham
Cold sausages
Egg muffin (omelette baked in silicone case with cheese/ham/spinach/peas/sausage/sweetcorn/mushroom)
Pizza roll (hm pizza dough topped with sauce and cheese/chorizo/ham etc rolled into a Swiss roll, sliced and baked then frozen. I take one out for her lunchbox.)

Served with a selection of:

Olives
Veg sticks
Apple/pear
Nuts and seeds
Raisins
Yogurt
Fruit jelly
Small cake or biscuit
Breadsticks
Salad

Ooh, forgot tortilla chips.

jealousy and bullying - what a load of bollocks. I bet the only people bothered are the parents who for whatever reason think it's a bit deal and have a chip on their shoulders.

My DD has always had a mixture of lunches...from lovingly homemade cous cous with crudites and satay skewers and home made cake, to left over pizza from the previous night's dinner and, on the odd occasion, a mercy dash meal deal from the local supermarket purchased en route to school .

No one has ever mentioned any of it. I also used to put notes in her lunch box - one day she had a friend back and I emptied and rinsed her lunch box out to save her mum a job and discovered that she did the same thing .

I didn't give my kids sandwiches today... they had cucumber sticks, carrot sticks and a life size model of a jam donut...

Personally I think that while food should taste good and look appetising, it isn't a toy and shouldn't have to be "fun". Good for you that you've found a way to make a chore more enjoyable for yourself though. I just wouldn't want it to become a habit or ritual so my kids were disappointed in a cafe (or when I don't have time one night) when the bread is square and the veg is ... veg shaped. I guess I might do it on a birthday or something

I just bought a munchBox thing - it's the most stylish piece of tupperware I have ever had and my son LOVES it. Guaranteed he will eat more from it than if I gave sarnies.

Is it a yumbox? DD loves her yumbox(es).

I don't have yumboxes, I wanted them but with three boys to buy them for they were waaaay out of price range. They have cheap eBay boxes with three compartments. Today they had a small corned beef and cheese wrap each, sliced to make it look prettier, pretzels, cucumber sticks, a clementine (peeled), a smoothie pouch and chewy fruit shapes. Nothing special, nothing pretty shapes. I'm planning of train/star shaped sandwiches tomorrow

It is down to what interests you really. I love meal planning and cooking and reading cookbooks and thinking about food. So I enjoy putting packed lunches together and I enjoy making shapes and stuff. I don't post it on FB though because I am sure I would get snide comments.

What I am less good at is actually playing with DS though..... totally at a loss. :) Forget card games etc, or kicking a ball. Not my thing.