Think I'm going to be sick!

[FlatOnTheHill]

I know its very sweet when kids come home from school with a tupper wear box containing a pizza, cakes, or biscuits that they have made in cooking lesson.
But AIBU in looking at the contents and feeling totally sick?
The thought of dirty hands, maybe dirty school work top and utensils and the tupperwear box sitting around all day in the school bag with the contents getting warm and sweaty. Omg its just rank.
Does anyone else pretend to eat their share of the contents but guiltily chuck them in the bin

Unless they eat it themselves, it goes straight into the bin.

I have already made up my mind to bin anything my DC's will ever make in a cooking class. I was 14 years old when I made this decision in a Home Economics class as a sick, vomity kid was sent to sit in the ante room of the kitchens to await collection by his parents and was given a mixing bowl out of the cupboard to vomit into.

Just typing this has made me realise what a bizarre set-up our school had in sending ill kids to the Home Ec room

Some of the most delicious things I ever made were cooked in Home Ec. The fat-free sponge roulade and learning how to make pastry for quiches are recipes I still use 30 years later.

I think I would have been really upset if my family had acted like I'd presented them with the scrapings from behind the oven.

DD was fantastic at cooking but hasn't continued with it for GCSE so it's been left behind now.

I can state categorically that she cooked lovely food, with clean hands and in a hygienic environment. I ate everything she brought home, all very tasty.

The fairy cake DS2 presented me with at his Mother's Day assembly however with the words 'mine wasn't there so you can have this one'? That did NOT get eaten!

No. My SiL feels as you do but I think it would be incredibly hurtful (and wasteful) to throw their efforts away. Assume the heat pretty much kills off any germs anyway.

Do your children not know to wash their hands before cooking though?

Persp
Thats why I said 'pretend to eat' your share. The 'cook' would be none the wiser if it had been binned!
The tupperwear box may have left home all nice and clean. But were the contents made in a clean environment with clean hands?? Knowing what kids are like, prob not? I would never in a million years let a child know their school cooking had been binned. Kids cooking at home is different matter.

my eldest 2 are in secondary - so it's food tech and hygiene is part of it - they make amazing food (Pineapple up side down cake anyone??) - I eat it!

It was always 'clean hands and environment' when I was at school. I can't imagine my DD would be any different. Surely hygiene is one of the first things they teach?

My food always got eaten too. I distinctly remember me and Dad eating my egg fried rice for tea one night.

Barbarian
I am the anti-bac queen. And I instill cleanliness but you know what kids are like? They tend to forget.

I still think lying to your children about this sort of stuff is odd. Yhe school kitchens I've seen are always clean and a big part of the message seems to be the hygiene side of things.
But then again, my DCs school have Environmental Health Officers come into Y1 classes and teach all the children about how and why they need to wash their hands.

I used to have to scale up to cook for us all for our evening meal.

Trust me, I feel as guilty as hell

fairly sure my mum didn't eat the grey pastry offerings I brought home

the tuna pasta bake deffo went in the bin

I can clearly remember my mum saying that what I'd made looked and smelled like vomit. It went in the bin and while it was a bit yucky looking (it was lentil soup or something) it was incredibly hurtful.

I was proud of what I'd made. And it made me feel insignificant and stupid for carrying it carefully home.

I think as long as you bin it discreetly and show a general interest then that's fine. I can see where you are coming from though, sweaty school bag all day. I'd eat biscuits or cake or whatever. But yes I'm fussy with hygiene and food prep. I don't like eating things I haven't cooked myself.

Well, I'm very relaxed about dirt and germs but no, "wash your hands and put on an apron" has been pretty well drummed into my kids. And at school the teachers remind them, don't they? Do you have a general germ phobia?

Being "anti-bac" queen is in itself pretty unhealthy.

Mummy guilt, it never ends does it?! Just watch how you dispose of it! Be tactful (and sly!!). Ill eat mine with a cup of tea later, look, I've put it on my plate for when I've finished cooking tea/mopping/feeding the rabbit/running the business...

Proven that kids today are too clean - can't play in mud - can eat berries off a bush -

Home Ed will wash hands etc so all clean -

It's not so much the hygiene (in secondary school, anyway - I wouldn't trust a Y2 to wash their hands properly unless I was 'helping') as the fact the food gets put somewhere for the rest of the day, transported home on the bus, unrefrigerated, and then has to be reheated.

That's what gives me the fear. Especially when it's rice or something.

When I was doing cooking at school. I washed and cleaned everything before I started!

I look forward to their culinary efforts.. Gives me a night off from cooking! Always nicer than anything I can create after working all day, plus boosts their self esteem. And the germs are fried and would boost our immune system. The dishwashers would sterilise it anyway, I hope(deluded, I know).

How old are the children? In secondary school we did food tech and everything was clean. We all washed our hands. In primary school I definitely washed my hands too... Most of us did that I saw. In fact I remember one girl not washing hers after going to the toilet and a few people said she was dirty.

I'd eat it.

I'm not germ phobic and unless something was obviously wrong with it (undercooked chicken for example) then it's pretty unlikely to make you ill.

Barbarian
Not a germ phobia. I do like things clean though. It was the last sweaty curled up pizza that had clearly been broken up into pieces with 'kid hands' to make it fit in the tupperwear that turned my stomach. Of course i said it was wonderful etc. It had clearly been sitting around in school bag all day. I found the tupperwear box in our hall laying amongst a pile of school shoes when i got home from work. I had to say "wow this is a lovely surprise"