Are the packed lunches I provide really as outlandish as ds claims?

[notagainnellie]

I send some kind of wrap/sandwich with cheese spread, ham, tuna or hummus; a salad pot; sometimes a packet of Chedds or a cheddar stick; a piece of fruit or tub of fruit in Greek/natural yoghurt and a piece of malt loaf or, rarely, homemade muffin etc.

Occasionally I put treats like mini cheddars or - shock - something with chocolate on, but this would be a monthly, rather than weekly event. According to ds, no one has anything like it and he gets comments sometimes such as malt loaf being 'poo' or 'err' at his yoghurt pot. Everyone else has crisps, juice, something like a kitkat or mini roll, yoghurts in tubes and jam sandwiches are popular. Obviously kids will say that, but there is no policy on lunches at the school so it could well be true - I don't think he is making up the comments tbf.

I have looked into some of the items he has listed and am shocked by the salt and sugar content of them. I can't find any 'fun' type yoghurt that isn't full of crap and I can't bring myself to buy them for daily use. He's not that fussed and says he likes being 'different' , but I feel like he's going to get more and more bothered - he's 9 now and mentioning it more this year than ever before.

I'm not that strict about food, but I just don't think a lot of this stuff is suitable for daily use. AIBU to keep his lunches as they are?

Poor DD has the same thing every day

Cheese and mayo or tuna mayo sandwich (wholemeal though!)
Pom bears
Caramel Rocky
Small value fromage frais
Water
Occasionally grapes

She's happy.
Although it turns out the school are giving her a packed lunch too, so she's been eating 2 lunches a day for the past 2 weeks

It always puzzles me when schools have strict packedunch policy's but the provided school lunch is deep fried crap followed by cake and custard...weird
I agree - stealth boast - you know that's a decent lunch - why post?

Mostly we have school dinners. But a packed lunch here is usually a jam or chocolate spread sandwhich kids yoghurt crisps and a piece of fruit (that always comes home with one bite out of it) school dinners. Aren't much better tbh. But they are young and active. And eat healthy dinners so I'm not too fussed.

Apparently, today DS ate the tangerine, grapes, blueberries, brioche roll, biscuits (2, chocolate) and two crackers, but not the hummus, sandwich, carrots, banana, breadsticks or yoyos.

DP describes this as "didn't eat much" - well no, he is 4. A 14 year old in full growth spurt might finish that. A four year old can barely carry it.

DP is cooking him pasta for his lunchbox tonight. For a change.

I am expecting at this rate that by February he will be talking about getting some sort of heated trolley or trailer with which to transport an approximately 43 course banquet to DS, and muttering about how he's "barely touching it".

We had similar at primary, now at secondary everyone has quite similar lunches. Her friends only comment if it's something they're unfamiliar with - orzo instead of regular pasta. I normally end up with them asking if they can have it for dinner when they next visit though.
Dd took today a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, an apple, a carton of dark choc almond milk, a frozen tube of yoghurt and some carrot and cucumber sticks. Oh and a bit of flapjack for after her club on the bus.

Lol slightly

My 11year olds lunch last Tuesday consisted of 1 pot of Jelly, 1 slice of cake &
2 cookies & he wondered why he was hungry...!!

I used to donpacked lunch for my 8 year old and she'd has a big appetite so would pack the following

Sandwich (wholemeal) or Salad
Small pot of olives and nuts
Hummus and carrots/cucumber
A fruit
Yoghurt
Sometimes a bit of cake/ chocolate bar.

She was always getting comments about her lunch being healthy other kids and teachers but said she didn't care because that's what she eats at home so she was used to it and liked it.

Anyway back to school dinners now because her friends all have school dinners so she wants to sit with them.

Forgot the rice cakes/ popcorn

Today dd1 & 2 have taken

A chicken salad sandwich,
A yoghurt,
A tub of melon and strawberries / melon and grapes.
A choccy bar
And a bottle of squash

Sometimes they take cold pasta bake from tea the night before. They love that! And I sometimes replace the choccy bar with a cheesecake or trifle. Oh and sandwiches choices are ham, cheese, various sandwich fillers. They can choose with salad or not.

I think this is an adequate school lunch my dds say this is what everyine else has. I think anything more is overkill.

ill get sleighed but whats happened to the world!! our poor babieswhen we were young and in a generation where
1 we weren't obese
played outside
didn't worry so much
weren't so depressed
no one of this helath food is a must crap
lists to parent on what to eat blah blah f**ing blah

we had or similar 2 slices of bread and ham or meat or cheese.yes sometimes the stringy stuff!even crisps!a yoghurt!(not caring of the sugar or calcium or loiking at the labels! a penguin or kit kat,grapes,ribena etc etc shock horror
strangley kids weren't dying nor as obese as they are today.and happier
school lunches were part of a treat.we always or mostly new a meal at tea time would be more balanced anyway
I cant believe there is so much mummy marching or sandwhich bashing or even telling people wha tto have.its depressing.
I want my child to want cheap sliced ham and white bread and those space raider crisps!not seeded fibre plus added vitamin best ever roll stuff with mozerela pesto and home made organic own bred chicken!

oh and hot dinners were far to often chips or pizza or hotdog and it was fab,and actually not that bad for them considering the crap they tyr to put I nthe so called healthy stuff now.
let kids be happy with the iffy stuff teaching them how ti find balance with the orange or cooking at home.blance nourish,nurture.

When my older 2 started secondary school they refused to eat the cucumber/tomatoes/pepper that they'd eaten at primary school. Oldest still eats a piece of fruit. Middle son won't eat fruit because "nobody else does"
Younger son is still at primary school. He is quite fussy, he has either a ham sandwich or just bread and butter as there is nothing else he eats in a sandwich. He has either a chunk of cucumber or slices if pepper. He doesn't eat crisps as they are made from potato and he doesn't like potato! He loves a mini peparami too, but I only give one once or twice a week. He has a cake of some sort. I always add s pot with fruit in, he only eats grapes or raspberries, so it will be one or the other. He is bored with his packed lunch being the same, but there's not much else he eats. I make cheese scones sometimes, which he likes. At home for lunch he eats pasta with nothing on it for lunch...strange child.

But Kate back in the days of rubbish packed lunches and less kids being overweight I would come home from school and play tag/skipping etc in the street until bedtime, only coming in for a home-cooked meat and 2 veg meal. Nowdays a lot of kids go home and sit on the Ipad and eat processed crap for tea. Even the most active kids these days are nowhere near as active as they used to be so if kids don't start eating healthier and/or moving around more childhood obesity is going to get worse. Packed lunches full of crap may not have been a big issue when kids were constantly on the move but that's not the case anymore. People are scared to let their children play outside, kids tv is available 24hrs a day, kids get more homework than ever parents have never been busier and are relying more on convenience foods. Putting crap in packed lunches isn't going to help unless kids are allowed to play like they used to be - and splashing around for a 30 minute swimming lesson once a week and doing dance on a Monday for eg doesn't constitute being active.

bumsex while I agree with the gist of your post as a general trend, this "Even the most active kids these days are nowhere near as active as they used to be" is not true.

My kids are more active than I was, as a child of the 70s and early 80s.

I was allowed to play out but didn't know any of the local kids. I preferred to read - sometimes up a tree in the garden :o but still I was a pretty sedentary kid.

My kids do live the stereotypical 70s childhood, in a small village where they know everyone and have friends calling for them all afternoon and all day at weekends - they are a lot more active than I was. My eldest cycles to her best friend's in the next village several times a week (4 miles each way) and her BF cycles here... Once here they often go for a cycle ride to check on their geocaches :o or make Musically videos "on location" :o

My younger 2 play football on the little football field and build dens and tree houses in the little copse - the youngest has to stay within shouting range, the middle one can go further afield if he asks and tells me exactly where he is going (he takes an "emergency phone" - an old payg mobile - if going out of shouting range with permission). he is allowed to ride his bike to a playground a mile away by prior arrangement and does so with his friend frequently.

In summer they do only come in for meals.

Not all kids are now indoor pets :o

But Kate your generation may not have been fat as children , but they certainly are the fattest generation ever as adults. Who knows what impact all that crap food had on tastebuds, on expectations, on the gut bacteria (changes in which can lead to obesity). We just don't know.

My sons lunch bag is made of solid gold and everyone makes fun of him because it's to heavy for him to carry should I send him with a normal plastic one like the other peasants kids ?

Its a perfect lunch, i never gave my child crisps or chocolate as we never buy junk food, hate eating palm oil and dont like crisps. Would you rather your child be healthy and learn to eat well, or eat junk just to be the same as everyone else? My child was never picked on for her lunch, and she never asked for crisps or chocolate anyway, she doesnt have a sweet tooth luckily. Carry on as you are.

That's great 5moreminutes but rare these days. And I'm guessing your kids are in the minority that are a healthy weight?

Sorry posted too soon. My kids aren't overweight by their bmi and I would say they are pretty active and we eat fairly healthily. They play outside when they can and screentime is limited. There are still restrictions that prevent them being as active as I was though for eg my dd had to spend the entire of Sunday afternoon sitting and completing homework for the week - something I never had at primary age. Saturday was also spent sat in a car for 4 hrs visiting relatives whereas all my family lived in my city when I was young and my parents didn't drive. Kids lifestyles are more sedentary these days and parents/schools need to step up and make sure kids are eating a diet appropriate to their lifestyle.

Cheesespread sandwich on brown, quavers/wotsits, chocolate mini roll, cucumber, yoghurt, grapes. Think folks get a bit too worked up about it, sure my Mum didn't lose sleep about mine 30 plus years ago!

Wow, my DS would go crazy if I sent him with as much lunch as most of these! He gets a sandwich (usually peanut butter on whole meal) and a piece of fruit, occasionally some mini rice cakes or something. He doesn't eat it all and complains that he wants to only have a sandwich like his friends! He has a v healthy appetite outside of school, but Dutch kids have v small meals and he just wants to eat quickly and get outside.

Mine have white bread sandwichs with either cheese salad, just cheese or peanut butter & chocolate spread, water/squash, 2or 3 pieces of fruit.
Occasionally crisp is added or chocolate or cake but only if they really insist. I tell them if they have sugary snacks or crisps in school they can't have them in the house.
My youngest child almost never eats his lunch & I have tried different things for him but I just think he prefers to eat at home. Sometimes I wish i could send him to school with an empty lunchbox but then they feed him a school lunch which we will have to pay for & which he won't eat. The school do have a healthy lunch policy but it's not enforced. And my son does tell me who has a really bad packed lunch & who doesn't.

DS has a sandwich, 3 or 4 cherry toms, small handful of grapes, cucumber and carrot sticks, mini cheese and frozen yoghurt or homemade flapjack. DD hates bread so has the same except for samndwich. She has cold rice or cous cous, veggies and chicken. I prepare a week at a time and freeze some of it.

That "vagina wrap" had me and DD (13) in fits!

DD has school dinners now.

She used to have until recently -

Homemade pasta salad
Two cheese strings
Pepperoni
Yogurt
Grapes

In the past she has had -

Jam/chocolate spread sandwiches or
Cheese/ham/salami sandwich/wrap
Fig rolls
Crisps
Carrot sticks
Babybel
Dairylea dunker
Frubes

Not all at the same time obviously! I tried to mix it up a bit. She went to two different schools - one in a "middle class" area and one in a really deprived area where the majority of children had free school meals.