Re hot school meal and evening meal?

[rabbitheadlights]

After reading a few threads about evening meals just lately where posted say that if DC's have a hot school meal then they generally do a snack type dinner such as crackers cheese and veg sticks or pot noodles etc.

AIBU to think this is the few and not the many?

My kids all of them healthy weights would be calling child line and declaring starvation if I didn't give them a "proper" cooked meal every night!! By proper I probably mean more substantial I certainly don't cook from scratch every day but I know I could never get away with the above

I cook my dc a cooked dinner three times a week, mainly to ensure they have had enough protein (they are vegetarian) I avoid giving them another cooked meal on the evenings of (veggie) fish and chips on Fridays, as I can be sure they have eaten all of that particular lunch, and I don't want to over feed them. Once a week, on the busiest night we have a ploughmans type supper in summer, home made soup and bread in the winter. I don't think we should over feed children, so huge lunches and huge dinners are not good for them, especially if it eaten close to bedtime.

I am not that fussed about the dc eating 'hot' food as such, as in the warmer months it is the last thing anyone feels like eating, but it needs to be packed full of nutrients, be fresh and have protein. My teens have started eating lots of salads now anyway, so that is a god send.

Re learning to cook...My 6yo was practising her bread knife skills on the rolls tonight...Does that make it a better meal?

I'm not sure. Do you think it does?

It's certainly a skill worth learning either way.

fancy I agree! It is not necessary to pack our kids with food all of the time. It is a cycle that is difficult to break as they get older.

Dd is 9. She eats a hot school dinner but is ravenous by home time so gets a hot meal at tea time, too. I suspect the school dinner portions are minuscule. For tea, she has spaghetti with meatballs, fish and chips, quesadillas, rice and curry, toad in the hole etc. (Not all in the same meal, she's not THAT hungry).

On weekends, on the other hand, if she has a hot meal at lunch time, she'll most probably have a sandwich type meal for tea. Which further confirms my suspicions about the portion size of school dinners.

School dinner portions are actually very small- especially for older children in KS2. I would always cook an evening meal because that's what I want to eat. We eat as a family and I'm not going to have sandwiches and cucumber sticks for my tea! Houmous is not a meal!

DS has school lunches, but is without exception 'so hungry mummy' by 3:30 - I know reception eat first at 11:45 and I am fairly confident that he rushed and leaves some so he can get out to play quicker.

Supper tends to be a mixture, veggie Bolognese yesterday, chicken strips, baked potato and beans tonight. Mondayis always picky bits as he swims 4:30-5 and picky bits is his most favourite tea ever - oft requested.

School lunches are in the main small in portion, not particularly appetising, quite often cold by the time the child gets round to eating in and invariably wasted in large quantities.

It's definitely not the two cooked meals a day that are causing obesity! Kids eat shit these days which is passed off as being normal!

fresta Hummus is most definitely a meal when you combine it with chopped cucumber, carrots, celery, lettuce and a whole meal wrap/breadsticks. Add grilled haloumi and it is delicious! A favourite here.

Hot doesn't equal nutritious. Doesn't it all totally depend on what you're eating? I'm just glad if mine eats enough vegetables in a day, hot or cold!

I have to laugh st the idea if cheese and crackers being enough because they’ve had a cooked meal at school.
My dcs have always come out starving at 3.30pm. Unless you are happy to give them a VERY substantial snack, no way a light meal would do.

I dint think that because they are gloutons either.(esp not since they are skinny). But lunches at school are usually light. Esp as you go onto the older years and they have the same portions than the reception children.

My DSs are terrible eaters and stick thin, I know they don't finish their school meal (I worked at the school and know portions are tiny).

DS (9) NEVER feels hungry but DS (6) comes home and it's obvious he is peckish as he will hover around the snack cupboard. So they have a bowl of fruit or similar to keep them going until tea around 6pm, which is usually a proper meal as I cook for DH and I anyway and I'm content then they've eaten properly. Nothing wrong with cold food at all but we like a satisfying hot dinner as it is always cold up north

Once a week DSs will have takeaway and occasionally pot noodles, cheese on toast, as for them eating is such a chore and I want them to enjoy and just bloody eat without a fuss.

DC1 goes to nursery full-time. They serve a perfectly healthy and age appropriate hot meal for lunch and two snacks. The children can eat as much as they want. Since DC1 is usually tired when he arrives at home he gets a simple tea, often sandwiches and fruit. When he starts school and brings a packed lunch, this may change.

Yes yes yes, ve thought this before! On a WhatsApp group it was mentioned dthat if they have hot dinner they have sandwiches at night. My god my kids are gannets and ate starving after school and they don't always like their school dinner so I doubt they get a good meal in them when they are there. I have to make a full on dinner plus thousands of snacks etc. My kids sometimes go to a childminder after school who feeds them a dinner but as it is quite soon after school we then have to make more food as they are hungry again

When my children were at school they had a school dinner and another at home most days. I had to cook for myself and husband, so didn't make much difference. Now I in general don't like to eat a 'proper' meal at all.

My kids would be horrified if there wasn't a proper on a school night 😂

The youngest has blooming two course 'afternoon tea' at preschool as well, but the both pack away dinner.

Mine had schools meals until I became a dinner lady and all came clear as to why they were so hungry after school.

One meals stick in my mind was when the year 6's so 10/11 years. Were given Fish fingers, chips and beans. And it was 2 mini fish fingers which probably about the size of one and half normal size ones, About 10 chips and a dessert spoon of beans.

If would just about filled up a child in reception but not an 11 year old.

School dinners are so small.

Well, a humous and salad wrap wouldn't be a full meal in my house! It's something I have for lunch and even then I need other things with it like a yoghurt and fruit and maybe a biscuit or two to keep me full until dinner time. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to last until the following day after just having that for tea!

The portions they get at our school are tiny. My kids are always starving when they come home, and spend the time before dinner eating £££ worth of fruit and snacky things. Then they have a proper dinner. Then my oldest complains of still being hungry . There is nothing to them, in fact objectively my eldest one looks too skinny at times. I don't do a massive hot meal every eve, but whatever it is it will be substantial.

Ds has a cooked dinner at lunch and a snack tea when he gets in.he goes to after school club as I work so has toast or crackers and fruit there. He would prefer a sandwich box over the hot dinner and would prefer a snack tea over a cooked tea. He currently gets a cooked dinner free as he is in year 1 so he has it! And yes I'm a bad mum for not cooking him a cooked tea but bigger thing to worry about really.

cooked diner here, I don't think they eat that much at school. They probably eat a lot more when I give them a pack lunch - which is not more often than twice a year.

I plan the weekly menus based on the school menus, avoiding to give them chicken twice in the same day for example,

If they are at home, we try to have a proper lunch and then a light diner, but I know they have eaten. They really don't eat that much at school. I mean, mine don't, I have no idea what others kid do!

Many school dinners are very poor quality- kept warm too long, they often run out of stuff and servings are small, and you have no idea how much kids have actually eaten.

Children need a decent meal in the evening.

@mumof1andacat who said your a bad mum and why?

I agree with all the other posters. The portion sizes at school are far too small and my lot are always complaining about it and come back from school starving. My son sometimes buys 2 school lunches if he has time he is around secondary school. Then they all have a snack when they get in, a substantial cooked dinner and pudding on top. Sometimes I don't have time to cook so I might cook in advance and freeze.

The one that alarmed me was a crisp sandwich!