To not understand how it's cheaper to send dc to school with a cold happy meal than a packed lunch?

[bobstersmum]

In the news this week, an article about children in deprived areas being sent to school with a cold happy meal. Then parents in another article defending the reasons for it, saying that sometimes it's all they can afford. I just can't understand it? A happy meal is 2.99 I think? But a cheap loaf of bread is 50p, a cheap pack of sandwich meat or cheese is less than a pound, bag of bananas a pound multipack of crisps a pound, that's lunches for the week for around the same cost?

Have people actually tried cold left over chicken nuggets?

Yep and they're horrible. But my daughter loves them hot or cold and often takes them to school in her packed lunch. In my defense she's 26 and the teacher so not my responsibility.

Cold chicken nuggets (the supermarket variety) are a staple of party platters! Along with cocktail sausages, cold veggie nuggets, mini eggs. We even have these for lunch meetings in my company 🤣 provided by caterers

My ds point blank refused to eat sandwiches...so I would sometimes give him cold chicken drumsticks in his packed lunch and sometimes cold chicken goujons! Doesn't goujon sound so much better than nugget?!

goujon is basically the same as a nugget, just ones bigger and easier to make if making from scratch

@formerbabe

wildchild554 of course I know it's practically the same thing in a different shape! Perhaps goujon is the middle class version of a nugget?

@formerbabe lol, thought I was going to find out I was making nuggets wrong lol

Goujon is what middle class people call nuggets to make them sound more acceptable.

It's funny how cold chicken drumsticks, cocktail sausages, scotch eggs and pork pies are all perfectly acceptable picnic foods, but cold chicken nuggets from McDonald's are the worst thing ever

I can imagine that if you were on a very low budget and your child was (like mine) the kind to only like certain foods you would be reluctant to be trying out things like daal etc, because what happens when no one likes it and then you have to throw it away and go hungry? I'm not sure I would take that risk.

I am so very fortunate to be able to try these things on my kids and then have other food for when they refuse to eat it. I don't think i'd be the same if it meant using up all my resources. I would stick to buying the unhealthy stuff I know they would eat and i'd go hungry myself.

If you have only £2 and no food in the house you ring the school, tell them you haven’t the money this week but will pay next week if they please allow jane/Michael to have school dinners. Then you ring the GP/social services and tell them you have no food in the house and no money to buy anything and ask for a food bank referral. If you find this is happening often you also ask SS to put you in touch with an agency who can help you with your finances. SS do offer support for people in this situation

But its easy to say that when you have access to that knowledge and you are secure in your parenting ability.

Lots of adults who had a shit experience at school or a tough time with social services will be too scared to ask for help. Not every parent has the confidence or ability to articulate their situation.

Maybe there is an element of what the child will eat. DS took sandwiches (cheese spread), raisins, carton of fruit juice and cucumber with a bag of mini cookies to school last Friday. I found out last night when I did today's lunch that the sandwiches hadn't been opened, the raisins were untouched and he'd eaten one piece out of four of the cucumber. He won't eat any of the school meal options on offer today but apparently he won't eat sandwiches either so what should I do as a parent? He's taken an Aldi pot of mini sausages and ketchup, a dairylea dipper and a couple of crackers for extra carbs, plus the apple juice and some raisins. I'm not spending time making food to be thrown away. If I thought he'd eat cold nuggets right now I think I'd happily send them in.

Doesn't goujon sound so much better than nugget?!

Things with foreign names are automatically superior. If you give your kids sausage and beans for dinner it's neglect. giving them a chorizo and haricot cassoulet would have people wanking into their houmous.

@MrsKoala

@SayOohLaLa DD(10) was the same. Bringing home a full lunchbox every time. I tried sandwiches, wraps, crackers, pasta salad, even warm soup in a flash.

I told her if she wouldn't eat her lunch then she would be moving to school dinners. After a couple of months I moved her onto school dinners and by all accounts she is actually eating properly on a lunchtime now. I think it helps when their friends are all eating the same thing :)

@MrsKoala

Mrs koala

tbh, never tried mcdonalds nuggets cold, are they deep fried, the ones I've had cold are oven baked so may make a difference if they are cooked differently?

EVERY single one of these 'I don't understand' threads is always really, 'I'm judging people who do X,Y or Z'. Just fucking own it! You understand perfectly well, you want a chance to feel morally superior and slag off others, so just say so.

Thing is, dont, why is morally superior a bad thing? There are moral and immoral choices and actions. Looking after your kids falls in the realm of morality, doesn't it? I would argue that if parent A has £3, walks two miles to the cheaper shop, buys cheap bread, cheese etc to provide 5x packed lunches, that parent made a better moral choice than parent B, who, with their £3, bought a Happy Meal for the kids dinner and sent them to school with the leftovers.

But would I make a better moral choice if I decanted my child’s leftover happy meal of nuggets carrot sticks and milk into a lunch box and sent them into school with it?

Is the cheap bread and cheese a better nutritional option though?

I'm just thinking about the numbers of meals. 5x cheese sandwich packed lunch Vs 1x leftovers.

Thing is, dont, why is morally superior a bad thing?

Yes, because it presumes your judgement is the best and right thing and allows for blame and shame to be assigned to others about whom you know nothing. It's the type of mentality that is used and has been used to generate a great deal of misery, death and pain throughout human history and continues to do so today.

Thing is, dont, why is morally superior a bad thing? There are moral and immoral choices and actions.

Because sending a child to school with cold chicken nuggets does not make you an inferior parent. It's cold chicken. Would you think the same way if a parent sent their child in with some organic chicken drumsticks? Or a scotch egg? Or cocktail sausages?

Here's a scenario - child A has a Happy Meal for tea, and doesn't finish the nuggets, so takes them to lunch as the protein element of their meal. Child B has the same meal, except they have chicken drumsticks instead.

Why is the lunchbox of child B any better than the one of child A? Why are cold chicken nuggets seen as being inferior to cold chicken in a different form?