Lunchtime supervision

[KindergartenKop]

DS is in Y1. He's a bit of a fussy eater. His school offer 3 lunch options and some days he doesn't like any of them (usually due to them all being potato based. Other than chips, potatoes make him gag).

Today he says he only ate his pudding and put the rest in the bin. I'm a bit concerned that it seems he's not being challenged on this and is allowed to chuck his whole meal. Obviously he might be lying though. It causes problems because he's in a terrible mood after school and any snacks I give him then mean he rejects his dinner later on. Packed lunches are allowed but that makes so much more work for me as he also has a brother who has school dinners. I don't want to pander too much to the fussiness.

Aibu to email school and ask politely whether they could pay a bit more attention to what is being thrown away?

What sort of food is on the menu? Do they have salad bits as well as a hot choice? Can he just leave the potato?

Our mid day meals supervisors aren't allowed to coerce or encourage children to eat their food. This is due to too many parental complaints.
If the children eat, that's fine. If they don't eat then that's also fine.
Parents in KS1 can send their children in with a packed lunch instead.
If they don't want to eat that, then it's also fine.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking the teacher for help with this. In my school there are several children who are particularly fussy and are allowed to mix and match parts of all the options to suit their tastes, sometimes this ends up being a plate of rice and pasta but that’s better than not eating at all. We even have one child who is cooked a sausage roll every day because that’s all she’ll eat. Your child is entitled to a free meal in ks1 so you should make the most of it, I’m sure your school will be willing to accommodate.

Packed lunches are allowed but that makes so much more work for me

So, you have raised a fussy eater but want the school to put the leg work in at mealtimes to get him to eat, not you, because it’s, ‘so much work’. Riiiight.

It is not the end of the world for an otherwise healthy child to be hungry for a few hours. If the meals are good quality and worth what is being paid for them, why wouldn't a parent take the opportunity to have their child exposed to a wider variety of food than they would cook at home? I would much rather it was a meal cooked by someone else that went in the bin rather than one I had cooked, and still my child is getting exposure to a range of foods.

Be careful what you wish for
My son in reception,was not eating has free school meals ,the dinner ladies clocked it ,and I was called in for a meeting ,and told ...TOLD to give him packed lunches .
Which he spent the next 3 years throwing away or hiding around the school....which I was called in about many times
Just for context ,he has autism ,and couldn’t eat in front of anyone at school ...but we didn’t know that when he wasn’t eating the school dinners

@PaperMonster

Why is not liking potatoes fussy? Why are kids fussy whereas adults are allowed to have preferences? Never understood that.

I agree. My teen doesn't like potatoes, he doesn't even much like chips, he will eat a battered fish or a burger then just pick at a few chips. He will happily eat a wide range of other foods from many different cuisines. He isn't fussy, he just has preferences.

Mine won’t eat school dinners apart from fish finger day, he’s autistic and has sensory issues.
I send him with a pack lunch with stuff I know he will eat & he has school dinner an fish finger day - it’s not an issue that I expect the lunchtime staff to sort.

Its too much effort for you to make a pack lunch but you expect staff looking after 20+ children at a time tk get him to eat when he doesnt want too????????? Yabu.

Feed him straight after school and a big breakfast plus generous playtime snack. Or make a pack lunch. Its not for the school to get him to eat. Its for you to work on at home so he will eat school dinners. Helicopter parenting springs to mind. Let him learn its his responsibility to eat at lunchtime or he might get hungry.

@Howshouldibehave

I feel like he could be told to eat a bit of ie

Schools can encourage, they can’t tell children to eat.

I dunno, at my mum's school they were told "Eat yer greens or I'll skin ya" 🤷‍♀️

I work in a school at lunchtime and every day we have certain children who eat hardly anything.
We do tell the office who inform the parents if the child hasn’t eaten much. However, these parents don’t seem to give a shit and order the same meals when it comes round again.
We also have parents that don’t send the child in with a packed lunch or order anything for them. So as well as doing all the other things at lunchtime, we have to sort out extra portions.

Oh Zombie FFS!