To have some sympathy with the "Jamie Oliver Burgers through the fence" mothers?

[Fridayfeeling]

We got a letter home earlier this week asking not to put crisps, chocolate, sweets in our children's lunchboxes.

How about you Fu*k off and mind your own business - a mini roll never killed anyone (especially as part of a balanced diet) !

My son (when he was on sandwiches) had the strictest lunchbox there bar the diabetics. And you wouldn't think it at all strict. He had cheese on seeded bread, breadsticks, chopped apple, box of raisins, and a flapjack. I am seriously considering moving him back onto them, because although school lunches are great sometimes, they let 5 year olds choose not to have veg.

Some children don't eat quickly enough to eat adequate calories in the time alloted to them. They need high calorie food. And since when was everything put in our mouths, as human beings, dictated by need?

Lunch boxes are a constant nightmare, as my DD will NOT eat fruit or veg unless conned. So, a sandwich, ham or sausage only (and yes I so have tried so many things and my DS eats like a dream...) every day is the same, a fruit pouch and some raisins, as thats all that fits what she can have that she will eat. (I do put in other fruit / veg each day as instructed but it comes back every day). And she is starving when she comes home. Tricky....

Oh and most crisps have less salt in them than a slice of bread.

Seriously though, folks, many of the children at our school do come with only 1 slice of cheapest white bread spread with cheapest marg and a chocolate bar (at least they used to until we cracked down on lunch boxes). We had to do something - tis quite impossible to teach a child that has had almost nowt for lunch, or just 5 tablespoons of sugar.

unfortunately FF, lots of parents (not you I am sure) apparently think that a mini roll and a packet of crisps constitutes an acceptable lunch. I have seen this in schol plenty of times.

choc etc not "allowed" for snacks or lunchboxes at our school either but I don't suppose anyone goes on patrol about it.

Microwave only, how about some fruit for energy? That's full of sugar, but as it's not processed, it's slower release and will help them concentrate.

I have to say that i get really pissed of ref childrens diet. As a professional nanny i think long and hard, plan, shop for and make all my charges meals from scratch. I provide healthy nutritious snacks for them for any clubs we go to after school, then in waltzes mum and before i know where we are she's filled them up with fizzy pop and sugary crap .

I just find it amazing that some (not all) parents dont seem to grasp the 'what you put in is what you get out' theory in terms of food affecting a childs well being, emotions and health on a day to day basis.

Sorry for waffling, but diet with children is a real bug bear of mine

As you were

We have a healthy eating policy in our school. I'm in Ireland so there are no school dinners, all children take a packed lunch and I find the healthy eating policy a Godsend. It means that from Monday to Friday, they get no sweets or other rubbish, so we can relax a bit at the weekends. It means they have to eat fruit or yoghurts as there isn't an alternative. With my boys, if I put a mini-roll in the lunchbox, it would be the first thing they would eat and their sandwich would be untouched. I find it annyoying enough that they won't eat brown bread, only white, without then adding cake into the equation!

Well, lots of folks put rubbish in their kids' boxes so the teachers get to put up with their kids off their tits on Es.

So I'm with Carmenere and Moomin here.

However, at home I can con my DD with "hidden veg" sauces on pasta etc. I can't in her lunch box. She comes home hungry. She WILL NOT eat fruit or veg unless tricked. Must be hard to teach her too when shes starving, I consider myself a Mum who tries hard to provide healthy food, but she is fussy. I resent being "policed" in many areas of life, my children being the main one, so anything like this does set me off!!

Then don't put fruit or veg in there, claire.

No one's saying that, just no crisps, chocolate or sweets.

Acksherly, a Snickers bar in a lunchbox of a child sat next to my DD could be fatal. To my DD. So, a little bit of chocolate could be dangerous for some.

It only takes one child with an allergy to stuff it for the rest.

Oh, no, hang on, it doesnt. All the kids at DD's school come in with chocolate treats on birthdays to give out, and DD isnt allowed. She's told NOT to queue up for her treat, and is given a box of raisins instead - on a good day. On a bad day and if they arent prepared, she'll get a pear wrapped up in tissue paper

So no, I dont feel sorry for those poor mums who cant stick a chocolate bar in their kids lunchbox ffs. Your kid cant have chocolate for during a few hours of the day - big fucking deal. My kid cant have lots of things 24/7. Get over it - it really aint important in the scheme of things is it? Think yourself lucky that they care enough to be bothered about what your child eats. For some kids, the teachers are the only ones who are bothered about what goes in their lunchbox.

VVV good post.

I concur.

Mine have school dinners.

DD1 will be having the dinners, BUT the school only has 60 pupils, an excellent reputation and two dedicated dinner ladies - the majority of the pupils have school dinners.

I find it astonishing that parents can't get their kids to eat fruit or veg as part of daily life by the time they start school - actually earlier than that but feeling lenient (sp?)

Hang on, I'm not comparing my fussy DD with someone with allergies, that would be silly. I'm merely saying that for me personally with my DD it is hard to find things to put in her lunch box to fill her up and that at home it is much easier to avoid sweets, chocs etc and "con" her into the sort of food I want her to eat. I'm also saying that I dislike being policed, I do think as Carmenere said that it is for the lowest common denominator, but I don't have to like it!

And it's much easier for teachers to deal with kids who aren't off their tits on sugar, caffeine and Es.

Well Octo, I am one of those parents. My dd ill not, my ds cannot get enough of it. I believe I have tried everything, and it is certainly not something I am proud of, but there it is!

will not ill.....

Ah, the ol' 'Well, when they're at school I'm not accountable for them'.

That's why measures like this have to be passed in schools.

The only times I "con" my kids is when I want them to eat something slightly out of the normal spectrum like mussels - and then I wouldn't con them I bribe them usually with money!

I don't con them, well, the 4-year-old.

She doesn't eat what she's given, she doesn't eat.

That's how it works.

I'm the boss, not her, for now.

expat LOL

Seriously, I don't have time for that shit. She won't eat them. Okay, then, don't eat. No skin off my arse.

Anytime you say you're hungry and ask for something to eat, you aren't getting junk.

She does get her fair share of puds, sweeties and the like.

But when we give it to her.

Totally agree - its what they expect to eat - its the norm. I might give them a choice now and then but like expat - they get what they are given. Obviously I wouldn't cook something I know they don't like but they pretty much eat most food.