AIBU to hope Bento boxes for packed school lunches never take off here?

[LightDrizzle]

Luckily I’m an old bat and it wouldn’t directly affect me but while it’s a Japanese thing that is sort of cute at a distance, the thought of parents, and let’s face it, mostly women, thinking they have to put mental and physical effort into carving Squishmallows out of radishes and creating beautiful and imaginative Bento boxes every day for the delight of their children and the envy of their friends just makes me feel depressed.

It was bad enough in the days of cutting sandwiches and bunging a satsuma, a Mini Babybel and a Penguin in. I’m still surprised at how long it takes to make rounds of decent sandwiches. I loathed doing packed lunches on top of everything else you’ve got to do with young children and full time work. Obviously there is nothing wrong with the Bento box as a receptacle, it’s the Insta-culture expectation as to the contents that make me feel sympathetic dread. Sometimes it seems that as fast as we develop labour saving gadgets and devices; social media and influencers devise tortuous new ways of parting women from any prospect of a moment to theirselves.

Gosh, no idea what a bento box was until I read this thread. Before school my daugther (6) saw a Bluey lunch box dividend into compartments, we both thought it was a good idea. I now put her drink and different kinds of fruits, biscuits or buns in. No need for extra packaging. The cutting into shapes, pfff, love you lots DD but you will have to survive without it. xxx

If you have the right tools it isn't that difficult to make shapes if you want to. I have a collection of the little pics and I find the small bottles great for salt and pepper.

@SilverPiscis I didn’t clarify. I meant the chicken nuggets shocked me in terms of quantity not that they are complicated. The box had so many compartments and about 7 nuggets in the biggest for a 5 year old. One compartment for a freshly made sauce though. (Personally not a food I would put in my DD’s lunchbox at all as she might as well have school meals. The only reason she wants packed lunch is because she is fussy with food and complains school meals are too soggy).

In terms of social media overcomplicating things for mums I do think the meals I see prepared there in general are mostly way OTT and noone has time for that daily. I say that as someone who works part time and tries to cook from scratch. All these appliances that require cleaning and maintenance and space too. I do feel when watching them
that what I am doing isn’t enough but remember that you can eat healthily and simply.

That's funny I have adhd and far prefer the bento boxes for kid and had never put it together, large empty box: intimating and annoying
Bento box: fill each section with a component and it makes me feel good lol

No need for the tone, obviously it goes far, far further than that! I'm hardly going to be diagnosed by my choice of lunchbox. But I do like things with an organisational framework.

@SweetSakura I ate them!

That's the one we have. Ours is about 12 years old and now I use it for my work lunches 😊

20yrs experience and I always buy Sistema now. They wash well, don't aquire a food taste, compartments are a nice size and they survive being kicked about. The lidded pots fit well and don't leak. They aren't made in China. The only slightly annoying thing is some of the bento style ones could do with clips on both sides and not one clip and a hinge.

I think people are using bento to mean a number of different things! Some people use the term to mean lunches that are all cut into fancy shapes, and some people use it to mean the type of lunchbox. And in Japan it just means "packed lunch" - the readymade things you buy from the shop in disposable trays are also "bento."

Yes. When I post I sit here carefully weighing my words, and even the exact placement of each individual word, to ensure I am creating the image of maximum food healthiness, as I care extremely whether random people on the internet think I am an amazing healthy mother or not.

Or alternatively, maybe I am just hammering out posts in between other tasks and the exact position of the word "grilled" doesn't actually mean anything?

I like to think it was the former and I reckon this merits substantial further scrutiny.

I'm also reading something into the fact you didn't mention whether or not the chicken was free range. And you didn't specify the species or origin of fish

I know that. But the op was clear what she was meaning.

the thought of parents, and let’s face it, mostly women, thinking they have to put mental and physical effort into carving Squishmallows out of radishes and creating beautiful and imaginative Bento boxes every day for the delight of their children and the envy of their friends just makes me feel depressed.

If they don't really want to do it but force themselves to anyway, they're a special kind of stupid that can't be fixed 🤷‍♂️

Nothing to get depressed about, otherwise you'd be in a permanent depressed fog if you considered Instagrammers/Vloggers etc who do these things for show.

I mean, I make mine very simple bento often (onigiri, omlette, rice, chicken, fish etc), because they enjoy it, it's healthy, and, well, we are a mixed race family so we eat that kind of thing regularly anyway. It doesn't have to be fancy, just some carbs, protein, veg etc. Just a personal preference.

Quite apart from all the effort, I don't want my child associating meals with nasty little plastic boxes that look like something off a production line.

We have china plates that don't leach chemicals, knives & forks, and hot food that can be served depending on the size and appetite of the child.

I’’ve always liked/used them. Best way of keeping things separate.

Oh lord, the pearl clutching over bento 😂

Lets face it most of us are way too lazy to do that everyday 😂 if someone wants to do it that's very cute but I'm not worried about it becoming common and kids being bullied for having boring lunches. More likely itl be the kids being embarrassed and self conscious their mum has carved a radish into a squishmallow

Kids can do their own bento box, or if you don't like helping, get them to eat school dinners

I think I’ll get a Bento box for myself. Much nicer than wrapping random crap in kitchen foil which is what I do currently. I’m not good at making cohesive meals for lunch.

The social media nonsense surrounding them is best ignored.

What is a squishmallow? I’m picturing a squished marshmallow?

Now you mention this, I am quite tempted to make them up for my teenage sons to open in front of their friends

I find making my kid’s lunches utterly tedious and I’m not getting up at 6am to cook anything (I’ve seen the insta’s).

Mine like a sandwich and hate cucumber with a vengeance. So they get what I know they’ll eat. I can just imagine my DS’s face if I sent him with fish or an omelette or some cous cous. Utter disgust.

This is exactly why my two will be having school lunches for the whole of primary school, packed lunches are a pain in the arse. But for holiday clubs, they have a couple of dozen packed lunches a year and I use Sistema sectioned boxes so I don't have to cling film everything.

This was me too, 10 years ago or so. Bento boxes are nothing new. I loved making them, it was like a creative outlet for me.

DS2 is in Y9 now and still likes me to make them. I don’t put notes or sweet faces in them anymore mind