About the bloody packed lunches?

[Illbefinejustbloodyfine]

I have 2 DC at primary school. One has packed lunch every day, the other 3 times a week. Every day, they eat about 3 bits of sandwich and leave the rest. Or dc2 will leave the crackers

Today he asked for chicken pieces and bread and butter. He also had some cucumber, some Greek yogurt, and a slice of Swiss roll. He left most of the bread. Yesterday left most of the sandwich. Weds left the crackers.

They go straight for a snack when they get home and it drives me nuts to find uneaten sandwickes/crackers/whatever in the lunchbox.

Several times I've said to eat the sandwich first. Yesterday I made a big point of it . Today, dc2 has snuck the uneaten bread into the bin.

Aibu to just give a sandwich and piece of fruit next week? Funnily enough it's never the "treat" that's uneaten.

For context, it's a 1 slice folded in half sandwich. They sometimes have wraps or bagels but do the same with those too.

I'm so fed up of throwing food away.

Give them fuck all.
Starve the them until they appreciate your efforts.

don’t bother with the bread or crackers. Just give the protein and fruit/veg (and the treat). Life is too short to quibble over a slice of swiss Roll. I also found pasta salad went down well with little cubes of ham, cheese and chopped cucumber/baby tomatoes. Bread when it’s hanging around in a lunchbox for hours can be a bit unappetizing.

I still hate home made sandwiches for lunch. The bread goes soggy and always has a weird smell after having been sat in fpil/wrap all morning. I have access to a fridge at work but lunch boxes sit and sweat on a trolley. Grim!

Try putting other options in .ake their own lunch ables with cheese. Chicken crackers and stop putting cake in there. It's no necessary. Put grapes or orange slices in as they are sweet enough to be seen as a more pudding type treat.

Ah the stunt sandwich. We used to make a sandwich Monday - send it in packed lunch every day in week and then throw it away Friday. Basically DC ate as little as possible of packed lunch at primary cos when you were done you got to go out to play which was an infinitely bigger draw. Used to experiment with what we could get down them - pepparami, cheese strings, museli bar, crackers, rice cake, fruit.

Stunt sandwich just there to reassure teachers we did know what a balanced lunch was. Wed just accept it would never be eaten.

I remember pack lunch hell of primary. I ended up just giving one bread folded over with filling and a bit of fruit.
Break was another bit of fruit.
Insulated lunch box with ice pack as dc couldn't cope with warm sandwhich

• buy breadsticks individually wrapped or the long ones and snap them. Do some carrot batons too
• Dollop of cream cheese in a small pot container inside lunchbox or a separate compartment. and hummus too some days
• boom, homemade dairylea dunkers

Ditch the sandwiches

Expensive much....

Maybe make your own one up using picky bits.

Goodness, way too old for that kind of fussy nonsense.
Sandwich and fruit. And No snacks at home unless that is eaten. Sorry I am very harsh but I can't abide food waste.

@Illbefinejustbloodyfine yes go for "homemade" Dairylea Dunkers.
Pot of the cheese and a variety of breadsticks/crackers and things like carrot sticks, sliced peppers, cucumber sticks, apple slices etc to dip in it.
(If they claim the pot of cheese goes "gross" after being in the lunchbox for hours send a Dairylea Triangle still wrapped with a little spoon so they can open one fresh and smush it down).

I assume that's why she is asking for alternatives for the sandwich.... because it is going to waste.

I would ditch the sandwiches and give them chicken, ham, cheese or tuna with some cucumber and pepper strips & pasta or mini breadsticks. Maybe a small pot of hummus for dipping?

Mine were not all that fussed on sandwiches but they did eat wraps with a tuna mayo or egg mayo filling. They liked hummus and veggies or those little packs of sushi, rice salad or pasta salad or couscous with roasted veg too.

If it’s a piece of fruit fair enough, but a soggy sandwich that’s been in there all day…..🤢

Why do they not have school lunch? Surely this will solve the problem

Thinking back to when my kids were young they always used to get treats in their lunchbox.
As an adult each day I have a sandwich and yoghurt and fruit for lunch. Never sweet treats.
Of course they are taking the sweet treat first.
Your absolutely right. For lunch make it a nice sandwich and a healthy side.

We often used to have pizza and salad for dinner once a week and would save a couple of slices for DC to take for their lunches the next day.
They always took insulated cool bags with an ice pack in them to help keep the food fresh.

That sounds like hardly any food to me. My 7 year old eats more than that in a packed lunch at school, and that's still a lot less than she'd eat if with us. She struggles with time at school so eats less as she eats it slowly. But she only has it once a week when she has a club.

Anyway, I agree with you, there's no way I would be adding things like "treats" at all if they're routinely not eating their main item. Cut right back and if they're hungry they will eat their butty or whatever.

If they're not finishing their food, give them less. I'd drop the cake personally.

i would tackle this like the crazy person I am.

You could give them Dunkers or Swiss roll and only that until that until they get thoroughly sick of it, Then start adding fruit or vegetables but keep on giving them the Dunkers/Swiss Roll it for a few more days until they really don’t want it, then add in the sandwich back.

Several reasons. The main one being i can't afford almost £30 a week on lunches for them. Until last year the school cook made everything herself and offered some lovely choices. Now, the lunches are brought in and neither DC are very keen on the.,can't say I blame them.

I don't know why everyone is going on about soggy sandwiches sitting around for half the day. Don't you put a mini freezer block in so everything in the lunchbox is cool? They are cheap and widely available. Or just stick a snack-sized box of frozen peas or sweetcorn in - they are nice raw.

That just makes the sandwiches cold which not everyone likes.

The really little ones are pretty much unfrozen by lunchtime so cool rather than cold. Personally I think soggy sounds worse than cold but I guess people can avoid whichever they hate more.

My DS is 8 and he went through a stage of leaving his sandwich so I told him straight the next time his sandwich came home I was stopping putting anything else in his packed lunch other than the sandwich and a carton of juice. We now have a rule that sandwich gets eaten 1st and he knows if it ever comes home again it will be the last time he ever takes a packed lunch to school.

Am I doing pack lunches wrong? We've only ever sent a sandwich and a piece of fruit!

School lunches!!