Extravagant Pack Lunches

[Diadrie]

I am a TA in a primary school in the middle of a town, real mixed background from families who are mortgage free making well into 6 figures and families living in council homes, earning minimum wage.

As part of my job I supervise the infants half at lunchtime and I have seen the more absurd pack lunches recently from one child. It’s a bento box format, very normal fruit and veg, then greek yogurt and compote, a dip (guacamole/tzatziki/hummus). The main is really star of the show though with: salmon and cream cheese bagel, steak and onion focaccia sandwich, quiche Lorraine etc.

I’m now sat thinking what a totally over the top pack lunches recently for a 5 year old, admittedly the child does finish it, but salmon and steak in children’s pack lunches??

AIBU thinking this is totally over the top, extravagant and slightly absurd.

It's a pack lunch made by someone with a relatively higher budget and more time to spare but it's a healthy lunch and I'm pleased to hear children are eating like that

I used to hand make my DD sushi for hers when she had some strict dietary requirements. It sounds ott but if its what the child wants and will eat, is healthy and works for that family than so what? Its better than processed cheese and a bunch of other upfs in the typical lunchbox!

When I was younger, so much younger than today, my Mum went to visit her brother in New York. She brought back loads of cool stuff not available in 70s beige Britain, including a Star Wars lunchbox. I absolutely was the talk of all the dinner ladies

I took packed lunch to school for the entire time there. I would have loved something like that. Instead it was either a cheese or ham sandwich with a chocolate biscuit. Another child once commented, “that’s not much to have”. No it wasn’t and my school days remind me of being hungry all day. I rarely eat sandwiches these days because they bring back bad memories of school. So, that child is lucky to have parents who care about them so much.

Nothing wrong with eating good food, far better than much of the ultra processed foods that children are fed today. Some families just eat well and their parents might prefer to carry that on in school lunches. I remember when my two were in infant school and needed a packed lunch sometimes and I’d send them in with vegetable egg fried rice and strips of roast chicken as well as carrot sticks and houmous etc…it wasn’t to outdo other kids, it’s what they eat usually at home..

I used to send the kids in with a similar lunch at a similar age - as a single working mum with a small income at that point it was a good way to get solid nutrition into fussy eaters. Most of my lunch ingredients for the family came from yellow label markdown - including smoked salmon, deli meats, bagels and tiger rolls - and then would be frozen down until we needed them. Would do the same lunch for all of us in different portions and use cookie cutters and chopped herbs to make things a bit interesting. Bento boxes made sense as less wrapping to bin. Tiny tubs of dip made things better for fussy eaters. Chances are that your good looking lunch box comes from a home without much disposable income that has had to get inventive.

Are you a TA for my child?! 😂 We send him in with a bento box with fruit, veggies with hummus or sour cream dip, some home made cake or banana bread, Greek yoghurt and then main would be salmon and avocado wrap, tuna pasta, mac and cheese in a thermos box.
We eat this food at home, it’s better than the processed rubbish they serve at school. Not sure how we are berating parents who teach their kids good eating habits young?

acco to surveys, the average oackec lunch in the uk is

• white bread sandwich with ham, cheese or chicken
• crisps
• penguin bar or similar
• 1 piece if fruit

which is obviously not a healthy lunch - highly processed, high salt, fat, sugar, low on protein, fruit and veg The child the op was commenting on had a healthy lunchbox. How sad that a TA finds a healthy lunch more upsetting than an unhealthy one!

You BU and judgey.

Why are you obsessing over packed lunches? Have you nothing better to do? Our lunchtime supervisors are way too busy dealing with what kids are doing to pass judgement on their food.

In your position I’d be more worried about the poverty gap and the effect on the disadvantaged students’ education.

Not absurd at all. Better than day-in day-out pasta and ultraprocessed vegan sausages my school serve, or the crisps-chocolate bar combo very frequent ly part of packed lunches too. I send my children with packed lunches that other might consider extravagant - none of their business .

OP isn’t coming back I don’t think. I would love a thread of “extravagant (or just a bit different) pack lunch” ideas. I would buy the cookbook!

Good eating habits and getting kids into whole foods not upf type thing is a good thing and not extravagant, it should be the norm.

Sounds nice and easy to put together tbh, good balanced good. The existence of a balanced and perhaps slightly extra packed lunch isn't a comment on the lunches there

Yes. You’re right they should have puddle water and turkey ham on bread

Might sometimes be leftovers from previous nights dinner. It does sound extravagant but who cares? I’d love if it my kid ate that kind of thing. Some parents get stick for sending in stuff that isn’t healthy/varied enough. Can’t win.

Since secondary a food flask has more than paid for itself - pasta and home made tomato sauce, stir fry with noodles, hearty soups, leftovers etc loads of quick, easy, cheap and healthy foods.

Need to get back into.it now school is starting!

I have absolutely sent my child into school with a cream cheese and smoked salmon bagel.
Why not, if they enjoy it?
I aim for a balanced meal with a carb & protein main , some veg and fruit. (It doesnt just have to ge a sandwich). And I focus on what my child enjoy and will eat all of and don't worry what anyone else takes for their lunch

You should also know it’s packed lunch. Not pack lunch.

I agree it is very sad that some children don't get a healthy lunch, often because of poverty, sometimes because of lack.of knowledge or lack of care.

The worst packed lunch I ever saw was a pack of ASDA biscuits spilt between twins.

Closely behind that might be cold leftover McDonald’s Happy Meal.

I fully support FSM in Primary Schools as a policy. It’s currently P1-P5 here.

I don’t think that’s absurd or over the top at all.

Our children are grown, but they still fondly recall that their dad used to make them really good packed lunches full of variety and deliciousness. It’s the kids with cheese strings and a ham sandwich that I feel are missing out.

Do I detect a hint of Inverted snobbery?

I put salmon cream cheese bagels in my Dr's lunchbox as it's the only sandwich he would eat.

That's why they call them The Leader of the Pack(ed)..

Sounds like a pretty normal lunch to me. Why is there an assumption that children should eat cheap basic food? Why shouldn’t a child have decent food if they will eat it? It probably is leftovers or cost no more than many processed foods aimed at kids like lunchables, cheese strings or corner yogurts etc. which are actually more expensive per lunch than cooking from scratch or buying salmon or steak for use in several meals.