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.

Am I the only one periodically popping back to this thread for new lunch box ideas??

Lucky child! If you can afford it, you have the time & the child eats it all I see no issue at all.

I had such a craving for smoked salmon bagels after reading this thread I had to get all the bits to make one when I went shopping.

Pack of bagels was less than £1 for five. Cream cheese was about £1.30 for a bigger than average tub and the smoked salmon was about £3. So £5.30ish for five lunches. Pretty good going. If you added a piece of fruit, crudités and a biscuit you could easily do a week worth of lunches for less than £10.

I get what you are saying, chocolatemademefat, but smoked salmon has not been expensive for many years. Steak is of course though there may be cheap cuts that can go in sandwiches, I honestly don't know. Unless it was cut very thin I think it might be a bit chewy for a child's sandwich.

It looks like a lot of food to me. Teo sandwiches, including a focaccia!

Not sure what’s over the top about it. Is there an age when kids should start eating quiche??Everything is fresh and healthy. Many kids eat a completely processed food packed lunch. Good for them giving healthy food.

That’s good food OP. Perhaps raise your own bar?

Exactly. There seems to be a misconception that healthy food is universally expensive. It's isn't. It's UPFs that are expensive.

Case in point: I stayed over for a surfing weekend on the North Yorkshire coast. We ate at the local pub there, which abutted a caravan site. TripAdvisor was full of comments from those at the site as to how eating at the pub was prohibitively expensive. But every evening, pizza menus were shoved through the handles of each caravan door and across the three nights we were there we saw umpteen deliveries arriving from the same pizza place.

All the pizzas were more expensive than the most expensive item on the pub menu.

Wow! I pack some of those things & many others for my children! We aren’t loaded, mortgage free high earners. I do, however, want my kids to have lunches they will eat & enjoy. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that at all. I feel like whether it is a jam butty or a salmon & cream cheese focaccia, if the kids like it & will eat it, where is the harm?! I would be cross if I felt we were judged for our packed lunch choices 🙄

My two often take a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel in, they even add some lemon juice and black pepper. It's great for kids to enjoy real food, and a variety of it. In most of Europe the expectations are that children enjoy a much 'fancier' meal for lunch than you've described OP.