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.

Reminds me of the time a woman I know called me posh for having hummus for lunch...a tub of hummus and a packet of pittas would do me lunch for a week...and cost less than £2

what sort of leftovers do you put in a lunchbox? I sometimes use cooked chicken in a wrap, but need more ideas

Yes. It’s getting annoying.

I agree that it's definitely not the norm but sounds lovely! My kids often request sushi which I'm sure gets some funny looks from their peers! Usually pasta salad, soup or a sandwich though!

better not see my daughters for tomorrow … left over sushi rice with smoked salmon and veg to make a sushi bowl for her lunch!

There is nothing absurd about any of the food you've listed. They are all readily available in any supermarket. You can buy smoked salmon for the same price as a packet of ham in tescos. Cream cheese is a normal everyday food. Foccacia is just a type of bread, again available everywhere and steak is just meat just as ham, chicken pork etc is just meat. Quiche is one of the most basic foods you can buy.
How strange that you think these foods are somehow really out there. They are all just food. Just because they are children dosent mean tbey should be fed plastic ham on white bread followed by a crap yogurt full of preservatives, fillers and sugar.

In what world is quiche lorraine extravagent

DD6 would eat that (well pre vegetarian era). Right now she has school dinners though because she’s weirdly obsessed with them. DS4 would freak out if I ever deviated from his standard issue lunch (yes we are getting him tested 😂). When I was little I’d have loved that kind of packed lunch, but my mum made all of us the same - cheese and salad sando, jam sando (the pudding) and a fruit.

Beats monster munch, processed cheese products and ham, a lot think that’s healthy and normal 🤦‍♀️

What’s absurd is that kids have a little small packed lunch instead of a warm meal, really.

Doesn’t seem weird at all, but balanced and healthy.

Can’t see the problem!

Good grief Schools are always sending reminders to Parents about Healthy Choices and now staff are getting judgey when they deem a packed lunch too extravagant!. I'd rather that than Children having nothing, Unbelievable!

Horrible to think you’ve been hired as a lunch time supervisor

Would indicate to me the Op has something of a grotty rather shit diet

Sounds delicious and I'm jealous of that child

My kids are on school dinners as I don’t want them having so much bread everyday as their main meal but these would be a good meal for them. My son is 7 and has smoked salmon bagels a lot at the weekend or a quick tea if at hobbies (he’s not that adventurous).

I wish that mum would make the same lunch for me.

Nothing wrong (and a lot right) with that packed lunch.

It sounds like a good packed lunch to me. If the child eats it surely that's all that matters.
I'm not sure why it bothers you though.
What do you think would be better in a packed lunch?

Sounds delicious and healthy. I wish my kids would eat such a variety....

Sounds good to me. I had focaccia for lunch actually - yum!

Sounds lovely. Better than the shit I give my DC in their PLs.
You sound rather silly.

I cook a lot of rice for dinner, mainly because it's great for lunches and I'm lazy. Curry, Chinese style fried things with sweet chilli sauce, chilli con carne, paella type things. Pasta works well too.

Schools have far too much to say about what parents pack their kids for lunch these days. It's none of their business, and frankly they're in no place to issue their periodic lectures on healthy eating judging by the state of their own lunchtime provision (full of sugar and ketchup).

They complain when crisps and chocolate are packed, now they're complaining when healthy options are packed. Outlandish suggestion though it may be, how about those people concentrate on the lunchtime supervision they're paid for rather than policing what goes into kids' mouths?

Yes, OP. YABU and sneering. And I suspect you know it.

It sounds reasonable to me
Quite a lot of food - but I guess that depends on portion sizes.
My daughter always has things like small bits of.cheese or meat, hummus and veg sticks and fruit and then a pudding because she doesn't like sandwiches.

Sounds great, DS (6) would eat all of those things although flips back and forth on avocado. If the family can afford it and the child likes and eats it, there's no problem surely?