Are “home lunches” still a thing at your children’s school?

[Gladla]

When my DDs (now late 20s/early 30s) were in primary school they used to have 3 options for lunch, school lunch, packed lunch and home lunch. For home lunch the parent would collect them at the start of lunch take them home, feed them and bring them back at the end of lunch. By the time they were primary 6/7 lots of the kids would use the home lunch option to go to the cafe in the village on Fridays.
We didn’t use them often but my parents would take my girls for a home lunch about once a week. They were also a very popular option on the day of the Christmas party where lots of the kids would go home to get changed or in primary 5 when they went swimming most of the girls would go home at lunch to dry their hair.
I was chatting to my DD today who has a 5 year old and I asked if her school had home lunches as I thought it would be nice for me to take my DGD out. She said nope that’s not an option!
I was a little shocked. I understand that there are significantly less parents who are around in the middle of the day and safeguarding has gone up, but it seems fairly innocent if someone if collecting the child from and returning them to the office.

AIBU to be sad this option doesn’t seem to exist?
Did anyone else’s schools have home lunches or still have them?

I used to go home for lunch most days (90s). I think I was about P5 before I had a school lunch/packed lunch and was nervous about where to go and what to do (massive primary, we went in for lunch in year groups with P7 monitors standing with hands up to indicate how many seats were available at their table and other monitors directing you to a seat so often split up from friends)

DC can come home I think but I’ve only seen people do it on the day of parties/discos.

What a lovely idea, it wasn't an option an for me in the late 80's early 90's although to was very easy to sneak out of middle school 😳 in secondary school the 6th formers could leave. DH who started school in the late 70's always went home for lunch as he lives a few minutes walk away, he has fond memories of watching Neighbors with his mum 😊

I think it is sad in a way, we are 300 yards from the school so it would be nice for DD to come home some days especially in the summer but like people have said would be a nightmare to manage with the way things are now

Kids who go home for lunch miss out on a key point of socialisation with their peers during the school day. They eat lunch together and chat over their food, they play running about on the playground after eating.

I don't think it's that great for kids to regularly miss that

Home dinner was a thing at my English primary, 90s/00s.

They're not a thing at my children's school though- and we live across the road so it'd be very convenient if it was! But I think they have a shorter lunchtime than the hour we used to get.

My mum occasionally took us out for picnic lunch at the park behind the school field during summer.

And in year 5&6 a friend and I would sometimes say we were home dinner, and we'd go back to hers while her parents were out. The school gates were always open so we'd just walk out at lunchtime and return for afternoon registration 😬

Definitely still an option here (Scotland). I don't think it is usually used by very many - for a start, everyone here gets a free school dinner up to p5, so why not use it.

But it is very popular on xmas party day, and also can be a useful break for children who struggle for various reasons.

that's a silly argument. Not everyone is trying to play a role and most mums are perfectly happy with their choices and don't engage with school-gate drama and judgements from bored mothers who have nothing better to do.

I’m a 60s child. Many of us went home for lunch then…it was very popular. However…back then, practically every child walked to school (we didn’t even have a car…as many didn’t then). There was no safeguarding, no gates, not even a high fence! My school had a little wall around it (about 3 feet tall) with wide, flat ‘top stones’ that we’d walk on or sit on at break times…these were right next to a massively busy main A-road.

Kids going home for lunch usually just walked themselves out, or went with an older sibling/cousin. A few got collected by mum or granny.

It was bliss!

But now, the hassle of this would be a nightmare to facilitate…I’m a teacher of 33 years and have seen so many changes over my time.

My DC have this, in fact there is no possibility to eat lunch at school for either primary or secondary. Schools close over lunch time. The secondary has an exception for children who can't travel home at lunch, ( there is a corridor with a two microwaves where they are allowed to stay) but they have to live in the villages where there is no bus connection over lunch time not simply because they want to. We are not UK though. My DC have a two hour lunch break, they're home at 12 and leave at 1pm to take the bus back. There simply isn't the infrastructure in any of the schools to provide lunch.

Yes we had this option in the 80s.

I agree, break times were the best part of the day for me. I’d have had no interest at all in schlepping home

I was born in 1981 and lived 2 mins away from the school. My mum also worked in the corner shop i passed when I was perhaps in year 5. I'd collect a quarter of midget gems from her on my way home and eat them with my packed lunch watching Grease on video with my DB who was the year below then back to school for the afternoon.
Times were so much simpler 😊

My kids are at primary school in Scotland and they have the option of a home lunch. They never want it unless feeling under the weather though!

This was never an option when I was a child but then my parents worked and so did most of the other kids parents. I guess there wasn't demand.

It isn't an option at my kids school either. I doubt there would be demand due to working parents.

Sounds lovely, but the lunch break isn’t going to be long enough to get home, eat and back again for many. Never mind the admin involved in signing a child out and back in again.

My dc school has 40 minutes for lunch. They can barely get the kids through the dinner hall in that time.

I went home for lunch throughout the whole of my schooling from 1980 to 1991.
I used to walk home and back with whichever friends were going my way.

My dd's have never had the option, they're 10 and 12.

If they did home lunches these days the kids wouldnt come back from home

The reality is that households nowadays generally need to incomes to survive due to cost of housing and general living. There are few stay at home parents left, at least in my area.

Aw that's unlocked happy memories!! My sister and I used to do home lunch once or twice a week, we'd go to my Grandparents. We used to let ourselves out of the school back door and be picked up by Grandad who would them drop us off again an hour later. Nobody ever checked to see who we were going with, unbelievable now. It doesn't even feel that long ago - it was the mid/late nineties.
Absolutely LOVED doing this, they spoilt us rotten and it was such a treat going there for a proper home cooked meal, sitting in front of the fire.

Yes it's an option where we are in Scotland. Daughter does it occasionally. She has a. Hour for lunch and we're very near. It's good for breathing space when she needs it.

Aw, I remember watching Rainbow with beans on toast or ham sandwiches during home lunch break too. Mid 80s village school. I think I was one of only a few but it was a very small school and I had quite a few surgeries on my mouth so that could have been one of the reasons.

I used to go home for lunch from age 6, back in the sixties. There would usually be a few kids walking in the same direction so I wasnt alone. The world was a less dangerous place back then

In the 70's we lived near the school, we went home most days for lunch before my mum got a job.
I always wanted to have school dinners but wasn't allowed.

I had it all through school, infants, Juniors and secondary. 1970s and early 80s. I walked home alone and back again from about 7.
My DDs (youngest 18) not allowed home for lunch.

My DM talked about doing this as a 60s child. My DGF also came home from work every day for lunch. Makes me feel for my poor DGM who had to produce 2 cooked meals every day.

I can't see it catching on again now with more parents working and stricter rules about kids walking on their own.

It was around in the 70's too. My kids lunch period was so short that there wouldn't be time to go home and come back.