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 every Monday. Doesn’t happen anymore. Lunch is shorter too now.

Oh my God I totally forgot these happened! Thanks for unlocking a memory

I had it in the 90s/00s and went to lunch at my grandmas every day

Primary school in the 80s, secondary in the 90s. We lived 5 minutes from each school, used to go home with my siblings some days and have a picnic. Loved it. Secondary, used to go home but also to the chip shop, cafe or someone's house! The good old days. Now kids are lucky to get half an hour to have some lunch at school!

I forgot that was a thing. I think a lot of schools now are overrun so they stagger lunchtime for the children.
Also safe guarding is stricter so they would have to send the children to reception to get signed out and then signed in again so they know who is in the school grounds. I think some school no longer allow parents inside the school grounds as well, so a teacher would have to walk them to the gate on their own lunch hour. Its a lot of hassle.

I was thinking about this the other day! I love right next to the school but I’m not sure I’d do it with my children. They would miss so much vital socialising time/experience with friends at school. There was only one boy who went home at my school and he was a little odd!

We had home lunches as a thing up to when I did my GCSEs in 1990, not sure how long it continued but it’s not a thing any more. Primary would be handing them in and out endlessly, some kids would refuse to go back in, and the secondary only has 30 mins for lunch now, there’s just not enough time

Home lunches were a thing when I was at primary school in the 70s but I wasn't aware of anyone opting for that when my DC (now in their early 20s) were at primary school.

We only lived a 2 min walk from their school too. Never crossed their minds (or mine!)

Im 20 years older than your youngest DC and this was never a thing when I was at primary. My DC primary don't even let the kids go home on their own til Y5. They're not allowed out of school during the day

We had it in the 90s, my two used to come home for lunch regularly

The gate to DCs primary and secondary school is locked and you need a staff member to put the code in before you can get in or out. Home lunches would be impossible! 🤣

It's still an option in my DC's primary school (Scotland). I don't hear of many kids doing it but I know at least one mum has mentioned doing it with hers. It's less usual these days to have a SAHM in the school years though.

Edited to add I used to do it in P6/P7 on my own, walking almost a mile home, letting myself in with a key if nobody was home (sometimes my mum was, sometimes not), making my own soup or whatever, locking up and walking back to school. I don't even know why I did that - it would have been much less hassle staying in school!

I don't ever remember this being in option in primary school in the 90s. Secondary we were allowed to leave the grounds for lunch (not in year 7) but we rarely went home, usually to the chippy 🤣 the "school special" was £2 I think. Wrap with donner meat, chips and a sauce and a can of pop. Absolutely diabolical thinking about it.

I used to go home for lunch all through Infants and Primary. Lunchtime was 12 - 1.30 back then! It was such a lovely break in the day. Sometimes my friend would also come along to mine for lunch. I actually went home at dinnertime in Secondary too, only staying to dinner occasionally.

We had home lunches at school, i loved going home for lunch, i must have only been 7 or 8 upwards and used to walk home by myself, have lunch with my DM then take myself back to school afterwards or sometimes she would walk me. Once I came home but my DB had been taken to hospital and DM hadnt had chance to call school, my neighbour found me sitting on the driveway, she gave me lunch and sent me back to school. The 80s were very different times! At secondary I used to love going with my friend to her nan's house for lunch, she would make us golden syrup sandwiches 🥪 😋 and set us up for the afternoon!

Definitely still going in 80/90s - wouldn't my kids have school lunches because they were absolute shite for what they cost but couldn't tryst the little buggers to take sandwiches either so I did the sandwiches etc - they came home. It was come home or starve. The school knew I'd take them out at lunchtime. I cannot have been the only one.

*wouldn't let

I remember that being an option in the 90s but hardly anybody used it. It is an option at my kids' school but I imagine they'd consider it if someone asked as long as the kids was always back in time for afternoon registration. A lot of clubs and instrument lessons happen during the lunch break though (before or after eating).

Oh wow I've just had a memory blast of lovely soup with my grandma for home lunches. Mid 1990s.

When I go to order my DC school lunches on their website system it does actually say packed lunch / home lunch as an alternate option so maybe it still exists??

My best friend went home to lunch and I was so jealous as I hated school lunch but my mum worked so I had no choice. I was 6 years old when I decided that I didn’t want school lunch anymore. So I told my best friend Janet that I was going home to lunch with her. I just walked out of school with her. God knows what her mum thought when I rocked up for lunch.
We used to pay on the day for school dinners so I still had my dinner money. I wasn’t allowed chewing gum my mum didn’t approve of it. But every day I’d walk past a chewing gum machine and wish I could try it. On the way back to school, I saw this machine and decided to put my dinner money in it. I got 3 packets out.
We weren’t allowed sweets in school but I decided to share my chewing gum at playtime . A teacher caught us and asked where I’d got it. I had to confess and worse tell my mum when i got home.
my mum wasn’t happy with me but was even crosser that the school let a 6 year old who’d had school dinner every day for 2 years was just allowed to wander out if school.
That story went down in family history as the day I spent my dinner money on chewing gum.

Definitely still an option at my children's primary in East Yorkshire. It isn't particularly popular due to working parents and children can't go out by themselves, an authorised person needs to collect them and sign them out.

If pancake day falls in term time then I will sometimes get them out then and we will make pancakes for lunch (I work from home so can be done with a bit of planning) but otherwise we don't do it regularly

My cousin used to go “home” for lunch; except that she didn’t go home, she went to Grandma’s, who lived a long bus ride away. Grandma would give her a very lavish lunch. She was an excellent cook. And somehow my cousin rarely found her way back to school in the afternoon.

It was a option at one of my primary schools (I went to 3 over the course of my education) but only one boy took it up in our class. We all found it quite entertaining that he left at lunchtime every day, lunchtime was the best part of the school day in my opinion.

Wow, I forgot this was a thing too! I definitely did this when I was very small. But no, it isn’t a thing now.

We had teacher or dinner lady strikes in the 80s so all had to go home for lunch. Nightmare if you lived more than a 15 minute walk to school. We had to take some friends who lived a distance away. Once my mom managed to lock us out the house and we all had to go to the neighbours. I can't imagine what parents would do in that situation now.