To think a leftover happy meal isn’t the worst packed lunch you could have?

[Tulipdreams]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teachers-share-students-worst-packed-36878989.amp

Hear me out first. Of course the article is pretty terrible, children being sent into school with only packets of biscuits for lunch, stories of children having no milk for their cereal and bringing in energy drinks.

But one example was a child took a leftover happy meal to school. Aibu to think that this isn’t the worst thing you could have?

No I have never sent my child into school with a cold takeaway for their lunch, and it would be concerning if it was happening all the time. But I would eat leftover McDonald’s if I hadn’t eaten it the night before. It’s probably no worse than taking a ham sandwich and a packet of crisps (which would be deemed as acceptable).

When I was a child most kids took meat paste sandwiches and a wagon wheel and that was a completely normal lunch.

Of course, cocaine and a cigarette would be worse. But no I don’t think much is worse than leftover, cold ultraprocessed fast food tbh.

It shows not only a lack of interest in health and development but also a certain level of neglect imo. Especially because I doubt they’ve followed food safety rules for cooling and storage.

Of course. But the PP said leftovers. So I was asking her if she meant in general.

I mean something that is quite clearly left overs from a take away.

A soup in a flask or some Raman is very different to cold nuggets or pizza. One of mine went through a faze of tagliatelle for lunch.

A peeve of mine actually is the fact schools don’t provide a place to keep food chilled properly or warm anything up.

That’s annoying as well. Even for a sandwich who wants one that’s been sat in a basic school box from 8:30-12noon ish getting warm.

I send in cool packs but from what my child says most parents don’t. When it was really hot I also freeze a water bottle so she’s got an ice cold drink with lunch as well.

Ah okay. Yeah I'm getting flashbacks to sweaty sandwiches in my lunchbox as a child. What kind of cool packs do you use? Our toddler is starting preschool soon and we only have the big chunky ice packs.

Food threads - particularly about children’s food - are great. They’re stuffed full of hopeless logic and pseudoscience, all packaged up in snobbery, competitive parenting and wild claims about child abuse.

This thread is even better than most: bagels, Ramen and sushi have all been casually dropped in as regular parts of a packed lunch. And the finger of shame has been pointed at…a pork pie!

Riveting stuff. Thank you all 🙏

I’ve just got some skinny ones from Amazon first discovered them when camping when every Inch of space matters.

You can also get little tube ones to drop into water bottles.

Also if you’re a parent who doesn’t mind a frube they freeze nicely and tend to be just defrosted yet cold in a lunch box by lunch time.

But I know some don’t like things like frubes 😅

I could never feed my child a pork pie. I’ve never eaten one they look like they shouldn’t taste nice so I’ve never offered them one 😂😂

Now cocktail sausages or sausage rolls or the little cheesy ones again fine.

Ramen is deep fried noodles. They’re about 500calories a pack and really high in sodium and low in everything except fat and carbs.

So shouldn’t really be given to kids either. They were invented as Japanese fast food.

Well consider me schooled. I’ve never looked into it just seen it on tv at times, wrongly clearly assumed it was better than just packet noodles.

They’d get the vapours if they heard what is in DD’s(teen) crappy packed lunch. I miss the days of primary when she had school dinners. Fussy little git!

Because for school dinner the burger and chips are freshly cooked and hot.

last nights McDonalds will be cold. would you give your child cold leftover McDonald’s for their dinner? Or at the very least would you reheat it?

if it’s a leftover McDonald’s it’s not even a full portion. Is it a half eaten burger or. 2 nuggets and a handful of chips? Or is it an extra happy meal ordered to keep for the next day?

also, on just eat McDonald’s will not deliver to schools. But at least this option it would be fresher and at least warm.

To be fair, it may well be the case that the letter stating they required a packed lunch that day was missed by the parents who might simply have assumed it would be provided. That’s an easy error and if more than one child was in this situation, I’d assume that was the case rather than parents deliberately leaving them without. Especially since a few only had a couple of snacks- that might be the parents thinking “well school is providing lunch so I’ll give them a couple of extras too”.

I chaperone my DS on most trips too due to SEN and it’s pretty common for kids to forget things required e.g suncream or water bottles, I don’t think the teachers jump to assumptions of neglect and nor did I.

My son pretty much spent five years at high school with Ham and mayo sandwiches ( his choice)
Im not the type that cooks everything from scratch and whose kids will happily munch on olives and quinoa as a snack
But yesterday's happy meals is pretty grim even by my standards

A cheese burger isn’t the end of the world. I don’t mind them cold. The saddest one I’ve had is the dc who handed me a pack to open of a raw pop tart. I got the dc a school dinner and wrote up a welfare concern. See also the child who has a slice of pizza in their coat pocket for snack that they told me they took out the bin. I’ve seen the occasional cheeseburger and not found it on the same level as those examples

I agree . A mc Donald’s just doesn’t reheat well at all. I wouldn’t put it in my child’s lunch box . I have no issue with my child having the occasional mc Donald’s

Naaah, sorry - lazy, shit parenting.

Who TF wants to eat a cold burger and fries?!

It's so low effort it's offensive, IMO.

It’s the mirror. They like to put us against each other.

Sending a child into school with a day old mcdonalds is poor.. if they can afford the mcdonalds they can afford a fresh loaf of bread with cheese or ham or both a banana .
Day old cold mcdonalds no.
It's just sad.

It’s neglect. Shouldn’t have children if you cannot care for them.

I voted YABU - even though it’s not literally the worst in the world, it would be pretty horrible. I wouldn’t fancy it anyway.

The nutritional value wouldn’t be great but over and above that it just wouldn’t be nice!

Those are so sad 😥

51% carbs, 34% fat, and 15% protein. Nutritional value. I looked it up. Personally I think a cold burger and chips isn’t great but nutritionally I have seen much worse.

Can neglect be once in a blue moon?

Raise the bar, it's f atrocious