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.

McDonald's occasionally is fine you might not like it personally but many people do and its very tasty imo
Its the left over for tomorrow's lunch that is a big problem.

I love a cheeky maccas every now and again but I couldn’t stand it cold

I think it depends what it is. I dont see a problem with cold nuggets. I see that only the same as having chicken at a kids party. But not the chips or a burger. I cook my kids chicken (drumsticks, wings, fillet) for school. Its no different.

It isn't great. It can't be much food either considering happy meals aren't exactly huge and I can't imagine cold leftover nugget and a few fries tastes very nice.

Mine doesn't eat the healthiest packed lunches but come on now.

I’ve seen it all, cold chips, cold chicken nuggets, cold burger.

Now cold pizza on the other hand is fine

No it really isn't.

Well local authorities/government fund free school meals and many children are on them even if they do get the occasional happy meal, although this isn't about affordability this is about neglectful parents and if they did provide FSM for all at least they were getting cared for, and different UK countries have different criteria for universal FSM don't they? So they are provided to certain year groups.

Depends on the happy meal ...cold burger and soggy chips or cold chicken nuggets (often suggested on here as a party food idea) and a fruit bag ?

The highlight of my DCs packed lunch days was the occasional left over chicken nuggets as their snacks 🤣

Sushi was always popular too, weirdly I never got pulled up over the nuggets but frequently got messages about sushi not being appropriate 🙄 (which just made me send it in more often tbh 😬)

Meh, I couldn't really get excited about this, as long as it was a one off, and the child was happy to eat it. And as long as they usually take a nutritious lunch.
There's a lot of pearl clutching on this thread.

Now cold pizza on the other hand is fine
No it really isn't

Of course it is, again as a one off. How is it very much different from a cheese sandwich?

I’m guessing the issue with sushi is that raw fish is a food poisoning hazard unless it’s refrigerated?

I would be sceptical that a child having a leftover happy meal is normally having a healthy balanced lunch tbh.

Okay?

School probably will though
Which is a point most posters are missing
Sending a child in with a left over happy meal looks terrible

This appears to come from the same school of parenting as the mother I read about some while ago who weaned her baby on happy meals put through the blender. Oh dear.

You dont think they will?
I would be expecting a concerned phone call at least .

But aren't these kids now getting wholesome, nutritious food in their 'Breakfast Clubs' that sets them up for the day, according to this Labour government who is rolling this out across the board?
If so, they can surely stand one crap meal a day until they get home ?

C’mon! It’s diabolical. Of course the odd Happy Meal won’t do any harm. And yeah, a cold one isn’t going to kill you. But to send that in for your child’s lunch is pretty poor parenting IMO.

It suggests that you can’t afford, can’t be arsed to make or go out and buy a fresh lunch, which is the least we you can do really. It’s what it represents.

I’d feed a left over refrigerated happy meal to the dog the next day, but not a child. Christ.

If it's happening a lot, then I can understand that - but if it's a one off, and the child usually has an 'acceptable' lunch, then why would school be worried? After all, they serve similar food for lunch - albeit hot.

It's a bit scummy and may indicate lax parenting, but honestly it's probably not much worse than a ham sandwich on white sliced bread. They are both processed meat wrapped in crappy bread. At least the chips are made of potato and have a bit of vitamin C in them.

I haven't eaten McDonald's since about 1982, and even then it was under duress. Feeding a child stuff like that is something I just wouldn't do. The idea of it as cold leftovers is revolting. Please don't misunderstand me: I eat plenty of stuff that is not very good for me, but the thought of reclaimed meat is just disgusting.

Precisely because its not hot and pretty grim
I love a McDonald's but cold leftover fries and congealed burger is horrible
And who in their right mind thinks its ok even as a one off.

Whether it's hot is debatable, half frozen chips seems to be a norm in Glasgow 😬

McDonald's dont use reclaimed meat. Their burgers are 100pc beef and the chicken nuggets are white chicken meat in batter.

You are being unreasonable. I'm not even going to go into the ins and outs of whether cold Macdonalds is an ok lunch or not in general. The reason I think your view is unreasonable is because it ignores the fact this wasn't just 'for lunch', it was for lunch at school. It's completely inappropriate to send a child into school with MacDonalds for their lunch (hot or cold).

We had a parent send in a warm Happy Meal once. They forgot to send the lunchbox in in the morning and brought it to the office 10 minutes before lunchtime. They'd decanted a Happy Meal into a lunchbox, to disguise it coming in, but had left everything in the boxes inside. As soon as we saw it we had a moral dilemma. The child's eyes naturally lit up, but of course every other child on the table was green with envy and were refusing to even try their dinner because they all want MaccyD's like him. I had to be bad cop and take it away, explaining to the child that we need to ring mummy as MacDonalds isn't allowed at school. She was told she'd either have to collect him to eat it at home, or we'd order him a school dinner. Mum was fuming and couldn't understand the inappropriateness of it but we absolutely had to make a stand before all the kids went home saying their friend was allowed to eat MacDonalds in front of them and that's what they want now for their lunch. We're in an area where many wouldn't think twice about how inappropriate that it, and would likely all start sending it in on a weekly basis as a treat. Not ideal at all. We had to make a stand. She picked him up, bitched about us on Facebook, and brought him back still mouthing off about it. She was purely focusing on school apparently judging her for letting her child eat MacDonalds. She totally didn't get that she's entitled to pick him up and take him out for MaccyD's at lunch if she wanted to. It's the sending it into school that we wouldn't allow.

Disclaimer - I have no issue whatsoever with children eating Happy Meals as an occasional treat. For a school packed lunch though? Absolutely not. It's totally inappropriate for so many reasons (especially if cold).

I have sadly seen many examples similar to those in the article. A packet of biscuits seems to be the standard 'child packed their own lunch out of what they could find in the cupboard' scenario. I've seen that one a few times over the years and we've always sorted them out with a school dinner (and obviously recorded the incident on our safeguarding system). I didn't record the Macdonalds incident, as child was being fed. It was just inappropriate to send it to school.

It seems many parents are unable or unwilling to make sandwiches these days for their children. It baffled me on a recent school trip, where a pack up was required, how many children came with a supermarket meal deal (pre-packed adult size sandwiches which they had two small nibbles out of). That seems totally bizarre for a 5 year old in my opinion. Surely it would have been much cheaper to buy the bread and ham/cheese etc and have a week's worth of sandwiches? They could then be cut to a more appropriate size too. I sadly fear it's just because people simply can't be bothered these days. It's not a cost issue, as a meal deal works out much less cost effective.