Children eating packed lunch outside?

[OldMaaa]

Is it just me or is this a bit bonkers?

My children are at Primary school.

I found out recently (from my child not via school communication) that the children who bring in packed lunches are allowed to take them outside to eat in the playground.

This first came up as my children sometimes take in soup in a thermos cup. Recently eldest child reported that their soup was kicked over before they had consumed any, so essentially missing the main portion of their lunch. After a bit of (quite confused) discussion I discovered soup was on the floor outside, which led to a conversation about why?! This is normal apparently.

I'm thinking about it again today, as I noticed child had brought home most of their sandwiches and when I asked if there was something wrong with them they said no. "They were lovely but I got distracted".

Am I mad/out of touch to be thinking that children should be sat down at tables while they're eating their lunch regardless of whether they're packed lunch or school dinners. Or is this common in other schools?

I never want to be the kind of parent who bothers the school unnecessarily, but I am considering asking them about this as I don't understand it.

But I would appreciate some other perspectives as maybe my perspective is wrong?

We sat on grass! Yep real grass and it even had ants and ladybirds and things crawling in it!

Tough times!

We did have to sit within a particular area and there was a roving duty teacher to call over if there were any issues, but no chairs, no tables - not even napkins!!

LOL. Child in page 6 dropped their food again shocker.

😂😂😂😂I spent my primary school years in NZ. Lunch outside 75% of the year, 25% at our desks when it was heavy rain. No 'dining hall'

eating lunch outside when it's nice weather is perfect.

And the more I think about it, I actually think the real issue here was the hot soup in a thermos!

I was wondering why I couldn't remember a hot soup episode and then it dawned on me ... that was the era when bread sandwiches and babybel cheeses were still considered acceptable foodstuffs for children. We were not allowed thermos flasks because they keep liquid ... hot.

Well your kids may sit & eat first when you're supervising them, but clearly they've not actually learned to do this independently.... not the schools fault.

I’m 55 and absolutely loved eating my packed lunch outside during the summer months. My friends and I, used to have a picnic on the large playing field and all share what we had.

The soup incident I think was unfortunate.

Don't ruin it for everyone

My child unfortunately choked on a ham sandwich last year because she was running around with it. I had to do abdominal thrusts to save her life. Children need to be told to sit down when they’re eating. As long as someone is policing it then I don’t think it’s a problem

If it means that your DC are segregated from the school dinner children then YANBU. They should all be eating together.
If they can all eat outside (preferably at tables) then it's not a problem.

I am more surprised your child has soup for lunch. She must be starving. I would rather my child be outside as much as possible during the school day.

My kids are 20, 17 and 13 and always ate packed lunch on the grass at primary school, when it was warm and sunny. They liked it, yeah sometimes playing took over, but I was happy enough and so were they.

I was a child once…
(I say that as it sometimes seems, on posts like these, that many parents have forgotten that they were too and certainly what it was like being one)

… I would sometimes get distracted and forget to finish my lunch, I would spill some or drop some. Outside, inside, at school, not at school. None of the things you describe as issues are the failure of the school to insist on the children eating indoors at tables. They happen because these are children.

And, yes, eating packed lunches outside is not a new thing.

There's always one isn't there?!

Both my DC had picnics outside this week and loved it. School sent pictures of the whole school enjoying their lunches together in the sunshine. What a lovely thing to do.

Lunch not being eaten could happen inside too.
The soup could just as easily have been knocked down if it was on a table indoors.

Realistically it won’t do them any harm. They’ll just be hungry at dinner

Maybe reframe it as a picnic. It’s lovely for children

Eating outside is great. I don’t see what’s wrong with it.

You give soup in a packed lunch?

One of the benefits of a packed lunch is being able to sit outside. I include lots of nibbly bits thst can be eaten on the go. Hard boiled eggs, chicken legs, little tub of nuts ( school is not nut free) cheese, crackers, oatcakes, sliced cucumber type stuff. Homemade savoury muffins or slice of frittata are popular too.

Id save the soup for cold weather when they want to eat indoors.

So do I. One of my kids doesn’t really like sandwiches. Soup in a flask is great.

We did this when I was at school in the 00s, I loved it, so relaxing. Kids often mess around, get lost in the crowd, dont eat as theyre too busy chatting/mucking about even in dinner halls.

I think YABU purely because when I went to school there was no such thing as school lunches. Everyone brought a packed lunch and ate in the playground, so this seems normal to me. However, it does seem to be standard in English primary schools for kids to eat inside (in somewhere totally inappropriate!).

It will never cease to amaze me to see the various things that people on MN get annoyed about. This practice has been happening for decades, and I personally think it's rather nice!

What is weird is that your dc and friends were not sitting eating their lunch. Or was it just a rogue foot in sitting position that knocked if? If so, it happens ...

lol just send a note that your children must be kept inside until they finish their lunch.