Am I sensible, or a Food Nazi?

[BananaPudding]

We have recently come to live in a new town where we are staying with my SIL and her three children for a short while. All children take packed lunches to school.

The rule of the house is a sandwich, a capri sun and 3 choices of the "pantry snacks".

Pantry snacks currently include (all prepackaged):

Rice Crispie Treats
Assorted flavored crisps in small bags
Small bags of M&Ms
Small bags of a crisp called "Funyuns", vile onion-flavored cornmeal rounds
Nutter-Butter cookies
Very sweet granola bars which should be called candy
Cheese Nips
Ritz Cheese Sandwich crackers
Chocolate wafer cookie bar things

THREE things from that list in every lunchbox! I am stunned. No fruit in a lunchbox, ever.

I make dd's lunch after she goes to bed, and it contains varients of a peanut butter or ham sandwich, a piece of fruit, some sliced vegetable, a piece of cheese and a bottle of water. Sometimes yogurt instead of cheese.

DD says I am mean and give her sad lunches. Honestly, she never complained before as it never occurred to her that those things would go in lunches. I have compromised and said that on Fridays only she may have a capri sun instead of water, and one choice of the pantry snack list.

Sensible choices, or am I a mean Food Nazi? SIL thinks I am crazy.

It's sheer laziness on my part BananaP: there are certain foods I introduced very early in my forward planning to get some nutrition into my child with minimum effort! Avocado, tinned sardines and pesto being the staples! Can't get a mouthful of salad into him.

sorry, lulumama

Civil war, not American revolution

Banana .. when I posted earlier I didn't realize that you were in the States. I can fully understand, having read your post, why you wouldn't want to go down the school dinners route

On the rare occasions when I had a packed lunch as a kid, I used to hate having fruit in the box. It made everything smell. Bananas, in particular, make me barf.

I let mine have one treat, some cake or cereal bar, crisps or flapjack and so on. The deal is that they eat the fruit and veg or don't get the treat the next day. They usually eat it.

We tried some Goldfish crackers this summer. They have a very boring taste. The kids were excited by the packaging but then didn't eat many. Don't blame them. I much prefer Cheddars.

My kids get the same type of lunches as your dd. My ds was alone in his 1st grade class in getting healthy lunches. In fact, I had one parent thank me for sending my son to school with such healthy lunches. He had two pieces of fruit one day and her son was so astounded by the concept that he asked his mother why she wasn't sending him with 2 pieces two. Healthy food has long term effects on health and intellegence, so stick to your guns.

Dd1 is the only one so far who has a packed lunch. Hers is similar to yours.. She has a sandwich, usually ham or cheese, a chunk of cheese, a yogurt and some fruit. She usually shuns the weak squash I put in there and opts for water. She likes it, its not going to change. I think the pantry snacks sound barmy! One on its own every so often as a treat but 3 a day!

When I was a dinnerlady there was one girl who would turn up with (presumably) last nights left-overs; chicken dinosaurs, cold chips and beans ina tupperware. With ketchup all over it.

he, he, my husband was asked what we had for dinner that night (by a little girl that our children were playing with) and he said baked potatoes and vegetables, to which she replied "that's not proper food".

He therefore asked her what she was having and she said "Scoobie nuggets and chips". He came into the house laughing so hard he could barely tell me the story.

So there you go. Your sil is right and you're wrong ..................................NOT