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Parenting

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Original poster

if your (primary age) child has school dinners...

52 replies

Yeeyeelovesraaraa · 13/09/2017 17:12

what do they typically have for tea?

do you just give a sandwich (since they have already eaten a cooked lunch at school)? or do they have a second hot meal?

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GreenRut · 13/09/2017 21:52

It depends on the day, the time, my mood, what I've got in. Scrambled eggs, cereal, a sandwich, oven food, reheated dinner from the weekend, pasta, rice salads and every now and then chip shop chips (which I steal all the best ones of while I'm dishing up, obviously )

RatOnnaStick · 13/09/2017 21:54

Normal dinner. Mine are ravenous.

poddige · 13/09/2017 21:58

Always a proper meal for dinner as they're ravenous. I'd have three hot meals a day if someone was kind enough to whip me up a fry up of a morning.

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Lovethebubbles · 13/09/2017 22:02

Mine has a sandwich with other bits to go with it if she's had a cooked lunch at school. She prefers that type of food anyway, so eats more. She would hate to have two "cooked" meals.

ginsparkles · 13/09/2017 22:03

Something light. She's not interested in a big tea after school. Soup, scrambled egg or beans on toast, sandwiches, picnic. Something of that nature.

BirdyBedtime · 13/09/2017 22:26

Always a cooked meal - like many pps the portions are small and protein element tiny. My kids have big appetites and a sandwich or beans on toast just wouldn't be enough after a long day at school plus often after school activities.

mumof2sarah · 13/09/2017 22:31

This weeks meal plan (yes I have one to stop me spending unnecessary money and to keep on top of routine etc):
Mon: tattyash
Tue: shepherds pie
Wed: jacket potatoes with toppings
Thu: fajitas
Fri: pizza/salad and chips
My daughter has a packed lunch for school (fussy eater) so she's ready for a home cooked meal when she's home 😀

megletthesecond · 13/09/2017 22:33

show That'll be in my head next time I tell them it's picky bit for tea.

To be fair, they do eat their scabs too.

Honkyzeke · 14/09/2017 07:08

Is Wednesday roast dinner in every school in Britain? It has been in every school I've taught at or that my kids have been to!

No Thursday at ours!

Dentistlakes · 14/09/2017 07:14

Always a hot meal here. Whilst they do always have lunch at school (compulsory) they tend to have lunch type things (baked potato, soup etc).

Gingernut81 · 14/09/2017 07:18

I don't have primary age children yet but I teach and am horrified by how little some of them eat so I'd say give them a proper dinner.

Maryann1975 · 14/09/2017 07:19

It depends what each child is doing wrt after school clubs. Dd has swimming tonight so hot dinner at school and a sandwich for tea. Yesterday no club, so hot tea with us.
I cook a hot dinner (at tea time) every day and it depends what's going on (Cubs, guides, swimming, football etc) how many I cook it for (family of 5).
If they have a club they make their own tea when they get in from school.

Maryann1975 · 14/09/2017 07:22

When I say a sandwich for tea, when I think about it, they quite often make themselves something on toast or soup or something a bit more that a sandwich.

RubyGoat · 14/09/2017 07:24

DD is Y1, the hot dinners are really good in this area & she likes them. Always a choice of mains, plus pudding plus fruit etc after. She usually gets sandwich, "picnic" (sort of mini ploughmans), a hotdog & corncob, maybe pasta pesto. Never anything complicated. No snacking before tea though, or if she does ask for something she gets fruit.

WhirlwindHugs · 14/09/2017 07:26

They have a normal hot meal usually.

I don't give them huge portions though.

Tatlerer · 14/09/2017 07:41

My DD (nearly 4) goes to after school club where she's fed sandwiches, crudités and fruit etc. At first I'd offer her a hot meal around 5.45 when we get home but soon realised she wasn't bothered so since then it's fruit, yoghurt and maybe a slice of toast if she's still hungry.

Phosphorus · 14/09/2017 07:54

I'm cooking anyway, so it would look really odd if I told the younger ones they couldn't eat whatever I was cooking because they'd had lunch at school.

They have the same evening meal as us, regardless of what they had for lunch.

I'm not about to start quizzing every family member on their lunchtime eating habits before producing three or four different meals a night according to what they've had earlier.

Original poster

Yeeyeelovesraaraa · 14/09/2017 08:00

thanks for all the replies - thats interesting that the majority seem to say hot dinner - I thought it'd be more balanced.

How do you know that the portions at your kids school are small & that they don't eat much there? We get zero feedback from ds (7) school about what he eats for lunch. He can't usually remember what he ate either.

He always comes home starving & I always make a hot dinner for me, DH & DD(2) but DS refuses to eat virtually everything I cook (very fussy eater) & the only thing he wants to eat is a sandwich. But if I give him one, its not enough & he complains all evening he is hungry. If I insist he eats the cooked meal he eats virtually nothing (maybe 3 bites at most) & complains all evening he's hungry. Maybe I need a new thread about that

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Hoppinggreen · 14/09/2017 08:04

If you Do start a new thread yee it will probably attract quite a few people who advocate the " they eat what I serve or go hungry" approach!!!
Never worked with my DD

MiaowTheCat · 14/09/2017 08:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mindutopia · 15/09/2017 20:55

Always two proper meals. I eat three real meals a day, so I would expect she would too. Also, we eat family meals together and I'm not having just a snack for supper at night. But yes, school dinner is at 12 and we eat our supper at home at 6:30-7, so that's quite a long gap to go without a meal. She also has a cold snack (fruit or veg, crackers, cheese, nuts, etc.) around 3:30-4 when she gets home as well.

mindutopia · 15/09/2017 20:58

But to answer your questions, unless he has any sensory issues or some reason he can't or won't eat certain foods, I would always expect him to eat what you eat. We've never offered other options, well, not since our daughter was about 2. She has what he have, nothing special just for her. If she doesn't want to eat it, that's fine. But she gets nothing else even if she says she's hungry. Is it possible he needs something later? Maybe you are offering him something too early. If you wait until later just before bed, he might be more hungry and ready to eat. Otherwise if not, it's bedtime anyway.

elQuintoConyo · 15/09/2017 21:08

A sandwich and fruit at 4.30 when i collect him - wolfed down.
Then a cooked dinner at 7.30.
He eats everything on his plate at school because they tell us he does. We are given a menu printout at the beginning of the month, so i know if it is fish for lunch i don't do fish for tea etc.

DS actually had a "sandwich snack" as well before going to bed. He is nearly 6yo. He eats like he is 16!

EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic · 15/09/2017 21:09

I always cook. I'm starving, they're starving and certainly wouldn't cope with just a sandwich. DD was almost sobbing with hunger tonight because she had to wait until 5.30 pm for her tea (the horror), and she'd had cake at 4pm.

LoloRupis · 16/09/2017 13:46

My boys are 15 and 11 and they are in secondary school they are school lunches they have pizza for snack and usually curry or roast they are sometimes hungry but we have our tea later as step dad works until 7pm

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