Are we overcomplicating kids’ lunchboxes these days?

[Alyah]

I’ve noticed lately that school lunchboxes seem to have become a bit of a competition. Everywhere I look online, there are perfectly balanced bento boxes with shaped fruit, colour-coordinated snacks, and little motivational notes.
When I was at school, it was sandwiches, crisps, and maybe a piece of fruit — simple and fine. Now it feels like if you don’t send your child in with a worthy meal, you’re somehow not trying hard enough.
I do understand wanting kids to eat healthily and enjoy their food, but is it just me who thinks we’ve gone a bit overboard? I sometimes wonder if it adds unnecessary pressure on parents (and maybe even on the kids too).
What do others think — is this just the new normal, or have lunchboxes turned into another area for quiet competition?

You need to stop looking online if it’s bothering you. It’s good if children are having healthy, nutritious packed lunches though.

When I think back to mine in the 80s, they were not great. My children, now adult and teen, ate much better packed lunches than I did, but I wouldn't/didn’t get involved with what people on social media were doing with their kids, I just did what I knew was healthy on the whole and what they would eat. I can’t imagine being bothered by what other parents are putting in their kids lunch boxes. I’m only interested in what my own children eat.

You get to choose what you watch online and whether you get caught up in the ‘competition’. If you choose to, that’s on you.

The dad of one of my children’s friends apparently used to put a note in their lunchbox each day for a while, which apparently used to make the child (when aged 5/6) very happy. He really struggled with school, his mum had died and he missed his dad, so whatever helps. I haven’t heard of anyone else doing it but it got that little boy through.

Just let others do what they do and you do what suits you. People worry far too much about what others are doing.

Having seen the contents of various lunch boxes I would say there is a huge variation in both content and cost. Not to mention nutritional value and quality. I also wonder about how good some of it would be to eat (example smoked salmon packed at 8.00 am and eaten at lunchtime)

Motivational notes would definitely not go down well with my dc! Theyd think it very embarrassing, but maybe when they were smaller they’d have liked it.
I’d love to be more imaginative about it but i’m sure they wouldn’t actually eat half of the Instagram type suggestions. Ours are sandwich, 2 fruits, maybe something like dried apricots/banana chips or a cereal bar/flapjack or overnight oats for energy if there’s an after school club. Sometimes cucumber or carrot sticks. Depends what we have.

Because the ones online are for content and engagement not real life?! I don't think people make lunchboxes like that day to day.

Are you researching for an article or something? Can't say I've ever seen a lunchbox online personally, it's not the sort of thing I go looking for. My kids have very bog- standard lunches.

Isn’t that true of loads of stuff though. Sweaty ham, warm tuna. I prefer veggie for lunch as I think it’s less likely to give the kids food poisoning.

The online content is for showing off and not the norm. They attract online attention because they aren’t a simple sandwich, packet of crisps and carton of juice and therefore appear high on the search results when you look up kids lunchbox ideas. There’s obviously a cultural element to this subject too. I would expect the typical lunchbox made by a Japanese mum to be fancier because there’s a long history of bento culture with different bits displayed in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Everywhere I look online I think this is the issue, stop looking online and focus on the basics - health, nutrition, enjoyment.

I did this every now and then because I thought it was fun. I enjoyed it. No one is forcing you to do it.

We also keep it simple. Sandwich/roll/pasta salad, 2 types of veg, 1 fruit, a yoghurt or biscuits. Or leftover dinner in a vacuum flask (stew, spaghetti bol, risotto etc)

I think there’s no harm in improving on what you’ve described as a standard lunch. There is no need to eat crisps daily. Equally it doesn’t need to be so fiddly - a main (sandwich, roll, wrap, pasta), vegetable, fruit and some protein

I just do pasta, babybel, fruit, some veg etc. I actually think DD would like some notes in her lunchbox but more along of the lines of “love you” “you are the best”. I might do that lol.

I grew up in a family that cooked from scratch and there were always leftovers to take for lunch. It made for very interesting lunches, not just a sandwich & fruit every day (though I did have some of those too).

Packed lunches are about nutrition, economy, and interest. That’s it, really.

If you get your information from SM, then yes, it will appear the world is doing crazy shit. However, in the real world...
Most kids have a very normal packed lunch. Some kids have a '2 packs of Takis and some Oreos' or 'cold cheese toastie ' type lunch. I don't think watching women with alarming nails shaping rice into Hello Kitty and using a spoon to put grapes into tiny compartments is very representative of life.

DD - 4 - has a packed lunch daily.

It consists of:
Marmite sandwich OR a bagel with salami OR cheese and crackers.
Crisps
A tub of fruit.
A yoghurt.
A treat like chocolate biscuit.

She eats it. She's happy.

Back in your day it was a sandwich, crisps, and maybe a sad little bit of fruit, right? Yeah… no. We should know better by now. Crisps aren’t food — they’re a snack. I get that it’s part of the culture in the UK, but honestly, calling crisps “lunch” is like calling Diet Coke “hydration.” And “maybe a bit of fruit”? No. Definitely a fruit — that’s the dessert, people!

Lunchboxes don’t have to be complicated. The issue is that people have completely lost track of what’s food and what’s a treat. Chocolate yoghurts, muffins, crisps — absolutely not. If you raise a kid thinking that’s part of a proper meal, you’re setting them up to think “balanced diet” means one biscuit in each hand.

I usually pack fruit, chopped veg (carrots, cucumber, tomatoes), a sandwich, cheese, plain yoghurt, hummus, boiled egg. Simple, real food. And no, I’m not doing this “keto lunchbox” madness — I’m feeding a child, not entering a TikTok diet challenge.

We? Is that the royal ‘we’? I’m not, I don’t think! Mine is autistic and has a limited repertoire of foods he’ll eat so he gets cheese and crackers, a banana, an apple, a yoghurt and a pack of mini breadsticks.

IRL even Mumsnet isn't exactly true. The vast majority still have the sandwich fruit snack combo. Never seen a "food flask" for example. (Can't see reheated leftovers kept warm for a few hours being much better from a hygiene point of view).

We live near a 16+ college... its the reason our village has three takeaways, they make the majority of their money at lunchtime! One completely closes over the school holidays.

This!
I find I can’t relate to the original post—where I live the packed lunches my kids’ classmates have are fucking appalling. Chocolate spread sandwich, pepperoni, etc.

My kids’ very simple lunches are like the above poster’s and they seem saintly in comparison!

I haven't seen lunchboxes like that in real life. Today DS took a corned beef sandwich, two little BBQ chicken skewers from Aldi, half a packet of crisps, a small brownie, cucumber sticks, a portion of sweetcorn (he likes it, I know it is an odd lunchbox item) and an apple.

I wonder about the sheer amount of food in lunchboxes now. For lunch I’d eat a sandwich and maybe a piece of fruit. I wouldn’t eat a sandwich, fruit, a yogurt, a biscuit, and some carrot sticks and hummus. That’s a lot of calories. I’d imagine that it would just encourage pickiness and the children will only actually eat a couple of their favourite items and a lot will go in the bin.

If you're going to worry about what other people are feeding their kids then I'd worry about the ones doing the 90s classic still- processed ham, quavers, kit kat, mini cookies and junk yoghurt lunch over the ones putting actual effort in.

We know better now, crisps are a snack/ party food rather than a daily piece of lunch. Sandwiches are pretty boring every day and it pretty easy to do something more interesting and stick an ice pack in. Mine have hot leftovers in a thermos once or twice a week and love it.

I’d eat less too but I’m not as active as my kids! After lunch mine have either PE, games or swimming, then either come home on the bus and walk a mile or so from the bus stop or have an after school sports club for an hour. They burn more calories than I do sitting at my desk.

I know the type of thing you mean. Some people will do that everyday but not most people. I like them for giving me ideas sometimes but they're definitely not something to get hung up on!

DD is 6 and has a packed lunch 4 days out of 5 (she likes fish friday!). She also takes a second (small) pack up to eat after school one day a week as she goes straight from school to a 2 hr exercise activity.

I've found if she has a sandwich based lunch more than 3 times out of those 5 she gets bored and doesn't eat very well, so we mix it up.

So 2-3 times a week she'll have a sandwich based lunch - so a sandwich or wrap, with 2-3 fruit or veg depending what's in season, a something else (like a yogurt, slices of cheese, cold sausage or chicken), then a small biscuit or homemade cake or similar for dessert. Sometimes she gets a few crisps in a pot but not a whole bag and not every day.

Then the other 2-3 she'll have something like veggie chilli and rice or leftovers of paella-style rice, cottage/shepherds pie or lasagna. Then some fruit or veg and the same small biscuit/cake etc. alongside it.

If we've been to our favourite Italian restaurant at the weekend then the Monday lunch will be a couple of slices of cold pizza in place of the sandwich and she thinks she's in heaven!!

Some people might complain about the dessert part but everyone on school dinners gets a pudding every day so I'm happy enough with her having a little banana cake or choc chip oat cookie so she doesn't feel like she's missing out.

I will admit to having some of those cutters that make fruit and veg into cute shapes but I don't use them often - makes it more special when I do. She particularly likes it when I cut the middle out of cucumber slices and carrot slices then swap them over so the cucumber has a carrot middle and the carrot has a cucumber middle! I don't do it all the time though - it's not fun and special if it's every day!

Her lunchboxes have prompted jokingly jealous comments from a couple of her teachers and they come home every day either completely eaten or 90% eaten so I think I'm on the right track. We only tend to have stuff left when she's been having a hungry growth-spurt week and then her appetite has dropped back but I hadn't noticed and packed for a hungry day!

Mine would have a sandwich/wrap/bagel with fruit, crisps OR biscuits, and veg. Sometimes egg or cheese. Or pasta salad. Often chicken soup or noodles stir fry in a flask in the winter, with a roll. I love those flasks, makes me feel better when they eat something warm. My ds2 doesn't eat alot and plays a stupid amount of sports so I am forever trying to figure out things that he will eat. 😏