If your dcs have school dinners do you still give them a main meal at home as well?

[bodiddly]

Just wondering really .. ds is starting school in September and will start with school dinners. He is pretty fussy and I am not convinced he will really eat much. Do most of you cook yours dcs another meal when they get home?

Also, those of you with one dc ... do you cook for them on their own of an evening or do you eat early so as to eat with them?

The portions at our school are very small - and often they don't eat all of it anyway as they are rushing to get out to play. I choose school dinners as it is easier for me - and means I only have to cook one thing at night.

DS does as the school portions are not large so a sandwich is not enough for his other main meal. He can purchase toast/oatcakes/porridge at first break if hungry but usually just has fruit juice.

looks like a full meal will be needed - I just need to concentrate on finding a greater variety of things that he will eat if we are all to eat together!

Mine have school dinners and I certainly don't always do them cooked tea too.

Apart from anything else, it's impossible sometimes ... eg when we had a whole evening of swim lessons, or DS2's gym class started at 4pm and a quick sandwich was all that was possible.

If we have a friend round then I do cook a hot meal as they may "be sandwiches" (the kids' phrase ).

Also some nights we do all eat together, especially now they are older and stay up later, so then I cook tea. But if Beavers is at 6pm, DH and I don't want to eat at 5pm and there's no way I'm cooking twice.

By the way my sandwich meal is a cheese sandwich, tomatoes and cucumber and pepper, then fruit of some kind. It's perfectly healthy, filling and nutritious - and incidentally what I have for lunch so I don't see a problem.

I am worried about this. DD is starting school nursery, full time in September. They get toast in the morning, cooked lunch, then a piece of fruit in the afternoon. I know she'd rather be playing than going to collect half a tomato. They get their lunch at 11.30.I'm worried she'll be ratty but won't know it's because she's hungry. Do they get by?

pufflign everyone warned me that mine would be starving when they came out of school but I've not found it really.

If you are worried, greet her with an apple. But please not a bag of choc buttons

I'd think all my birthdays had come at once if dd even took a bite out of an apple.

Oh right sorry, I have good eaters (so they eat loads of lunch and maybe that's why they're OK at 3.30) so I'm not a lot of help then.

We have a proper, home-cooked, evening meal most nights. Depending on what's going on that evening, whether dh will be home from work earlier or later, and how tired the dc are, the dc may eat earlier, otherwise we all eat together. But mostly we all eat together.

I always bring my dc a snack to eat on the way home. If I'm organised it will be something like peanut butter sandwiches or a bag of chopped-up fruit and veg. If I'm lazy or disorganised, it will be a muesli bar (I know, not much better than a chocolate bar.) If I'm totally disorganised or running late - ie most of the time these days - it will be a packet of plain biscuits or breadsticks from the Co-op on the way to or from school.

No you are. Was glad to hear your dcs come out of school happy. DD is a hearty eater but of the wrong things. Her food repertoire is so limited despite me offering her a variety of good home cooked things.

peanut butter sandwiches. that's a good idea.

There you are, pb sarnies always good.

I guess I've never done the snack thing because as I say we ofetn have to be eating tea at 4.30-5pm anyway. DD used to have Rainbows at 4.45pm and she couldn't go through to 5.45 on no tea.

If you are eating at 6.30 then a 3.30 snack is prob a fine idea.

When dd started school she had school dinners - thought it would be easier for me for one thing - had a newborn and presumed she would only need a snack-type meal in the evening then so I wouldn't need to make her a dinner for a specific time (dh was often working in the evening so not around to help out...)

Dd is a good eater and I'm pretty sure she ate her food at school - but she did really need a dinner in the evening as she was so hungry. I suspect the portions were quite small - she preferred salad to cooked veg and she said she was only allowed to have two slices of cucumber (she would freely have eaten loads). Don't know if things have changed since then but I wasn't happy with this so went to packed lunches...(which work out cheaper imo)