I think there is a certain sense of relief parents feel when their children return to school in September. No more worrying about how the kids are going to fill their days, no more dealing with babysitters or shuttling them to and from summer camps. Life simply returns to normal. However, it seems that somewhere over the long, hot summer months we tend to forget the day-to-day dilemmas of our kids being back in school, and for me that always means once again dealing with what to send for lunches.
When my daughter was in kindergarten or elementary school it was easy - I packed pretty little sandwiches, a piece of fruit, a juice box and a small treat. She never questioned or complained about what I sent. To be honest, she probably gave it very little thought - she was fed, and that was all that mattered. In junior high / middle school though, that all changed.
Over the past few years we went through what I like to call the various stages of brown-bag hell, and though not every one of the items below specifically happened to my family, these are all true stories from either my daughter, her friends, or from my own personal experience. I'm sure at least some of these will sound familiar to the parents out there, and if you have younger kids, this is what you may have to look forward to in the coming years:
- They no longer like sandwiches and refuse to eat them
- They are also sick and tired of bagels, cinnamon rolls, and muffins
- We threaten that if they don't like what we make, they can make their own or go without
- They choose to go without, so we cave and start packing lunches again just to make sure they get food in their system
- Everyone else is bringing Lunchables - why can't they?
- After a while, we begin sending sandwiches for lack of any better ideas
- We find out they are just throwing said sandwiches into the garbage once they get to school and are going without lunch again
- We start sending money so they can buy something at the school cafeteria / tuck shop / school store
- We find out they aren't spending the money on food anyways. Slurpee's, perhaps, but not actual food
- They are all of a sudden on the 'diet of the week' and can't eat any of the food that is in our fridge
- Everyone else is bringing sushi - why can't they?
- We take them to the grocery store, tell them to pick out what they want, and they still can't decide on anything. The phrase "how am I supposed to know what I am going to want Tuesday at noon" is stated
- We finally give up. They finally get hungry. And what do they pack? A sandwich, of course.
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