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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-06-2007 @ 2:20PM
Hillary said...
Hehe, I'm not a mother but this reminds me of myself. I was one of those obnoxious kids apparently and now I realize what I put my mother through! And the funny thing is, I'm 22 now, and I still can't figure out what I want for lunch at work. I find myself going out to eat a lot; I guess the kid in me hasn't grown up yet.
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9-06-2007 @ 7:58PM
Adriane said...
Oh, the woes of school lunch. Although not a mother, I too recall the lunch struggle. If I even got a bagged lunch at all (as apposed to money for school lunch) it was a measly sandwich and maybe a piece of fruit like a banana (no cut wedges, nada). It always was such a bummer to see friends pull out wedges of orange, chips, desserts, fun drinks- oh and lunchables! Sigh. haha!
Finally my parents gave up for good and sent me with money for school lunch through most of elementary and all of high school. Luckily the meals weren't too scary. In general I didn't mind buying--I certainly do miss the days of 6 cent milk and homemade apple betty for 25 cents. Funny how we remember certain things so vividly!
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9-07-2007 @ 4:26AM
Christy said...
This made me laugh out loud!
We struggle with my 10 year old everyday. She completely stresses out over what to eat. It's just crazy.
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9-07-2007 @ 6:10AM
Julian said...
i'm so glad i was never a fussy eater, there were maybe two or three things i wouldn't eat as a kid and my mum ownedd a restaurant so i got weird leftovers a lot, yes i got teased, but most of the time i was happy
and it worked, off to uni in a week and already planning and packing my own bentos!
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9-07-2007 @ 3:13PM
jsmylie said...
I'm ashamed to recall all the perfectly-good bag lunches I threw away in fifth grade in favor of Campbell's soup and a coke bought from the vending machines. A child's mind is a strange place...
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9-09-2007 @ 12:18PM
arasmus2 said...
My mom stopped making my lunch in 3rd grade when friend of mine told her that he makes his own lunch and does his own laundry....therefore I should too! For a few years my school had a hot lunch program and then they got rid of it so it was sandwiches or leftovers from dinner the night before. In high school it was different. I would almost never bring lunch and I would just end up going out and buying lunch. We smuggled one of those commercial tombstone pizza makers into the Senior lounge my senior year and we all ate frozen pizza about 5 days a week. I look back now and realize how much money I wasted paying for all of my own lunches in high school, I wish I had my mom now to pay for all my food at college.
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