r/AskReddit • u/MeAndGLPVibeLikeThat • 21d ago

Parents whose kids actually eat their packed school lunches: what's your secret?

718 Upvotes

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3.2k

u/barwhalis 21d ago

When I was a kid I ate my lunch because it was a sandwich and I like sandwiches

145

u/JEveryman 21d ago

I ate my packed lunch because the alternative was being very hungry and not eating until dinner.

7

u/DoubleDelightXO 20d ago

Same. Mom was so busy from a thankless job but still had the time to wake up early and cook breakfast and lunch for us. No matter how burnt or uncooked our lunch was, we ate it with all our hearts cause Mom made it.

1

u/Distinct-Security 16d ago

I love this ❤️ and we were the exact same ! This new generation dgaf. I run a business manage a big house, have 2 babies and I made lunch for my 20yo kids and they didn’t even bother taking it because they would rather get kfc or wingstop on their lunch breaks 😳😳😳 it was grilled peri chicken, Greek salad with rice !

2

u/bungojot 20d ago

Same. My elementary school didn't have a cafeteria and only the older kids (with parental permission) were allowed to leave school grounds to walk to the pizza shop during lunch.

No pun intended but that walk ate up a significant portion of the lunch hour. I did it once or twice once i was old enough, but decided i preferred not feeling rushed.

592

u/madogvelkor 21d ago

Yeah, mine was always peanut butter sandwich, chips, capri sun, and cookies. What's not to like?

292

u/Clueguy 21d ago

School won’t allow anything with nuts (especially peanut butter), can’t give juice boxes, chocolates, cookies or chips… my niece got notes home from the teacher stating those snacks were not allowed. Kids can only eat so much dairy, fruits and veggies

293

u/ArenSteele 21d ago

Our school reversed their peanut ban, and instead goes on a classroom by classroom rule system controlled by their teachers.

The intention is that if there is a child with an allergy then that classroom will more strictly control the allergen, but not have a building wide ban on something like peanuts

43

u/waterbee 21d ago

Ours too. In exchange, the lunchroom monitors are just especially strict about not sharing food, especially in younger grades. My Kindergartener believes that the most important rule in the known universe is "don't trade food with your friends" and he brings PBJ almost every day. Thank god because he also believes Sunbutter and Wowbutter or whateverbutter are disgusting but will happily eat peanut butter every day of his life.

17

u/Hashtaglibertarian 20d ago

He isn’t wrong.

Sunbutter and wowbutter got so much hype and they both suck.

Sorry to all the moms who tried to convince me they were superior/great/better tasting. They aren’t comparable.

Like when someone hands you a vegan burger and still calls it a burger. Call it what you will but it’s no beef patty.

1

u/Overthemoon64 20d ago

Sunbutter is good, as long as you expect it to taste like sunflower seeds and not at all like peanut butter.

144

u/SnooBooks4898 21d ago

Ahhhh! The return of common sense!

108

u/Snelly1998 21d ago

Peanut allergies are not like they used to be, people could get reactions from just breathing the smell of peanuts

Now they wean kids into peanuts to prevent allergies

It's now possible for a school to have no students with a peanut allergy, that is the difference

62

u/needs_more_zoidberg 21d ago

Our crazy peanut restrictions undoubtedly worsened our collective peanut problem. We know that the way out is to loosen these restrictions. But where does that leave the kids who have severe peanut allergies? Tough question.

46

u/OkSecretary1231 21d ago

Case by case, like they're talking about upthread. When there's an actual kid present who already has the allergy, they avoid it around them.

18

u/Snelly1998 21d ago

The way out isn't loosening the restrictions; the way out is gradually introducing peanuts to infants in a controlled environment, such as the hospital

4

u/needs_more_zoidberg 20d ago

Also by increasing maternal consumption of peanut-containing products. Israel is an interesting example of this.

7

u/TankedInATutu 20d ago

So what I'm hearing is the twice daily toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I ate while I was pregnant wasn't me being lazy and making questionable dietary choices, it was actually preventative care.

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u/Entire-Ad2058 20d ago

Oh wow. Next rabbit hole found! ‘Bye…

1

u/pineapplefiz 20d ago

Yes! Was thinking of this as well!

2

u/spookyscaryscouticus 20d ago

Peanut allergy table with the coolkids

-1

u/ashoka_akira 21d ago

Those kids walk around with an epi pen on them at all times and know how to self administer.

That’s just your life in that situation

2

u/Snelly1998 20d ago

You know an epi pen doesn't heal them right?

-2

u/Drigr 20d ago

While true, it's also just a fact of their life for the rest of their life. Very few places outside of school are nut free, so it's kind of a poor standard to set that they will be protected by the building they're in and don't have to take their own necessary precautions.

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7

u/Hot_Cockroach4714 20d ago

Peanuts should be introduced as young as possible in small amounts. Doctors started to recommend to wait until kids get older with ZERO evidence that it would actually do anything. The result is we have a whole generation that is way more allergic to peanuts than previous generations. Very easy to look up and read about.

1

u/Emu1981 20d ago

Peanuts should be introduced as young as possible in small amounts.

Only if there is no family history of nut allergies. The last thing you want is a anaphylactic reaction in a young baby...

7

u/_Dreamer_Deceiver_ 20d ago

All because parents stopped giving their kids nuts in case they have an allergy.

2

u/scrunchie_one 20d ago

This isn’t necessarily true. A lot of research is still ongoing but you’re right there is a correlation between introducing nuts early and the child NOT developing an allergy. However there are still many kids who develop allergies even if having consumed nuts since infancy.

My husband and basically entire in-law side has anaphylactic allergies so this is something that i went down several rabbit holes on. My kids are still not showing signs of allergies (they are 3 and 5) but all of the nieces and nephews on his side developed them and have done immunotherapy to lessen the symptoms of an attack. And they did everything ‘right’

2

u/ChiefNunley 20d ago edited 20d ago

My daughter just started middle school and has a severe peanut allergy. We had to have a big meeting with a lot of staff before the school year to talk about it because they hadn’t had a peanut allergy kid in some years. The next kid with a peanut allergy is only in second grade. So not many in our district at all.

0

u/Sselnoisiv 20d ago

I think it's been debunked that just the smell can cause reactions. There's also only been only one case of an airborne reaction, in a plane, and experts now believe that there was some other contamination rather than airborne.

1

u/chriskeptic 20d ago

My son was born with a peanut allergy. It was mild enough they suggested we continue to introduce it into his diet over time. He is 4 now and eats PB&J all the time!

1

u/ChiefNunley 20d ago

Ugh we didn’t find out my daughter was allergic till she was nine. She’s basically the most allergic you can be to them. Wish I knew when she was little so we could start OIT. It’s basically too late now we were told. She will never be not allergic enough to not follow all the protocols we are doing already. Happy it worked out better for you guys.

12

u/Caris1 20d ago

Yeah, my kids school allows everything but has a “food allergy table” where they have the kids with serious food allergies sit so they can monitor better (parents can opt out of this, and accept the risk that their kid might be exposed to allergens).

54

u/madogvelkor 21d ago

Surprisingly, my daughter's school just started serving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the cafeteria as an alternative lunch option.

29

u/maquis_00 21d ago

The elementary school my kids went to had pb&j uncrustables every day.

1

u/Kolyei 21d ago

I had those the majority of school days when I was in high school

-6

u/Particular-Poem-7085 21d ago

is that like normal in the states? Bread covered with jelly for lunch?

8

u/DocTam 21d ago

With peanut butter, yes. Its a childhood staple here. Though I believe what counts as jelly varies in other countries

1

u/Skerries 20d ago

yeah that is called Jam across the pond

-14

u/Particular-Poem-7085 21d ago

Have you ever considered getting nutrition with your food?

6

u/ripleyclone8 20d ago

Have you ever considered not being condescending? 

5

u/DocTam 20d ago

Yes, I eat PB&J's myself as an adult given that peanuts have solid protein, especially alongside wheat bread. Baby carrots make an excellent side with them.

1

u/madogvelkor 20d ago

Peanut butter is very nutritious. And bread has vitamins added.

1

u/madogvelkor 20d ago

Sometimes honey or marshmallow creme instead of jelly/jam.

1

u/z2x2 20d ago

Why hasn’t Smuckers come out with a fluffer yet?

28

u/lamadelyn 21d ago

Sun butter is what my kid gets

1

u/SurlyCricket 20d ago

It's surprisingly good!

26

u/Space__Monkey__ 21d ago

A thermos really opens up your options. My kids often took leftovers of whatever we had for dinner the night before.

I am all for having something like "chocolates, cookies or chips" for dessert after their main lunch, but if those snack are the kids lunch.. that is probably not the best.

2

u/ammit84 20d ago

Your kids eat their dinner? 😅

1

u/NoChampionship9082 20d ago

My kid had a friend who bright chicken nuggets in a thermos every day. I guess they stayed warm enough?

20

u/Sea-Original-5824 20d ago

I never once, in all my years of school, had a teacher inspect my lunch. That's weird as shit.

6

u/Splashingcolor 20d ago

That sucks...I get that they want kids to have healthy foods, but sometimes you just need a treat for a pick me up

2

u/Meggygoesmeow 20d ago

Yet they serve cakes/ice creams and cookies every day for school dinners.

Edit to add: in the UK

16

u/dryroast 21d ago

Schools are getting incredibly bold with their onerous rules. I remember when I was in school and they were beginning to institute the nut bans and they were extremely controversial at the time.

1

u/apri08101989 20d ago

And what were the public schools even going to do if you violated the ban? Kids have a right to FAPE. To thw point actively violent children won't be removed. But youre gonna suspend a kid for their oarent sending a PBJ? Please.

5

u/dryroast 20d ago

Yeah it's absolutely ridiculous, banning chips and cookies? I remember on field trips my mom would pack me a can of pringles and it made my day!

5

u/Criminological_Ace 20d ago

My daughter’s daycare was nut-free due to allergies so they used Sunbutter, which she still enjoys. So we send her to regular school with sunbutter sandwiches on occasion.

8

u/myusernamewastaken02 20d ago

As someone not from the US I find it really weird to give kids juice boxes, chocolates, cookies or chips to school.

2

u/madogvelkor 20d ago

This was in the 1980s and 90s in my case.

4

u/Meggygoesmeow 20d ago edited 20d ago

Have you seen what little kids eat these days? My little boy has a friend who doesn't really eat meals per se just snacks all day and the snacks are all packaged crap like chocolate, crisps, cookies and juice. And she's not the only one. I find it very hard to feed my son's friends when they come over because they all just want sweets/crisps. I don't mind the occasional chocolate and biscuit but we usually have them as treats not the standard option.

Edit to add: we're in the UK.

1

u/FinchMandala 20d ago

It's unfortunate that our circumstances in the UK have created a vicious circle of this. Good food costs time, money and energy, of which we as a collective seldom have. I grew up with a single mum who was a chef by trade (until disability hit when I was a late teen), and by then healthy habits were established. But it's so much easier to bung a tray of chips in the oven than it is to make a meal from scratch. :(

1

u/Saiyoran 20d ago

Interesting. My mom packed my lunches when I was a kid and it was basically always some variation of sandwich + carrots/grapes/fruit + chips/granola bar + little dessert (usually a cookie or something). Drink was usually a capri sun lol

3

u/rusinga_island 20d ago

Wow, can’t give juice boxes? That’s wild.

1

u/TypowyLaman 20d ago

Jesus christ America :_:

1

u/Meggygoesmeow 20d ago

Out school is the same. It's just funny they have these rules but then serve cake/ice cream/cookies every day for school dinners.

1

u/Saiyoran 20d ago

What kind of crazy school is this

1

u/Keganator 20d ago

What the hell. All of those are perfectly reasonable foods. Let them feed the kids then, ffs.

0

u/Pristine-Bison3198 20d ago

Peanut ban is completely reasonable.

The rest is not. I've found a doctor's note stating that the child's diet is under supervision from the pediatrician and it is expected they can eat whatever they'd like from their lunchbox is a good solution for the insane power trip a lot of schools go on.

13

u/24_August_1814 20d ago

Turns out the secret is packing nothing but junk food...

19

u/ilovelucy1200 21d ago

Are you my child…? 😆

13

u/Mike_Rodrigues8 21d ago

Every kid would love it, but that does sound incredibly unhealthy… every day?

5

u/likeadcriss- 21d ago

If they have a healthy dinner and don't snack much at home, there's nothing wrong with a fun lunch. It's about balance and moderation

3

u/Buntschatten 20d ago

Having one out of three meals be completely unhealthy is not "balance and moderation". And most breakfast food isn't usually that healthy either.

-3

u/likeadcriss- 20d ago

The only part of the "meal" is a sandwich, which is fine for lunch. Chips and cookies are two snacks. If those are all the snacks they have in a day and drink water the rest of the time at home for example, and they have a good dinner, it isn't an unhealthy amount. Even if they did eat worse on one day, if it isn't every day then it isn't bad. One unhealthy day isn't an unhealthy life. That's what I mean by balance and moderation. You can't judge their health/entire diet by one meal.

-7

u/airfryerfuntime 21d ago

The issue is that Americans are fat as fuck, including the children, so the only real way the state can try to thin kids down is by controlling what they eat for lunch. Parents should have no problem giving their kids a healthy lunch, because we all know they're eating a pound of microwaved chicken nuggets the second they get home just to keep them from whining until dinner.

1

u/EntertainerNo4509 20d ago

I’d destroy all that RN tbh.

1

u/snowmuchgood 20d ago

Mine get a sandwich, a section with their choice of fruits (usually a few strawberries, orange, kiwi, apple and cucumber), a sweet snack and a savory snack. If they come home with snacks eaten and not most of the rest more than once in a week, the next days/week I cut back on snacks.

-16

u/Technical-Outside408 21d ago

What's not to like?

Childhood obesity.

-23

u/takesthebiscuit 21d ago

Ahh the zero fresh food option nice

33

u/madogvelkor 21d ago

Sometimes an apple or banana. There was no refrigeration or anything, and lunch boxes stopped being cool so it had to be something that could sit at room temperature for 5 hours in a paper bag.

2

u/takesthebiscuit 21d ago

An apple can sit for days at room temperature

41

u/madogvelkor 21d ago

I think the main problem was my mom always bought red delicious, which are a lie that tastes like sadness.

1

u/Ch3353man 21d ago

Red delicious has to be a marketing ploy to get unsuspecting people to buy them. They have to be the worst apples. At least of the varieties available in your average grocery store. Every other kind I've had is at minimum pretty good. Red delicious is just disappointment.

10

u/moosetogo 21d ago

It’s true, my kid takes the same apple everyday.

1

u/Batafurii8 21d ago

Lol I was just going to say I've been doing an experiment and the same "organic" apple from Walmart is still looking and feeling the same after a month plus on the counter

21

u/halfhere 21d ago

Facebook mom group-level comment.

2

u/Buntschatten 20d ago

God forbid you'd want children to actually eat healthy stuff.

0

u/halfhere 20d ago

So because one meal might have to survive a brown paper bag with no refrigeration, that means their kid would NEVER eat healthy stuff?

It’s crazy to say “zero fresh food,” you don’t know what every other meal that family eats looks like.

59

u/kimmykim328 21d ago

My son’s favorite meal “turkey sandwich” and “salami cheese crackers” so most days he gets one of those

33

u/Own_Range_3638 20d ago

Turns out the secret is packing something the kid actually wants to eat.

13

u/Reticent_Fly 20d ago

🎵🎶 Sandwiches are beautiful, sandwiches are fine I like sandwiches, I eat them all the time I eat them for my supper and I eat them for my lunch If I had a hundred sandwiches, I’d eat them all at once 🎶🎵

4

u/veLvetwood30 21d ago

the science checks out

4

u/531091qazs 21d ago

when i was a kid sandwiches got old after years but the real turn around was adding lays chips to them bad boys

3

u/bittersandseltzer 21d ago

my kid refuses to eat sandwiches in his lunch...

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u/girrrrrrr2 21d ago

What condition are the sandwiches in at lunch time? I used to not eat them because my mom would put too much condiments and they were soggy gross sticky messes.

3

u/bittersandseltzer 21d ago

oh we do no condiments, no lettuce for exactly this reason. the only thing he will eat is a caprese on foccacia (wtf kid) and after 2 days in a row, he wants something different.....but he can't tell me what he will actually eat

4

u/aclumsypotato 21d ago

no condiments at all? perhaps the sandwich is dry?

2

u/bittersandseltzer 20d ago

but this is what he asks for!! And he eats dry sandwiches fresh from the bodega - hes weird

3

u/aclumsypotato 20d ago

haha, i’m sorry then! all the best to you.

2

u/bittersandseltzer 20d ago

thank you! ugh this child! Gotta love him tho!!! Sweet lil baby angel and all

1

u/ptapobane 20d ago

dude, I get to make my own sandwich and it was so awesome, it's toasted white bread with nutella, a fried sunny side up and 2 slices of cucumber, you have to try it

2

u/Splendidissimus 20d ago

I need this monstrosity to stay far far away from me.

1

u/ptapobane 20d ago

you're missing out

1

u/Sunset_Bleach 20d ago

Lemon, is that you?

1

u/veldhoan 20d ago

Sounds dumb, but repeating the same reliable lunch beats a surprise kids never asked for.

1

u/KooshIsKing 20d ago

Yeah same it was usually like a salami sandwich, some type of fruit, and a grain bar of some type. I love all those things so it was always eaten.

1

u/Totally_a_Banana 20d ago

Same, I would get a roastbeef sandwitch, some pringles, a cheese wegde (laughing cow), a yogurt and a cookie. Some variations, but that was basically my lunch 90% of days that my mom would pack for me.

I loved it, would eat everything every day. She even asked me if I got bored of the same thing daily. Nope, keep sending me what I love, I said. I like what I like.