To Pack Lunch or Take Lunch Money?

Elementalmage

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Personally I'm for preparing a healthy lunchbox for my family when they go to school and work but sometimes the kids plead to have the optioon of lunch money instead. But then that day they buy things that are certainly delicious but not nutritional at all, such as junk food. Is it ok to let this slide once in a while?
 
I wouldn't let it slide more than a couple times a month, but that is my personal opinion. From what I have heard of school lunches, they are seriously lacking in nutrients and very processed. I would not want my children to develop a taste for this kind of "food" It makes me very, very sad that so many children are dependent on this to even have something to eat for lunch. I think a simple peanut butter sandwich and a piece of fruit is probably much healthier than what they would get at the school.
 
It's OK to let it slide once in a while - keep lunch money as a back up option for when time is short. They won't realise this but you are doing them a massive favour by making healthy lunches. Keep this in mind and don't give in to frequent demands!
 
It's OK to let it slide once in a while - keep lunch money as a back up option for when time is short. They won't realise this but you are doing them a massive favour by making healthy lunches. Keep this in mind and don't give in to frequent demands!

I tend to agree with you on this Missibishi. They really might not realise but it's a great act when we limit their exposure to the junk and prepare them some healthy FUN lunches. I still believe that eating should be fun though so I encourage careful planning to accomplish this. About a year or so ago I was baby sitting for my nephew and when his then girlfriend brought my nephew over I was so impressed with the lunch box she had prepared. It was a perfectly balanced meal and when I saw my nephew devour that broccoli and carrot on the plate I was thrilled.
 
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School lunches are generally gross and this has not changed since we were kids. I went to lunch for a parent day at my kids schools on a couple of occassions, and the food was barely eatable. I pack our lunches 95% of the time and reserve lunch money for those rare occassions in which we just do not have time that day to make lunches. My son does not like eating the cafeteria food at all and will get upset when he actually has to take lunch money to school. It is much more cost effective as well to pack your own lunch.
 
Primary schools near to me are strict on diet ,they check packed lunches ,children under 7 get free hot meals by law ,my boys are year 10 and 11 they take packed meals as lunch is late and they graze through out the day and hot food ques are long but food is good and balanced ,school food is well managed,even comp schools have their food managed by consultancy teams in my region
 
I wouldn't say that all school lunches are pure junk food. It depends on the school your kids go to. Anyway, if you really don't have time to make lunch then I wouldn't let school lunches bother you too much. Most kids hate school food so they wouldn't get used to it or anything.
 
Why not get them involved in packing their own lunches - give them a set of healthy options and let them choose which ones they like the best. Perhaps there are just some things they don't like or have a taste for yet. I remember one time I spent the night at a friends house, and his mom made my lunch for me that morning - my folks must have told her that I pretty much eat peanut butter and jelly every day for lunch - but she instead made me some orange jam, no salt no sugar natural peanut butter, on some sort of rye bread. These days I would eat something like that, but as a kid I was like "what the hell?" and miserable with it at lunch. I think I ended up hitting the vending machines that day instead with what little change I had.

The school lunches when I was in school in the 80's were basically just TV dinners in foil containers that they would bake in large quantities and serve with a small carton of milk. Most of the time they were pretty gross but once in a while they looked good. We also had a bit of a treat though on Fridays since my grade school (it was Catholic) would sell home made pizza's on those days, along with "pizza fritta's" or fried dough tossed in sugar. So instead, for lunch we would each get a half of a 12 inch pizza. Or you could just buy two slices for yourself, but most of us went with the half pizza, lol.
 
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