i don't make school lunches and i don't apologize for it.



my mom was pretty hardcore when it came to school lunches. we had two choices: either walk the two blocks home for lunch (old school days) or take the check to school every monday morning for hot lunch (which i learned later in life that she secretly preferred this one. duh.)


i am the same exact way with my girls, only harder core--they have one and only one choice: school lunch. they bring the school lunch calendar to me sometimes and complain that there is something that they are having on tuesday the 12th of never that they might DIE if they have to ingest it, but i always insist that there is gonna be something that they will find to like. bottom line.


i do this for two reasons: one, i am lazy and don't wanna have to hassle with making lunches and special things for them to eat. the school lunch ladies make a much more spectacular effort than i do, plus they actually have to THINK about what would be a little bit nutritious thrown in. secondly, i don't wanna enable my kids to be any more high maintenance than they are already. they are big enough to fend for themselves and figure out something to eat without me running down a special lunch to school every time they find out that there has been a switch up on the school lunch menu.

obviously the biggest reason i do is because i don't really excel in or enjoy the culinary arts and i choose to shine in other capacities. like party planning.  or present wrapping.

so when i saw these bento box lunches that japanese mothers make for their kids, i sighed and just happily wrote another check to keep for school lunches when they go back in august.....
















i think this is why the japanese and chinese culture only have one to two children per family. i'm exhausted already thinking about these.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm all about the school lunches too. I had the same philosophy as you with my first and she will eat whatever. My first always complains whenever I make a lunch for my middle child..."Mom, you never made me a lunch, you always told me I just had to eat it even if I didn't like it." I have gotten lazier with my parenting and it is giving me more work. I don't know how it is going to work out with my baby going to kindergarten this year. She eats nothing but chips and chocolate milk. NO JOKE! I have got to get a hold on the situation.

Holly H. said...

Pure and utter craziness! I take it one step further... my boys eat breakfast at school too. What can I say? They like it and SO DO I!

Holly H. said...

Ok wait, I have to admit that Tuesdays are 5 buck pizza day at our school and the boys HATE it! So, I give in a few times a month and make a freakin' sandwich! Peace out...

Hildie said...

Two children? You know the kids who get those meals have no siblings.

I am a homemade lunch mother. For several years my kids went to a school that did not have hot lunch, ever. You can't imagine the torture of that!!! Now they go to a school that does serve lunch every day. But old habits die hard. Plus, shelling out $8 per day just for lunch seems so expensive. I'm probably spending $7 per day making them. What's my deal?

Aimee said...

Yer a fun mom. We were never given lunch money, and we had to make our own lunches each morning. I had to scrape together my $0.50 allowance for weeks to afford a Mountain Dew and stick of Starbursts for lunch. And we walked uphill to school both ways... in the snow.

Jori said...

I wonder if anyone from Japan can adopt me. Those are some pretty sweet looking lunches.

tiburon said...

That is a little over the top. We are school lunchers too - except when they don't like what is being served - they get to pack their OWN! See, still none of the work - and less whining :)

Lesley said...

Holy crap. Way over the top!

Anonymous said...

Jake had to bring lunch to his pre-k class this year but I did make his lunch everyday. We didn't have a choice of school lunch and I don't mind but he's not getting this extravagent looking lunch everyday...that's over the top! I'll save those skills for my scrapbooking pages. ;)

However, while he is still little I'll keep on packing it so that I know he is getting good stuff!

simply kris said...

oh me oh my. i just kept scrolling! i don't understand why Jack, Luke and Katey's nutritious lunches of cold cereal are not up there!!! Maybe if I start using Alphabet's and we combine the noon meal with spelling bee prep, I can make the list of clever lunchers, too!

Christie said...

Are these moms serious? A teddy bear covered with a cheese blanket? I'd feel creepy eating something like that. They are cute too.

I'm the most uncreative person in the kitchen. I hate to cook, I'm not good at it, and I have no imagination. I can make about 3 things, and that's it.

Me and The Boys said...

who has the time for that? and who would eat it? Good ole PB&J...nothing better!(actually there is, but kids don't need to know that)

Amy said...

Okay... I have created one monster and probably two soo. My son, Jacks, is totally spoiked rotten. He willnot eat lunch if he has to eat school lunch... he is already so skinny that he could be taken away for malnutrition at any given moment... so I pack a lunch for him everyday. If I am out of bread or something I will actually run to Subway and take him a sandwich to school. I AM A HORRIBLE ENABLER! It is a good thing the school is just down the hill and subway is right across the street from the school. I know Meg won't eat school lunch if Jacks isn't... I am doomed! Thank goodness Mitch is in Middle school so has a the healthy lunch of funyuns and a soda... oh wait that was my middle school lunch.

Anonymous said...

You come up with the bestest blogs!!

I can go either way depending on what time of the month it is, how rich or poor I feel and what groceries I have and how much I want to argue with the troops that day!

I will admit that I HATE writing out $120 worth of lunch money checks each month, but I also HATE making lunches! Lukily, my youngest is now on to middle school and they don't think its COOL to take their lunch!

A tip...Landry worked in the lunch room and got ALL his lunches for free AND got paid a wage!!! He LOVEd it and so did my checking account!! It's a HOT ticket at our middle school, so you gotta be quick to sign up!!

rachel said...

I don't mind packing a lunch for my one child...maybe he would actually eat it if it looked anything like these masterpieces!

Stephanie M said...

I think I've been TOTALLY ousted in the food art dept!!! :) I can't compete.

Super Happy Girl said...

AH, for shame!

Pedaling said...

whoa, slow down...

hoLLy said...

there are some moms out there that have waaaay too much time on their hands. waaaaaay. i have aubrey buy a school lunch two days a week, the other days i make her stuff. nothing fancy though, just the basics from me! school lunch is just so expensive-otherwise i'd do it everyday too!

Mia said...

Those bento boxes are so over the top! I have to make my babe a lunch because they don't offer lunch at her preschool, but no way that will continue when she gets to elementary... I hope.

Omgirl said...

Am I crazy or just inexperienced? Because I'm excited about making my kids their lunches when they get to be school aged. Maybe because my mom's idea of making me lunch was to make a batch of peanut butter and honey sandwiches once a month and put them in the freezer. Then I would grab one and throw it in a brown paper bag (or ziplock of we were out of brown paper) along with a piece of fruit that would smash my sandwich and get thrown away in the end anyway. Lame. So I promise to do better for my kids. At least for the first year. Then maybe I'll be singing the lunchlady tune.

{Annie N.} said...

K those are too cute to eat.

Ida said...

Richie the hubby was very found of bento boxes as a kiddie. My kids are spoiled no school lunches for them. But I am not super mom they will not have octopus shaped jello or cheese blanketed bears.