Friday, September 01, 2006

What's in your packed lunch box?


There are at least two Britains.

This is reinforced on a daily basis when reading the newspaper.


Parents pack focaccia and sushi in lunch boxes.

Where the bloody hell is this? Roughly two-thirds of my form group are entitled to free school meals. The other third are lucky if they get plastic ham slapped between two slices of doughy white bread.

I intend to ask them on their return next week what they think focaccia is. My bet is an STD. Any other offers?

4 comments:

Shep said...

The whole rigmarole of doing the kids' lunch boxes is a nightmare, but now hopefully has evened out. Both kids are fussy buggers, but the general format is...

* mini-tomatos/cut-up cucumber
* orange/apple
* yoghurt thing that looks like its in a tampon wrapper
* sandwich (ham or cheese)
* crisps
* weak squash (in flask)

They have school dinners once a week if it's something they like (we have a menu thing that we can consult over the term).

In truth the whole children/food thing is a huge fucking headache in the household. I was brought up that you eat everything on the plate, and at least try stuff before rejecting it. However, my dear partner has decided that, seeing as her childhood was marred with food problems, we must never tell the kids to eat up, or make them eat anything they didn't want, or make any fuss whatsoever if they leave most of dinner but want full pudding. This often results in having to make at least 3 different dinners at mealtime. I think this is...wrong. Cue those family arguments...!

Shep said...

Oh hang on, they have a penguin biscuit too. Just for the nostalgia.

ems said...

We only ever had school dinner at Christmas.

Sounds like we had a similar upbringing as far as food is concerned. You ate what you were given and you didn't leave the table until it was gone. The amount of times my sister was left there mournfully staring at her carrots... She makes her partner's son at least try what is on his plate.

I also seem to temember that mixing your baked beans and mashed potato together was considered playing with your food!

Ashley said...

A woman at my university did her thesis on the favorite meals of children around the world. It was evident in her thesis that she thought her findings were surprising. Most American, Canadian, British, and European children cited pizza as their favorite food. Interestingly, children in Mexico, Guatemala, and most of South America preferred tortillas y frijoles (flat bread and beans).

What she failed to realize is that the kids in Mexico and Central America had never eaten anything other than beans and tortillas.

As for what you and Shep have discussed here, I have noted that my sister feeds her child whatever the little princess requests. I think it's driven by working mother guilt. When we were children, we ate what we were served. Period.