I thought with the beginning of the school year quickly approaching, now would be a good time to re-visit a back-to-school post from days past, originally published October, 2008.
Every morning it is the same old routine around here. I get up way earlier than Id really like to, make the excruciating decision between getting my caffeine fix from half a pot of coffee or go the quicker route of grabbing an icy cold Diet Coke from the fridge, and get on with the business of packing lunches for my school-bound children.
Once I read about a mother who organizes her pantry with special bins, each containing a type of food to put in a childs lunchbox. I am not that mother.
First, my pantry is much too small for over-sized totes filled only with enough snacky items for a weeks worth of lunches and even if it were I think I could come up with about a thousand other items (cough, Pepperidge Farm Cookies, cough, cough) to fill my shelves. Second, I am just not that organized. Did I mention that I have a small pantry?
Instead, I look in the general area (and I use the term area loosely, as sometimes the areas of my non-organized pantry blend into one another, making them completely indistinguishable from each other) of the carbohydrate section and decide on a bread with which to make the sandwiches for the day. White or wheat? White or wheat? These are tough decisions.
Then, I rest for a minute and drink my caffeine.
After I am a little more alert, I check the deli drawer for fresh meat and decide whether today will be a turkey and havarti day or a peanut butter and jelly day. You just never know in my house. When the sandwiches are made, it is time to check the fruit situation (and no, fruit snacks even the really, really good ones, dont count).
This could go one of two ways. Either a fresh fruit item, like a banana or cut up apple, will make its way to the lunchboxes or something resembling real fruit, like a fruit cup, will be the choice of the day. I know, it is a highly complex form of decision making that only the inside of my head can determine and is greatly influenced by how quickly that aforementioned caffeine has made its way into my bloodstream.
On to the extras part of the lunch building task and this is even more complex, dont say I didnt warn you!
Granola bars, fruit leathers, crackers, popcorn, nuts, pretzels . . . how does one choose? I like to close my eyes and grab the first two items that my hand lands on.
I told you it was complex.
After adding a dairy item, like yogurt or a string cheese, the lunches are almost complete. . .
Drinks!
I forgot drinks! I race down to the refrigerator in the garage, where we keep all the beverages. I make yet another difficult choice between water, apple juice or the sports drink du jour in todays case, Gatorade, which is an excellent choice as long as my sons do not suck their entire mouths into the spout while drinking it thus giving themselves a semi-permanent blue stain around their lips for the remainder of the school day. This is especially fun when it is picture day.
Add a napkin, a cold pack and zip it up. Voila! Lunch is done, and it only took me 10 minutes! 10 minutes that I could have spent sleeping, but there are no lengths to a mothers love and the need to pack a nutritious lunch for her offspring, each and every day.
Now, lets just hope they eat what I packed and do not trade their entire lunch for one Ding Dong.
What are your time saving tips for packing lunches for school-aged children? Do you have a system, or do you just wing it like I do? Id love to hear your strategy! And if youre the mother with the bins, I dont even want to hear about it, okay? (said with a smile because secretly Im totally jealous of those bins)
Carrie can be found hanging out at her personal blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving! where she is kept busy wrangling three kids, one goofy Aussie, and her very own firefighter. She can be bribed with lattes and offers to do her laundry. Please send column suggestions to carrieb at seattle mom blogs dot com.
I have one bin. Is that ok? I keep everything I need in there from the paperbags (my teens won’t carry a lunchbox anymore) to the baggies, drinks (they can drink it warmish)fruit cups, pretzels…everything but the fresh stuff.
Now, if I were really organized, I would pack lunch the night before. Or even a whole slew of sandwiches stocked in the freezer. Instead I do it every morning in between swigs of caffine just like you do. (does that make up for my one bin?)
There is a really easy way to solve your problem. Ask the kids what they want to bring that day (or the night before) and include that. You can require that there be one fruit, one snack, one drink, one sandwhich, but the rest is up to them-like pretzels or fruit leather (shudder).
It also helps if you don’t HAVE a lot of choices-like only ham or turkey that week, or only pretzels or crackers.
My 4th grader has been brought up this way and it’s solved the problem of her not eating what she brings or trading it away (well, most days). Recently, she’s decided to make her own lunches and she’s gone right along choosing the fruit or veggie, sandwhich, etc. and not a lunchbox full of snacks.
And teens are just left to their own devices. Young people old enough to take the Metro to school and hold down jobs do not need their lunches made for them. My older daughter bought her lunch almost everyday anyhow, or they’d pitch in for pizza or something. But seriously, at some point you have to let them do some of the work of caring for themselves. This was one of my lines in the sand. It also meant that she never complained about what I packed.
Okay, let me start by saying, please don’t hate me for my ten extra minutes of sleep.
Okay, in this house, from first grade on, the kids make their own lunches. Yes, my six year old make his own lunch. And it’s a healthy one too. He makes peanut butter and honey sandwiches, slices apples, adds organic chocolate milk, throws in dried fruit or a yogurt or even heats up (with help from his sister) soup in the microwave and puts it in a thermos. I occasionally spot check.
Call it teaching responsibility and making healthy food choices at a young age. Call it laziness. It works. My twelve year old has been doing it for almost seven years and his sister has been doing it for four.
Sometimes for pure economics, I’ll give them menus so food items with limited shelf lives get used up first or they move out of their comfort zone and pack cherry tomatoes or fresh pomegranate instead of a whole carrot or orange smiles. They have a variety of healthy choices from dried blueberries, hummus and broccoli, salads, wraps, cheese sticks, red bell peppers, left over curry, etc. I do admit that they have more adventurous palates than the average kids.
They also make their own breakfast.
I like the reassurance that if I and their father dies, they wouldn’t starve or eat each other. Really, being competitive swimmers with a mom with weight issues, I want to teach them to fuel their bodies and listen to what it needs rather than my childhood of making sure I ate all my mother packed.
They’ve quickly learned if they pack too little, they’ll be hungry. They pack too much, they’ll be eating that food item stale the next day. They’ve learned to eat perishable items first like that grapefruit cup, yogurt, or string cheese.
They’ve got all the control. I only step in if I find my pre-teen not putting in enough fresh fruits and veggies.
Now, if I could only teach them to clean up their rooms better. Their rooms are health hazards…
I loathe packing lunches. Luckily, my daughters have always liked to pack their own lunches. This year I’ve been especially lucky as lunch for my new middle schooler is included in tuition! Yippee! As for my 4th grader, I bought her a laptop lunch box and she packs it the night before. Good luck and I feel for you.
laptoplunches.com. That solved the lunchbox issue. My kids love these things! And I haven’t had to worry about running out of plastic bags and whatnot…
When I go shopping for school lunch stuff, I always ask my kids what are some things they would like. That way they have a say in what is packed. But I only give them a few options (you can pick out two different fruits/veg or two different crackers, etc.). Because of the limited space in their boxes, they have to decide if they will have the fruit leather or the whole grain crackers. And whatever they don’t eat at school, they must eat when they come home from school as their snack.
I do make their lunches…but that is because I like to hit that snooze button. I make the lunches while the kiddos eat breakfast.
I like Scout’s regime though…have them make their own lunches…then I could eat breakfast…;)
I am soooo not a morning person and find it incredibly painful to try to think up lunch ideas or (God forbid!) actually make a lunch in the morning. My son is pretty much a PB&J every day kind of guy, and Uncrustables would be a great option if they weren’t so unhealthy. (White bread, trans fats, ugghh!)
But since he seemed to love the taste of that thawed out sandwich, I decided to do a little taste test of my own. I made a PB&J on whole grain bread with natural peanut butter, stuck it in the freezer and sent it to school with him the next day. He loved it!
Now when I make him a sandwich, I make about 4 or 5 at a time and stick the extras in reusable containers in the freezer. In the morning, I just pull one out and stick it in his lunch box. Everyone wins — he loves it and I don’t have to get my hands all sticky before I’ve had my coffee.
Ok. I love the comments from ”Scout’s honor” ‘give that some real thought! Wish I had thought of it, when (gasp) I was dealing with your lunches, mi hija. ;
xxxooomom
Ok. I love the comments from Scouts honor give that some real thought! Wish I had thought of it, when (gasp) I was dealing with your lunches, mi hija. ;
xxxooomom
Correction:
Ok. I love the comments from Scouts honor give that some real thought! Wish I had thought of it, when (gasp) I was dealing with your lunches, mi hija. ;
xxxooomom
Hey there, Carrie. I am looking for your number right now! I just read your article in the journal! Love it! Pre-teens downtown has always been a problem. I have two solutions…Ryan’s Solution, a non-profit group that has committed to eliminating all drug dealing and drug use in our schools. http://www.ryanssolution.com, we have an e-mail list at , we also have CORE seminars, this is a seminar for teens, adults and corporate. Our teen seminars are for ages 13-18 and focus on Courage, Ownership, Respect, and Empowerment. LEt’s get these little buggers in there….call me sometime