Teacher criticized my kid's lunch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My K came home and told me how her teacher told her that her lunch was "unhealthy" and that she needs to eat more fruits and veggies at lunch. She then turned to my older kid and said "I hope your lunch is healthier"

Now I will say, she is right. Lunch was a homemade PBJ, GoGurt, some crackers and a Welch's fruit snack packet. I hadn't really realized that this is, in fact, all processed food. So, the good news is that I am now aware an will be packing fruit/veggie.

But...wtf teach? Seems odd that she would say something like that to my kids.

Didn't read all 15 pages of responses, but it is way better than the hot lunches that are served. French fries and slurpees count as "fruits and vegetables". My kids tell me potatoes are "always" on as a vegetable because that's what 95% of kids will eat. So I would not let this bother me in the least.

I don't know. I take the same information and get to radically different, if somewhat more work, conclusions: if schools serve disgusting unhealthy food, then someone, presumably families, need to offer healthy appetizing food. Alternatively, if families find that it is just not logistically feasible because of work and commute hours, they could choose to lobby for schools to offer healthier appetizing foods, e.g. by pressuring the current vendor to do so, or switching vendors. But just because dcps offers slushies and french fries, doesn't make it ok for parents to offer gogurt and candy.

[Anonymous]

Op- I haven't read all the comments. Fwiw I'm a vegetarian bordering vegan (eggs I can't quit you)- I'm religious about what kind of foods I put in my body. However I read your post and regardless of what was in the lunch it was none of the teachers business. I'd be pissed and sorry this happened to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a super-picky eater with food allergies. His lunch is about getting calories in him to get him through the day. It is mostly cracker-based. I'd be really annoyed if a teacher said something to me!

Me too, my dd's lunch is trader joe's jasmine rice with soy sauce on the side, goldfish crackers and a baggie of lucky charms with a water bottle. Nothing nutritious there, but if I put in fruits and veggies, she won't eat them anyway. I think she will eat some of this stuff. She is in 3rd grade, and I am sure her teacher won't go peeking in the kid's lunch boxes.

[Anonymous]

You know how it could be worse? You could be in Canada http://www.weightymatters.ca/2013/11/parents-fined-for-not-sending-ritz.html ... or North Carolina http://www.nccivitas.org/2012/state-inspectors-searching-childrens-lunch-boxes-this-isnt-china-is-it/

Note that the Canadian parent had sent in a pretty much perfect lunch (leftover homemade roast beef and potatoes, carrots, an orange and some milk) and the North Carolina parent's was still better that our OP's (a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips).

And here's someone's opinion on the whole idea of schools "meddling in parents' home-packed lunches"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bettina-elias-siegel/schools-meddle-in-parents_b_4337744.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My K came home and told me how her teacher told her that her lunch was "unhealthy" and that she needs to eat more fruits and veggies at lunch. She then turned to my older kid and said "I hope your lunch is healthier"

Now I will say, she is right. Lunch was a homemade PBJ, GoGurt, some crackers and a Welch's fruit snack packet. I hadn't really realized that this is, in fact, all processed food. So, the good news is that I am now aware an will be packing fruit/veggie.

But...wtf teach? Seems odd that she would say something like that to my kids.

Didn't read all 15 pages of responses, but it is way better than the hot lunches that are served. French fries and slurpees count as "fruits and vegetables". My kids tell me potatoes are "always" on as a vegetable because that's what 95% of kids will eat. So I would not let this bother me in the least.

I don't know. I take the same information and get to radically different, if somewhat more work, conclusions: if schools serve disgusting unhealthy food, then someone, presumably families, need to offer healthy appetizing food. Alternatively, if families find that it is just not logistically feasible because of work and commute hours, they could choose to lobby for schools to offer healthier appetizing foods, e.g. by pressuring the current vendor to do so, or switching vendors. But just because dcps offers slushies and french fries, doesn't make it ok for parents to offer gogurt and candy.

My thought in writing this was - did the teacher go around and criticize all the children's lunches who bought them? I don't disagree with your other point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is cultural. Americans throw PG and J in their crappy brown paper bagged lunches and wonder why obesity is so rampant. Stop that crap and cook a real meal.

Try again. It is not 1970, people don't use brown paper bags or make PB and J on wonder bread. Like most Americans, I put my kids peanut butter sandwich (made on organic whole wheat bread with no sugar added peanut butter) in a BPA free plastic container and then in his $20 monogrammed Land's End lunch bag.

So you took out two piece of bread, opened a can of peanut butter, slopped it on the bread and put it in a container. Glad to see you take 1 minute out of your day to feed your child.

Hey, PP, sorry to burst your bubble, but you don't win any awards for feeding your child elaborate, healthy, home-cooked meals. Really, nobody in the world gives a fuck. If it helps you sleep at night, then great, but the rest of us are busy playing with or talking to our kids and not slaving behind the stove, cooking up a hefty serving of self-righteousness with a side of anorexia. You are a BORE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is the same kind of giving up that we read on here about cell phones in schools "eh, you can't really control anything kids do, so just do whatever parenting/schooling is convenient for the grown-ups." It's pathetic, because you actually can control all that. If you offer them good-tasting healthy food consistently from a young age, and don't give them a way out daily with "just one cookie" (that can give the calories of half the meal), or the "dessert food group", they will enjoy healthy food.

You do realize that "good-tasting" is subjective, right? We're a family of five, and we each have at least one food we find delicious and the others do not. Depending on when you catch them, my kids might bowl you over with the sophistication of their taste (lobster risotto) or my irresponsibility as a parent for letting them have certain things (Fruit Loops).

I was told by the pediatrician to capitulate more to my kid's preferences because he needed to learn to eat well, and you don't do that by making meals a battleground. I am happy to listen to him about how to feed my kids. I'll translate it as appropriate for them.

Unless the teacher is also an RD, she should stay out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op- I haven't read all the comments. Fwiw I'm a vegetarian bordering vegan (eggs I can't quit you)- I'm religious about what kind of foods I put in my body. However I read your post and regardless of what was in the lunch it was none of the teachers business. I'd be pissed and sorry this happened to you.

Thanks PP. I almost forgot that was pretty much the whole point of why I started this thread.

And like I said, I did change their lunches last week, so I guess maybe it was good she said something because I really just never thought about it, but she shouldn't have said it to my kids.

To be honest, I need to change my own eating habits, I'm envious of you that you are "religious" about what you put in your body. I recognize that and do want my kids to have better eating habits. I have gotten a lot out of this thread -surprisingly.

[Anonymous]

Test

[Anonymous]

My DCs' favorite lunch for school is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches (but at least it's with whole-grain white bread). I know it's not ideal, but it works for my busy schedule, and they're happy and thriving. I make sure to balance it out with something fruit leather to ensure that they get enough Vitamin C--that's important--and chocolate milk for antioxidants and some energy for those afternoon doldrums.

Sometimes it can be tough, as parents, for us to tread the delicate balance between feeding our little ones the healthiest possible choices and making sure that they are happy with what they're eating. If all I ever offered were celery sticks and hummus, the poor things simply wouldn't eat!!! I have to pick my battles, LOL!!

We should all focus more on supporting each other and less on judging. We're all doing our best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DCs' favorite lunch for school is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches (but at least it's with whole-grain white bread). I know it's not ideal, but it works for my busy schedule, and they're happy and thriving. I make sure to balance it out with something fruit leather to ensure that they get enough Vitamin C--that's important--and chocolate milk for antioxidants and some energy for those afternoon doldrums.

Sometimes it can be tough, as parents, for us to tread the delicate balance between feeding our little ones the healthiest possible choices and making sure that they are happy with what they're eating. If all I ever offered were celery sticks and hummus, the poor things simply wouldn't eat!!! I have to pick my battles, LOL!!

We should all focus more on supporting each other and less on judging. We're all doing our best.

))))

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DCs' favorite lunch for school is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches (but at least it's with whole-grain white bread). I know it's not ideal, but it works for my busy schedule, and they're happy and thriving. I make sure to balance it out with something fruit leather to ensure that they get enough Vitamin C--that's important--and chocolate milk for antioxidants and some energy for those afternoon doldrums.

Sometimes it can be tough, as parents, for us to tread the delicate balance between feeding our little ones the healthiest possible choices and making sure that they are happy with what they're eating. If all I ever offered were celery sticks and hummus, the poor things simply wouldn't eat!!! I have to pick my battles, LOL!!

We should all focus more on supporting each other and less on judging. We're all doing our best.

You're joking right? Someone please tell me that poster is joking.


I loved the OP's last post, though, heartwarming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DCs' favorite lunch for school is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches (but at least it's with whole-grain white bread). I know it's not ideal, but it works for my busy schedule, and they're happy and thriving. I make sure to balance it out with something fruit leather to ensure that they get enough Vitamin C--that's important--and chocolate milk for antioxidants and some energy for those afternoon doldrums.

Sometimes it can be tough, as parents, for us to tread the delicate balance between feeding our little ones the healthiest possible choices and making sure that they are happy with what they're eating. If all I ever offered were celery sticks and hummus, the poor things simply wouldn't eat!!! I have to pick my battles, LOL!!

We should all focus more on supporting each other and less on judging. We're all doing our best.

You're joking right? Someone please tell me that poster is joking.


I loved the OP's last post, though, heartwarming.

No. Not joking. Why would I be joking?

[Anonymous]

I don't find this odd at all. I wish more teachers would do this. Of course in a polite and nice way so the kids actually get the message and don't feel bad or ashamed or anything - but teachers taking an interest in what kids at their school eat for lunch to me is a VERY good thing.

[Anonymous]

Okay, I read most but admittedly not all of this thread and wow the comments are crazy. I don't think the lunch was so bad, OP. I have 4yo twins and while they often get leftovers from the night prior, they do occasionally get PB&Js, which they love. Yes, we use whole grain or wheat bread, the non-processed peanut butter (without the additional sugar or stabilizers) and low-sugar jelly. Their yogurt tubes are the Stonyfield (organic) ones, which is easy for them to eat. And my daughter always has an apple or other piece of fruit but my son won't eat a whole fruit, so he'll often get apple sauce instead. So very similar to what the lunch in question is, but with slight tweaks.

All that said, teachers should be careful about criticizing lunches. When my partner (Chinese) was young, a teacher made fun of her lunch (can't think of what it's called now, but it's the meat in rice and wrapped up in a large leaf and steamed). Her feelings were really hurt (this was second grade, maybe?), she didn't eat it that day, and distinctly remembers her stomach hurting all afternoon. She never let her mom pack that again because she was so embarrassed, even though it was one of her favorite things to eat. And this was NYC, btw, not Alabama, so the teacher should've been more aware of cultural diversity. My thoughts: teachers may take an interest but should be aware of how the message is delivered.