Question about making fancy lunches for school

[Anonymous]

Yeah, to each their own. I don't do this, but I'm sure there's other moms that are surprised when I make home made stuff for birthday parties or whatever. I stink at a lot of other mom stuff, so that's one thing I can do that the kids might look back on fondly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Love it, OP!

My Japanese father decided to put me in a Japanese Kindergarten in Europe. My European mother would just send me to school with a sandwich, until my father realized that all the other kids were coming with bentos and that it was actually a competition among the Japanese mothers as to who was going to concoct the most recherche bento for her child. So he bought a huge bento how-to book (I still have it), woke up early every morning, and got down to business.

I remember how cute he made my lunches, how opening them was such a joy, and how they tasted so much better than my mother's sandwiches... so I the same for my kids. Not to that website's level of detail, but I try.

I love this story. Very sweet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Love it, OP!

My Japanese father decided to put me in a Japanese Kindergarten in Europe. My European mother would just send me to school with a sandwich, until my father realized that all the other kids were coming with bentos and that it was actually a competition among the Japanese mothers as to who was going to concoct the most recherche bento for her child. So he bought a huge bento how-to book (I still have it), woke up early every morning, and got down to business.

I remember how cute he made my lunches, how opening them was such a joy, and how they tasted so much better than my mother's sandwiches... so I the same for my kids. Not to that website's level of detail, but I try.

Forgot to answer the question with all this reminiscensing!
I eat the leftovers - it's my breakfast.

[Anonymous]

My kid refuses to eat any lunch except for a frozen bagel with cream cheese and a tangerine. Anything else I send comes home untouched. Not much cute you can make out of those two items.

[Anonymous]

Haha, hilarious!!! Anyone who has time to make these cute lunches has too much time on their hands.


I do it for my kid. People act like its a big deal but its really not. It takes me 15 minutes. It's not rocket science. I'm just creative person with an art background and no time or space to create real art. I also WOH in a stressful job. This is my outlet. Everybody has their thing. This is mine. I like creating things/making art.

I also teach my kids not to make fun of others by modeling that behavior myself. It's pretty crummy to make yourself feel good at the expense of others.

I was with you until your second paragraph. Making yourself feel good at the expense of others is crummy, but so is sanctimony.

[Anonymous]

LOL,"BETTER YOURSELF"!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Haha, hilarious!!! Anyone who has time to make these cute lunches has too much time on their hands.


I do it for my kid. People act like its a big deal but its really not. It takes me 15 minutes. It's not rocket science. I'm just creative person with an art background and no time or space to create real art. I also WOH in a stressful job. This is my outlet. Everybody has their thing. This is mine. I like creating things/making art.

I also teach my kids not to make fun of others by modeling that behavior myself. It's pretty crummy to make yourself feel good at the expense of others.

I was with you until your second paragraph. Making yourself feel good at the expense of others is crummy, but so is sanctimony.

I don't think it's sanctimommy to point out to a mean person that they are being mean. I do think its hypocritical to make fun of others who are different from you/have different interests while teaching your children about kindness to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admitted non-bento mom. What I've been trying to figure out is what these lunches look like after they've been shoved in a lunch box, transported in backpack, tossed into lunch bin, carried to table, and finally turned right side up and opened. I can't imagine cute little raindrops on Mac n cheese stay glued to the pasta throughout this process.

This. While I would LOVE to be a bento mom, I can't imagine anything would look cute by lunch time. Plus who has time for this?? The closest I've gotten was cut sandwiches into butterflies for DD's birthday party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid refuses to eat any lunch except for a frozen bagel with cream cheese and a tangerine. Anything else I send comes home untouched. Not much cute you can make out of those two items.

You mean you don't carve intricate patterns or three-panel personalized cartoon strips into the peel of the tangerine? Slacker.

[Anonymous]

Some of those looked really weird. The bunny one was kinda cute, but what was that whitish colored stuff? My kid wouldn't eat those lunches, so I wouldn't even waste my time making it. He wants a piece of whole fruit like an apple, banana, grapes, or some strawberries. He'll eat carrot and celery sticks, and plain crackers or goldfish. But when I am trying to pack his lunches, I have to be careful. He tells me "no mom, don't pack that! That's embarrassing!" I'm like, how's a sandwich embarrassing? I can only imagine his horror if I sent in a bento box without warning him.

[Anonymous]

I do it #1 for me. I think it's fun. It lets me be creative for part of the day, but I'm a scientist who would actually like to be an artist if there was money in it.

#2 my kid has a ton of food allergies so I try to make his lunch special since there is so much "good" stuff he can't have. Hopefully it makes up for the taste of the substitutes.

[Anonymous]

I tried cute lunches but my kids declared them "embarrassing." I decided to move my creative outlet to other projects since it pretty much was about me trying to show off anyway . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tried cute lunches but my kids declared them "embarrassing." I decided to move my creative outlet to other projects since it pretty much was about me trying to show off anyway . . .

Aw, how old are they? What stuff did you make?

[Anonymous]

I want to do this as a joke one day. My boys would be appalled, absolutely appalled. haha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an admitted non-bento mom. What I've been trying to figure out is what these lunches look like after they've been shoved in a lunch box, transported in backpack, tossed into lunch bin, carried to table, and finally turned right side up and opened. I can't imagine cute little raindrops on Mac n cheese stay glued to the pasta throughout this process.

This. While I would LOVE to be a bento mom, I can't imagine anything would look cute by lunch time. Plus who has time for this?? The closest I've gotten was cut sandwiches into butterflies for DD's birthday party.

Same here. I just bought the boxes and I think it's cute to put something small and different in every space. That's enough for us.