Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised there are schools without cafeterias! So they eat lunch in the classrooms as well? Are they very old buildings from the days when kids used to go home for lunch?

Yes, and yes. 1929; never renovated.

Mundo Verde doesn't have a cafeteria, and they are newly renovated, and I know I've heard this from other schools. I think it's partially a high rent/urban space issue. But coming from suburbia, I thought this was weird, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, 14:46, but if you don't have an experience with a truly picky eater, then you just don't know what you are talking about.

No one makes a parenting decision to have a picky eater.

+10000
The same people who brag about not having picky eaters brag about early potty training. Neither of which should be something to brag about.

And the same people who are too lazy to teach their 2 year old to use a toilet are the same people who take the easy route with food and become a short order cook for their 3 year old. There's a reason why your child will only eat chicken nuggets or peanut butter or mac and cheese and it's not because your kid has an innate taste for them. They are all culturally acquired tastes. if you regularly feed them vegetables and don't pander to their whim they will gain a much broader palate.

ha ha ha ha I so wish that this were true

"At our school, maybe a handful eat breakfast, based on what I see when I do before care drop-off. I have no idea whether its offered for free to everyone, but I've never considered it."

Why would I? I don't consider institutional food very healthy as a general matter. While the menus read healthy, I can do better at home buying organic, buying fruit that I know is ripe and will be eaten, offering foods that the schools don't offer, and being there to oversee what is being eaten.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, 14:46, but if you don't have an experience with a truly picky eater, then you just don't know what you are talking about.

No one makes a parenting decision to have a picky eater.

+10000
The same people who brag about not having picky eaters brag about early potty training. Neither of which should be something to brag about.

And the same people who are too lazy to teach their 2 year old to use a toilet are the same people who take the easy route with food and become a short order cook for their 3 year old. There's a reason why your child will only eat chicken nuggets or peanut butter or mac and cheese and it's not because your kid has an innate taste for them. They are all culturally acquired tastes. if you regularly feed them vegetables and don't pander to their whim they will gain a much broader palate.

Please provide a weekly balanced breakfast and lunch menu that you serve for your child. I'm really curious. And do you repeat the following week?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, 14:46, but if you don't have an experience with a truly picky eater, then you just don't know what you are talking about.

No one makes a parenting decision to have a picky eater.

+10000
The same people who brag about not having picky eaters brag about early potty training. Neither of which should be something to brag about.

And the same people who are too lazy to teach their 2 year old to use a toilet are the same people who take the easy route with food and become a short order cook for their 3 year old. There's a reason why your child will only eat chicken nuggets or peanut butter or mac and cheese and it's not because your kid has an innate taste for them. They are all culturally acquired tastes. if you regularly feed them vegetables and don't pander to their whim they will gain a much broader palate.

So, you advocate bragging about your parenting skills? that sounds like a load of fun for your parent friends to endure.

I didn't mention my parenting skills let alone brag about them. I was talking about yours.

Anonymous wrote:You don't sound like someone with experience with a picky eater. I used to think along similar lines to you until my child dropped two curves on the growth chart and the pediatrician put him on Pediasure. I hate giving him that, but he won't eat the high calorie nutritious smoothies I make, etc. It is really hard to deal with, esp for a parent who is well known as a great cook, too!

It does sound like you have struggled there and it's great that you have medical help, but most picky eaters (those without allergies, physical problems cheating or eating or textual issues) are created not born. I know I have one and he's slowly getting less picky because I refuse to put up with it anymore. My mistake for offering him alternatives when he was younger.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, 14:46, but if you don't have an experience with a truly picky eater, then you just don't know what you are talking about.

No one makes a parenting decision to have a picky eater.

+10000
The same people who brag about not having picky eaters brag about early potty training. Neither of which should be something to brag about.

And the same people who are too lazy to teach their 2 year old to use a toilet are the same people who take the easy route with food and become a short order cook for their 3 year old. There's a reason why your child will only eat chicken nuggets or peanut butter or mac and cheese and it's not because your kid has an innate taste for them. They are all culturally acquired tastes. if you regularly feed them vegetables and don't pander to their whim they will gain a much broader palate.

So, you advocate bragging about your parenting skills? that sounds like a load of fun for your parent friends to endure.

You don't sound like someone with experience with a picky eater. I used to think along similar lines to you until my child dropped two curves on the growth chart and the pediatrician put him on Pediasure. I hate giving him that, but he won't eat the high calorie nutritious smoothies I make, etc. It is really hard to deal with, esp for a parent who is well known as a great cook, too!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, 14:46, but if you don't have an experience with a truly picky eater, then you just don't know what you are talking about.

No one makes a parenting decision to have a picky eater.

+10000
The same people who brag about not having picky eaters brag about early potty training. Neither of which should be something to brag about.

And the same people who are too lazy to teach their 2 year old to use a toilet are the same people who take the easy route with food and become a short order cook for their 3 year old. There's a reason why your child will only eat chicken nuggets or peanut butter or mac and cheese and it's not because your kid has an innate taste for them. They are all culturally acquired tastes. if you regularly feed them vegetables and don't pander to their whim they will gain a much broader palate.

I think having breakfast served at school probably does seem more like the norm and not odd if your children did daycare, where breakfast is usually served as the kids arrive, and DCPS preschool, where breakfast is also served. Your family is accustomed the convenience and usually pressed for time in the morning.

Private, 9-12 type preschools do not serve breakfast so it probably does seem strange to start elementary school and see that the first item on the agenda is eating.

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised there are schools without cafeterias! So they eat lunch in the classrooms as well? Are they very old buildings from the days when kids used to go home for lunch?

Yes, and yes. 1929; never renovated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has universal free breakfast--every school offers it for free, regardless of student family income makeup.

This is different than lunch.

Lunch is free at Title I schools--so if x% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals at the school, everyone gets it for free. If the school is not Title I, those who qualify for free/reduced price receive it, other students have the option to buy lunch.

We were told differently at the open house we attended for our IB school. Every DCPS may prepare breakfast on site, but not every school serves it in class, and we were told that it is only free to qualifying children.

our JKLM school has free breakfast each morning for whoever child shows up for breakfast. my kids don't get it because they have breakfast at home and usually get to school a few minutes before school starts, but breakfast is served every morning, I believe after 8am (school starts at 8.35)

PP, do you have to get in to beforecare to use this service or can you just drop off your child even if you aren't signed up for beforecare?

Not PP, but we do not have before care at our school (Murch). You can pay for before care at the church next door if you get a spot though. You may not drop off at school until 8:15. Students may not enter the building until 8:37 unless they are having breakfast. Breakfast is trucked in in the morning and served off of a cart in the hallway (no kitchen or cafeteria in the school); the 15 or so students (out of 630) who choose to have breakfast it eat it at a table in the hallway before the bell rings. I have no idea what the official rule is for supervision, but there are usually a few adults at or near the table. Everyone is allowed to have the free breakfast. Most kids eat at home and then play on the playground until the bell rings. Some kids will run by and grab a muffin when those are served though

This should probably be a new thread, but it's something I've wondered about. WHY do only 15 kids eat the free breakfast at Murch? Do their moms think the food is crap? Are they serving something at home that's infinitely healthier? Is there a stigma to eating school breakfast?

Also, does the same thing apply to school lunch? I was a school lunch kid growing up (still prefer hot lunch as an adult) and my kids eat school lunch at our EOTP DCPS school. But it seems like most of the kids from the better off families bring lunch. I feel like a lazy mom and I know my kids would like to take lunch, but I'm not sure it would be that much healther (plus it would be the same thing over and over probably). What is so bad about school lunch???

No stigmas. I think primarily the school is not set up to serve food. There is no cafeteria, no kitchen, the food comes in on a truck and is served in the hallway, then the kids eat at their desks. All of that probably does turn some people off. As it is, with very few kids getting lunch, the line is very long in the hallway and kids complain that by the time they get back to their desks with lunch there is no time to eat. If everyone tried to get lunch it would be a logistical disaster (how long would it take to serve 630 kids in a narrow hallway, even with staggered lunch periods?). But the kids who get school lunch seem to like it well enough. As for breakfast, same hallway set up, plus it seems that most kids walk to school after eating at home and want to play on the playground as long as possible before the school bell rings. Going in to breakfast would take away play time. For us, breakfast is family time. It is how we start our day together, then we walk to school and the kids play until the bell rings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"What happens at WOTP schools, do any kids eat breakfast at school only?"

At our school, maybe a handful eat breakfast, based on what I see when I do before care drop-off. I have no idea whether its offered for free to everyone, but I've never considered it.

Why haven't you considered it?

Not pp, but I would never let my kids eat breakfast at school. Breakfast is a meal eaten at home in the morning, before you start your day. It is weird to get to school and then eat breakfast first thing. You go to school to learn, not eat.

I can't decide if you're trolling, ignorant, or a jerk.

Nope, dead serious. I think it is bizarre that people think it is normal to not feed their children a healthy breakfast at home before they start their day at school. Breakfast should be eaten at home.

Sorry, two of the three--ignorant and a jerk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"What happens at WOTP schools, do any kids eat breakfast at school only?"

At our school, maybe a handful eat breakfast, based on what I see when I do before care drop-off. I have no idea whether its offered for free to everyone, but I've never considered it.

Why haven't you considered it?

Not pp, but I would never let my kids eat breakfast at school. Breakfast is a meal eaten at home in the morning, before you start your day. It is weird to get to school and then eat breakfast first thing. You go to school to learn, not eat.

I can't decide if you're trolling, ignorant, or a jerk.

Nope, dead serious. I think it is bizarre that people think it is normal to not feed their children a healthy breakfast at home before they start their day at school. Breakfast should be eaten at home.

Do you honestly not know that not every family can afford to do so? That school breakfast and lunch are the main and most nutritious meals some children will eat all day? That some kids show up to school on Mondays having eaten little over the weekend, or little of nutritious value over the weekend? That for some families who can afford to serve a healthy breakfast at home, time is of the essence with working parents, and it's a major convenience? For which we are very grateful? Ever heard about the connection between being fed and being ready to learn? Or schools that don't usually serve breakfast but who will bring it in before big test days?

And from where does this rule come? Breakfast is a meal eaten at home in the morning, before you start your day. Breakfast should be eaten at home.
What, you've never eaten breakfast out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"What happens at WOTP schools, do any kids eat breakfast at school only?"

At our school, maybe a handful eat breakfast, based on what I see when I do before care drop-off. I have no idea whether its offered for free to everyone, but I've never considered it.

Why haven't you considered it?

Not pp, but I would never let my kids eat breakfast at school. Breakfast is a meal eaten at home in the morning, before you start your day. It is weird to get to school and then eat breakfast first thing. You go to school to learn, not eat.

I can't decide if you're trolling, ignorant, or a jerk.

Nope, dead serious. I think it is bizarre that people think it is normal to not feed their children a healthy breakfast at home before they start their day at school. Breakfast should be eaten at home.

I eat my breakfast at work and I'm 38. I'm just not hungry when I first wake.