Pressure of the Packed Lunch!
So here it is my little fella’s first day of school, such a mix of emotions, excitement, anticipation, nerves, nostalgia, mentally check listing all the important things he needs to have the best first experience with his educational journey. Bag, tick, uniform, tick, new shoes, tick, fresh haircut, tick, pens, pencils, books, tick, tick, tick! I was on point, on fire, this school mum thing, I had it, piece of cake…that was until I tackled the lunch box, there was no way I was at all prepared for that level of crazy!
As parents in a time of unlimited access to information we are bombarded with a multitude of ways we can ultimately and highly likely end up screwing up our children. I have never encountered so many scenarios in which I am failing as a wife, mother, women and human being! We are educated, we are informed and now we are responsible, more than ever, for the implications our choices, as parents, will affect our little ones in the long term. They’ve always been there they’ve just never been so blazingly obvious! With this knowledge, there was no way I was going to be that parent with the least nutritious lunchbox!
Looking at the dwindling supplies in my pantry, a combination of juggling work, moving house and a husband having to make an emergency dash to NZ for family, I was pulling on all my creativity! Fruit, that’s a no brainer. Vegetables, hmmm carrot sticks and I can mix avocado with the whole grain vegemite sandwich, passable. Popcorn, not organic but grappling with the nutritional index and assessing the sodium content I deemed it more than ok, for safe keeping though I put it in a snap lock sandwich bag. Last but not least all natural (Tamar valley) Greek yoghurt, winning! Now what can I make that will seal the deal as a mum who’s got her s**t together?
It’s this level of cray cray that you have to stop, process and think what the actual f**k! When did making a school lunch become so hard?
Seeing this note and knowing my now spiraling, manic obsession now deeply embedded in lunch time snacks I felt nothing but utter mortification for this poor mum! We are our own worst critics, we are judge, jury and executioner but to have another deem it appropriate to highlight and expose something THEY feel is wrong leaves me nothing short of flabbergasted! When did we become such a nanny state? What’s more infuriating even more than the action itself is the wording, the cutie pie, dumbed down, speaking as though to a child, tut tut telling off! Last time I checked parents aren’t idiots and if the teacher could take more than a second to remove themselves from their high horse they may gain some perspective, realise that maybe this snack, while not the best choice but still a parents choice none the least, is a treat. Judging by the Friday afternoon staff room antics I’ve been privy to in my teaching career, treats are definitely not a problem!
It is not a teacher’s place or position to lay criticism on the choices of a parent for packed lunch preferences. You can provide information, suggestions and insights into resulting behaviour from the subsequent sugar-filled snack, but not judgement. We are doing a good enough job as it is and in the words of the once great Pink Floyd “Hey, Teacher, leave those kids (and super stressed out parents) alone!”
