Of the many things about which I retain motherly regret, none makes me feel quite so conflicted as the lunches I lovingly packed. Whole wheat this and organic that, fruit leather instead of Snickers bars, and a "whole" array of other items that no other kids in my daughters' classes would touch.
From Chef Merito's site -- Thanks
I am relieved to find that a in a recent, apparently highly scientific, Boston Globe poll ("Eating or grading their box lunch, kids can be cruel"), "54 percent of the kids surveyed gave their lunch a grade of C or lower."
Shane (see below) must have been advised by my daughters:
[His mother] says Shane was pretty willing to go the healthy route until recently. “Lately, he’s taken to wanting his lunches to be cool. ‘Don’t just pack the healthy stuff, it’s embarrassing. Can you please pack Oreos and candy — normal stuff?’ ” she says. She has switched from whole-wheat bread to white, and she does throw in the occasional Oreo, “so he’ll fit in and not be scarred for life.”
Well, Shane's Mom, I never switched and today I'm pleased to say that I recently "enjoyed" this conversation from a family near me in regard to the next generation's school ("actually, we're in Pre-K," they correct me) lunch:
Mother: How did you like the scallops [from the farmer's market]?
One of the twin's reply: I liked them but he didn't.
Scallops? Yes. Apparently, they still fly with four-year-olds (in Brooklyn) but what will happen when they're eight?