Packed lunch getting nicked

delain

Does seem a bit odd that the OP seems to think she can choose between giving her child a poor diet or having a 'thieving little toerag' like she thinks her child would also feel the need to steal it if it wasn't in his lunch.

Yes the other child has an issue, but it isn't with the diet provided by his parents. I'll bet the other kid had a sandwich or something halfway substantial in his lunch!

Griizelda

I'm really not sure why the OP is being attacked so much on this thread. It's her choice what she feeds her child - maybe, just maybe, he's a fussy eater (I had one of those and at 10 he's getting much better).

No-one knows why another child is stealing either - they may not be poor/deserving of compassion etc. Give the OP a break. She came on here asking for specific advice, to a very real problem for her and her child, not to be told off for the contents of her sons' lunch box!

Ok, rant over!

delain

I have never said the other child is deserving of compassion - stealing is wrong, and this needs to be stopped and the behavior and underlying reasons for it (whatever those might be) need to be addressed.

It was the OP's reply that seemed to suggest if you don't give children chocolate they steal it.

The OP has also had lots of helpful replies

euronorris

Also, I am a fussy eater too. Have been since I was a child, but am much better now as I have been working hard to improve my diet and health.

However, I do not believe that I was born this way. I believe I simply kicked up a fuss a few times when I was younger, and my Mum was too busy/frustrated/exhausted to stand firm (there were 5 of us, so I understand why!) and insist I eat my dinner. I say this because, once I found the courage to try new foods, I found that there were actually a lot of (very tasty) foods that I did like and I was missing out on. It wasn't that I didn't like them before, I didn't know, because I hadn't tried them (although, if you asked me then I would insist I had tried them! lol). The only exception being cheese as it makes me vomit!

I wish my Mum had stood firm with me as a child and insisted, because it's been bl00dy hard work changing my eating habits, mainly because I am afraid to try new things in front of other people. I believe that if my Mum had stood firm back then, I would most likely eat a whole host of foods without giving it a second thought.

This doesn't mean that there aren't genuine reasons for some kids being fussy eaters, of course, because there are. But there are still better options to give your child, other than crisps and chocolate if that is the case. My nephew had HUGE tonsils (now removed) which were meeting in the middle, making eating and swallowing very difficult for him. So, he wouldn't eat a lot of the healthy food options because of this problem, complaining that it hurt too much. But it wouldn't stop him from wolfing down crisps and other junk (that would've been just as difficult to swallow as the healthy food options).

izzybusy23

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

I wouldn't send an email round as I think the school should be sorting this out pronto.

I would go see the teacher tomorrow and say that you have told your son that if he goes to his lunch box and things are missing, he is to queue up for a school dinner which you will not be paying for. They'll soon find a way of keeping the kid's lunches away from stealing hands!!

If they have a problem with this, tell them it's no different to what they're letting happen in class.

I would definatley do this!

izzybusy23

delain wrote: »

No one is suggesting it's your fault it gets nicked.

Just that that (IMHO) isn't an appropriate lunch for a child of that age, and I'd be expecting a whingy phone call from the school if I sent my DD1 (or any of them for that matter) in with that lunch!

Of for gods sake!!! Get off your high horse food police. Its nothing to do with what she packs for lunch, the fact that somebody is stealing from her son. Gets on my nerves people dictating to others what they should and should not feed their own child!!!!! My DD goes to school with a sandwich on wholemeal bread, a pot of fromage frais, blackcurrant juice, red grapes, a packet of pom bears and a rocky bar... what a naughty bad parent I am. However, my daughter is 6 and as tall as a weed and skinny as a rake; maybe if I just fed her just carrots and celery sticks she might grow up to be a super skinny supermodel huh? Because you are giving your child crisps and chocolate does not make 1) you a bad parent or 2) guarantee your child is going to grow up to be a lard ar.se :cool:

Edited to say; and yes my DD concentrates perfectly fine in school too so no lack of concentration due to the 'devil food' inside her packed lunch.. which I will add she will save some of it to eat at the after school club rather than eating everything at lunch time.

mrs_marty

I would go and see the teacher/head teacher. I had a similar problem with my DD we eventually got to the bottom of it, the little girl involved was not allowed any sweet snack at all, what she was taking from my daughter was fruit flakes.

Her mother was mortified that her daughter was doing this to my DD and it turns out other girls in the class. However her mother did say that she never allowed her daughter anything sweet as she gorged and made a pig of herself on them.

I felt for the girl in the end as her mother had technically caused her behaviour/potential future issues, by her own well meaning.

Percy1983

I must say I was brought up on the bad of crisps and a chocy bar (penguin, club etc) everyday and it doesn't seem to have done me too much harm. Funnily enough I have just eaten a beef sandwich, pack of hula hoops and a penguin. :rotfl:

As it is a had my first school dinner the other week (aged 27, volunteering with a primary school) and I got chips, sausage and beans followed by toffee pudding and custard. I am trying to find a reason to go back over dinner time!.

As for the theif, surely it needs to be reported everytime it happens, if the school don't know to what extent it is happening they may not act as quickly/strongly as you would like.

Frogletina

For a long time my children came back home for lunch, near to the end of primary school my son had a packed lunch. He often asked for jam sandwiches - there was no real checking in those days, and so jam sandwiches it was. As well as other items, and the occasional bag of crisps or chocolate bar. He was never overweigh either.

I'm glad that I supplied jam sandwiches as it is only as an adult that he told me he often threw any other sandwich away.

I always provided healthy meals at home (he would have a good breakfast before leaving for school, beans on toast as an example) although his intake of vegetables was always limited to the one of two choices that he would eat

Fast forward to now and he eats very healthily, loves all kinds of vegetables and cooks the most delicious food for him and his wife.

delain

I never said my children don't have treats, just not in their lunchbox, and not every day I have to be very very careful what my twins eat as they are sensitive to colours and sugar. I know if they just had chocolate and crisps one after another they would be as high as kites all afternoon. So it can't be that good for a 'normal' child either!

FWIW I was given those things every day, coke from the age of 4 or 5, as I got older my mum was a single parent who worked all hours and most of our dinners came from the deep fat fryer and I was never overweight as a child. I hated all the fried food, but found the other habits very very hard to break as I got older.

Even now at 26 I find it hard to take the 'healthy options' and tellingly my mum and my uncle now have type 2 diabetes. With Type1 in the other side of my family, I have to try pretty damn hard not to eat loads of rubbish or I'm pretty much guaranteed it as I get older.

Forgive me for thinking that if I could give my kids healthy habits they may not automatically reach for the junk when they leave home.

If that makes me the lunchbox police, so be it, I only want to make their lives better, and if that means I'm 'mean' then a proud meanie I am