Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Lunchbox Blues

Now, it is definitely fall. We had to dig out hats and mittens yesterday morning and today, finally, the furnace had to go on.

School is rolling along. I think we are all getting the hang of it. Kieran no longer complains, and in fact, usually seems quite enthusiastic about going. Apparently there are still quite a few kids who are having trouble adjusting and are still crying and clinging to their parents at drop off.

Tomorrow they go on their first class field trip...to the grocery store. Seriously...not exactly the happiest or most original place on earth, but they will get to pick out a pumpkin for their class. I'm also guessing it will be another opportunity to teach them about "healthy food choices" which seems to be a rather large part of the curriculum.

Except of course on Wednesdays, otherwise known as Pizza Day, which started last week.

The already ubiquitous permission slip came home (I swear, I think I have signed at least 10 so far) saying that Wednesdays were now $2 Pizza Day, and by signing the form, Kieran would be allowed to have pizza every Wednesday provided he brought the money. I signed the slip and returned it...then I didn't really think about it again. I packed Kieran's lunch as usual for Wednesday. At pickup time, the teacher told Eric that Kieran was a very "sad little boy" at lunch that day because he was only one of two kids who didn't bring money for the pizza. I assume there were either tears or pouting, maybe both. I felt badly for him. I wasn't intentionally depriving him, but I also didn't think it would be a big deal and that lots of kids would have brought their own lunch.

But I do grumble a bit at the double standard of even offering a weekly pizza day though. After all, we went to "curriculum day" where we met the teacher, and her assistant ECE, to go over the daily routine. After the teacher wad finished, the ECE had her turn. She, apparently, had a bit of a bee in her proverbial bonnet about what kindergarteners are bringing in their lunch and snacks. She had a real hate-on for juice boxes (sugar! food colouring! juice from concentrate!...for shame, parents, for shame) Granola bars with more than 5 grams of sugar (which by the way, is all of them) and says that we should be packing more fresh vegetables. Even though I understood, and agree with, what she was saying, this sort of thing vaguely annoys me. I was also quite sure that I was probably NOT a real offender for lunch crap. Kieran always gets fresh fruit (often two kinds) and yogurt and cheese, a granola bar (for shame), a either half a mini bagel with cheese (which he rarely eats) or a thermous of soup. Occasionally I packed carrots or cucumbers or snap peas, but not every day. But he was also getting a juice box and usually some sort of cookie or treat. Now, he brings only a (reusable) water bottle, and the juice and treat have disappeared. Because, as I said...I agree with her.

However, a few days after this meeting, this article appeared in newspaper. Some nutitionist had gone into full day kindergarten classes and was appalled at what she found. Astonished! Failing grade for lunch packing kindergarten parents! But reading the article I was even more annoyed. Again there were us horrible, horrible parents packing juice boxes and almost all lunches had least one sugary treat. Hardly any parents pack milk (which I'm sorry to say, I cannot even fathom sending). Some parents packed cold hot dogs or improperly stored spaghetti. And even yogurt tubes and cheese strings were not "the most healthy choices in that group." Yadda yadda.

OK, so here is my rant: The nutritionist says kids need to eat to learn and by extension, the better the food, the better the learning. But he vast majority of 4 years old (some are still three) are notoriously picky eaters. If I had the time, initiative and resources to every day pack an entire days worth of homemade, unprocessed, exclusively healthy food, Kieran most likely would not eat most of it. To a certain extent, he would go hungry. Obviously, I do want him to eat in order to learn, so is it better that at 9:30 snacktime he eats the granola bar he loves and then can concentrate or does he open his lunchbox and chew a couple of snow peas or cucumber slices, poke at his cottage cheese and then be hungry until lunch? Because I feel like that is what will happen more often than not. Sure maybe at lunch or at the end of the day he would eat it, but what about that missed time in the morning when according to the curriculum is when most of the "learning" takes place?

Most kids like some healthy foods but you need to send quite a bit of food for the entire day. You aren't there to cajole or negotiate or bribe them into trying that new healthy food you have carefully prepared. I actually sympathize with parents who sent the cold hot dogs - I'm sure they are just trying to send stuff their kids will eat. Because maybe the well-intentioned tuna or turkey sandwich came home squished but untouched every day last week. Maybe the parent thought in a moment of lunch packing desperation that "Ethan loves hot dogs, maybe I'll pack one with a bit of ketchup and he'll eat it up and be happy". And now, there is that moderately poor decision written up in the Star for all holier-than-thou parents to mock and cluck at in distain.

But, I guess the nutritionist is vindicated because Kieran no longer gets to bring juice or a treat. He now always gets a couple of veggies, which usually come home, but dammit I send them and when they do come home, I toss them in the garbage like any good mother should.

I think it's safe to assume the majority of parents do want what is best for their kids, and do want them to eat healthy. But judging from the clinginess we still see at our school, they are also just little kids going off to school for the first time all day and we want to make them happy. Which is why I will be sending Kieran tomorrow with his toonie for Double Standard Pizza Day.

But I'm still fairly certain that our newspaper nutritionist would be astonished(appalled! failing grade!) if a kid showed up with pizza in his lunch box.

2 comments:

Steph said...

Omigod, you are so singing my song:
http://footnotes4steph.blogspot.com/2010/03/past-deadline-stocking-up-on-decoy.html

One mom I know, whose son is Boychild's age, has been having quite a time with a teacher who has been insisting her son can't eat the snack in his lunch bag because it's "too junky." She's a single mom of three on a fixed income. It has gotten to the point the kid no longer has any respect for the teacher and it is jeopardizing their relationship. What the hell is the point in that?

I'm all for healthy lunches, but until the schools pay for and pack them for me, they really should tone down the rhetoric.

And another thing: why do kids need so much damned food at school anyway? How on EARTH did we ever survive without afternoon snacks at school? You should SEE how much food Girlchild has subsidized at the new provincial Ready 2 Learn program - it is unbelievable. Childhood obesity much?

So there. Totally with you on that one.

Krissie said...

Gen - you should take your blog post and send it to the Star as an editorial, because you very eloquently captured the thoughts and emotions of at least 90% of parents. It's absolutely ridiculous for the school administration to be policing children's snacks and lunches to the extent they do, and then publicly chastising the vast majority of us. No doubt the writer of the article has no children and therefore cannot relate on any level to the difficulties encountered by parents who are just trying to get SOMETHING into their kids' gullets each day. I feel fortunate that the whole 'healthy eating' campaign was only in its beginning stages when my kids were little. Along with a sandwich, fruit and carrot sticks, I packed chocolate pudding, Kool-aid Jammers, cookies and granola bars in their snack/lunch bags from JK to high school, and none of my 4 kids is malnourished, sickly or obese. SHOCKING! I can't wait to hear about Kieran's teachers' Halloween candy regulations!!