packed lunches. How times have changed!

All my DGC would prefer carrot sticks and humous to any chocolate bar mrsp (regular state schools too) . They have very varied tastes and try almost anything. They like variety in their packed lunches too.

and a fancy juice smoothie drink. We only ever got water

My DGS (8) loves those little Santini tomatoes, carrot sticks, cucumber batons and humous. He will sit happily dipping away. His best packed lunch consists of the above plus a wheatgerm wrap (filled with tuna and sweet corn) and a carton of apple juice.

Many primary schools these days "police" packed lunches. No crisps, chocolate, sugary drinks etc allowed. Ours were certainly very different, but I suppose there was a lot less of the "bad stuff" around - if we had a packet of crisps for packed lunch that was the only treat of the day.

no juices or smoothies allowed in packed school lunches here ,only water,nothing sweet either .Its a sandwich some carrot sticks ,a couple of clementines ,crisps and water .Somedays she'll have a chicken salad or a pasta salad .

Yes, a change for the better.

My daughter's children drink only water at mealtimes, but in their lunchboxes they may have olives, hummus, guacamole, breadsticks and other items that would have been considered exotic in my day.

Don’t forget the hard boiled egg! We always had one wrapped in tinfoil for some reason if we had a picnic. Never had a packed lunch. Like others, all my dgc have a much different diet with dgs 3 even turning down a piece of Easter egg in favour of a snack plate of veg/dip. (Nanna didn’t eat the chocolate-I managed to restrain myself!)

Yes, the hard boiled egg with a tiny bit of shell left on that you didn’t notice until crunched in your teeth. Yuk ?

My 3 yr old GD's typical packed lunch for nursery is some breadsticks, a couple of slices of cucumber, a slice of ham, a baby bel cheese, a pot of fresh fruit (strawberries, blueberries, satsuma segments), and a mini packet of yoghurt raisins or fruit flakes.

Oh and yes, a hard boiled egg is a firm favourite too!

I don’t think any of my DGS have had a packed lunch yet, but judging by the length of time they dawdle over veg sticks and dips, I hope the school’s built in plenty of time for lunch. ?

My DS was the only one of mine who wanted a packed lunch for school, just because he wanted to get straight out to play football. I’d send a sandwich, crisps, fruit and a biscuit, and every day the box would come back out with a sandwich, crisps, fruit and a biscuit... I’d just change the sandwich, in case he ever bit into it.

Packed lunches for my children were the usual sliced hard boiled eggs, meat, or cheese sandwiches, crisps, a biscuit of some sort or a cake. An apple was always included but always came home uneaten. My grandson has a wrap or sandwich with chicken or ham in it, cucumber and carrot sticks, grapes or raspberries, a packet of crisps, sometimes a home made muffin, and a smoothie. They are not allowed to take anything that involves chocolate, either in or on.

Sandwiches used to come home regularly here too, with a bite only taken out of an apple and probably a yoghurt eaten.

DD and I prepared lunch for the DGC and other children and I cut up peppers, cucumber, carrots into sticks and put them in the middle on a large platter. The other mum said 'children eating vegetables?! Never!' but ours dived in and the plate was cleared.

My GD swaps what she doesn't want with her friends ao rarely anything comes home

My daughter thought it would be nice to sneak a little sweet in her 6 year olds lunch box. Her daughter went straight to the teacher and said she had an unhealthy item in her lunch box! The teacher said it was ok to eat it. Just shows how the children are programmed not to eat unhealthy foods.

When I was at Grammar School, in the winter we would take soup or (treat!) baked beans in a Thermos. Yum!

I think it is brilliant that children are learning what is healthy to eat. Overweight children leads to overweight adults...

I work in a primary school and indeed it's frowned upon to bring unhealthy lunches.Yes we just used to get the same as you mrsp but you should see the things I see in lunch boxes, so many small boxes of seperate items that sometimes the kids don't have the time to get through them all, so yes, it is the norm these days !!

This is what my friends daughter found out to her 'horror' that her own child had been doing a swop of her ''healthy?'' packed lunch for a jam sandwich, slice of cake and box of chocolate raisins.

That all sounds great apart from the Sushi. It’s crucial that is kept chilled until eaten!

Mine less than fondly recall the homemade whole meal bread they had their sandwiches made with. “We wanted Mighty White like everyone else”. That was accompanied by the traditional bag of crisps, a piece of home made traybake cake or maybe a Penguin or two finger Kit Kat. I often added a piece of fruit which came back uneaten as it was not cool to be seen eating it. DD recalls the joy of finding a FOUR finger Kit Kat in her lunch box. Luxury!
School lunches these days are so different and mainly good with lots of choice. For that reason and to avoid all those various fiddly items, my GS has a school meal. So much easier and some social skills too!

Once I accidentally popped a can of beer into my daughters lunch box. I was possibly not quite awake and thought it was a can of pop (another lunch box sin those days).

Happily the lunch box police were not called and the teacher had a good laugh about it.

I don't understand why primary schools are so fussy, yet in the secondary school the children are lining up for fast food outside the schools and into the town centres. No carrot sticks then by the looks.