I thought I had done so well yesterday, with the lunchbox preparations, but was greeted with a hardly eaten lunchbox when I picked up King Julien from school… He had eaten just two bites out of his bread and left all the egg. No wonder he was in such a bad mood… He must have been absolutely starving. All he had had for breakfast was a glass of milk and a bowl of cereal. That is it!
My heart sank as I threw away yet another half eaten lunch. OK it all went into the kitchen waste bin (we have to try and do our bit for the environment!) So it would be end up as compost at some stage, but nevertheless a waste… of both food and time preparing it! I do sometimes wonder how many loaves of bread I end up throwing away each term as they have failed to eat their lunch… Anyway, we can talk about that another time!
I don’t know about you, but at times it is really disheartening, trying your best to provide a healthy option, that has been carefully prepared, but that comes back home uneaten. I am grateful to the school, really I am, for not throwing anything away after lunch. I understand that the school want the parents to see what has or hasnot been eaten in their lunchbox. I think the idea here is that we can scale it up, if they eat it all (I wish!!) or scale it down, if it really is too much!
I must also not forget, King Julien is only 6, and Tuna, being nearly double his age, does eat so much more, so I should not be too hard on him.
Plus there is pressure from his peer group to hurry and get outside for playtime.
Again, a difficult balance for us parents to achieve.
Today with King Julien, as he still claims not to like turkey slices, I tried him with cheddar cheese and pickle on brown bread, with an apple and a cocoa pop bar.
I think he just left the crusts in his lunchbox, a gift for me no doubt, so we are definitely moving in the right direction! I should be pleased with the result! I must persevere and stick to my guns of getting him to eat a variety of different foods, but at times it feels like an uphill battle!
The older two, Tuna particularly ate everything: brown bread with turkey slice and cucumber, followed by nutrigrain bar, satsuma, and water. As it was cross country tonight, she also had a Capri sun and another chew bar, to keep her going until home time. A long day, but she does eat well!
Spike on the other hand had the same lunch, just with the extra mayonnaise in the sandwich, but does like to leave something behind in his lunchbox for me – his crusts! (As the old wives tale says, if you eat your crusts, it will make your hair curl, and his hair is absolutely dead straight!! So he is on to something there!) He had cross country too, so came home exhausted, and starving, hungry for his tea!
Must make a note to take something with me when I pick them up after the school activities they have – maybe a bun, or hotcrossbun or something, to tide them over until we get home!
Must start making lists again! Helps to remember things better! Today we ran out of sugar. I never run out of sugar! What is going on?! Maybe it happens to us all at times, we think we are on top of things, but actually, no we are not!
Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and who knows, the sun may shine! Maybe a black cat will cross my path too, I will keep my fingers crossed!
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