Raising Devils

What I Want to Send for Lunch

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 | Connecting the Dots

What I Want to Send for Lunch

Originally uploaded by kjda

I would do it, too–except that even though I have three kids all
eating lunch at the same school, they aren’t allowed to share food.
We spent the day skiing–fabulous! Wonderful! Also surprising, since
at 3:45 this morning Lily was throwing up. But unless it involves
contagiousness–hard for me to imagine on a ski slope–I never argue
with a kid who says she’s feeling well enough to get outside. So off
we went, and it went way, way better than one might have expected, but
there is no food.
Well, really, there is food. There are hard boiled eggs, which are not
allowed at school. And there is peanut butter, ditto. What there isn’t
is anything from which one could even begin to make a sandwich. Or
even produce a reasonable cheese and crackers, but that’s what I did
anyway. American cheese, sad, slightly stale mass-o-fiber Wheat Thins.
I do feel bad, but sometimes the rules surrounding school lunches
(which are to protect a kid I LIKE, I know, I should not complain)
seem like they are designed to require me to spend all of my time at
the grocery store.
I sent peanut butter for Sam. With apples. DO YOU HEAR ME UNIVERSE?
PEANUT BUTTER!!!!
Look, I am actually ok with the nut egg thing most days. Like I said,
I like this kid. And his mother, and please dint let her see this.
It’s not just that. It’s the whole thing. They have to eat their
"protein" first, so there has to be a protein. Lily will cry if there
aren’t four things in the box, and her teachers will report his to me
with an overtone of blame. Lily has been crying because she says you
do not put enough food in her lunchbox. But lily won’t eat: yogurt,
pudding, cheese (except occasionally certain esoteric types which may
or may not include American, I will know tomorrow), summer sausage
stick, cream cheese, tortillas (in lunch), or a whole litany of other
reasonable lunch choices. I would send them anyway, but as I said, the
teachers complain.
The real reason Lily doesn’t eat her lunch? The school gives them a
snack an hour before she opens it.
Don’t even get me started on Tupperware…
KJ Dell’Antonia
sent from my iPhone

Related posts:

1. Lunch, and all the Angst it Entails
2. Backsliding and Resolutions
3. Still Out to Lunch
4. What a Bad Mother Eats for Lunch
5. Fwd: Lunch at hospital