The moment of truth…….mom to mom
Ok so I have to be honest and admit that I judged all those moms out there that complained about making lunches. My kids were at daycare from the young age of 15 months old and the only time I had to worry about packing a lunch was on weekends or holidays. Although we ate breakfast and dinners at home, that is hardly considered as time consuming as what goes into sending your child off to school or camp for 8 hours.
I got excited at the thought of what it would be like to be 100% in control of what my kids had for lunch. What could be so hard about it? Isn’t it fun to make things look pretty? Try to pack things they love? And as I walked along the aisles of the grocery store I started to mentally plan which products I could pack for them.
Well let’s reflect on my past 2 days in the Jacks’ household. I HAVE NOT LEFT MY KITCHEN. I love my kids and I love to be in the kitchen, don’t get me wrong, but I am not so sure about my notion of lunch packing being fun. Here are the thoughts that have gone through my mind from 5pm until about 8pm tonight while I was busy cleaning the kitchen, making dinner, cleaning up dinner and then getting ready to make lunches. Here it goes – my raw thoughts:
- Now that bath time is finished do I really need to make lunches now? Just because I was late today for camp (second day in a row with only two days of camp so far..hmmmmm not so good) doesn’t mean I can’t swing it tomorrow.
- What should I give them tomorrow that is different than today? Hot or cold? Wait thermos. Right I bought that for a reason…where are they? Ok cold again today……but what?
- Fine I will do thermos….find the thermos…chicken and rice it is! Oh guess I can’t warm it now right? Will have to remember to take it out of the pot and warm before tomorrow. Wait do the kids even know how to open the thermos? Do I? (ok just kidding about that one I do know how 😉
- Snacks….today they had carrots and peppers. Can I give that again? I have 2 snacks to think of. If the veggies came back today without being eaten should I just throw the peppers away now or throw them tomorrow when they come home?
- More thoughts on snacks. If I make the snacks look too good will they even touch anything else….
I am getting tired thinking about this all over again. As you can see from the pictures I am officially done DAY 2 of a mom making lunches for 2 kids. I am waiting for the person who comes to look and say “wow that looks great” but they didn’t show up yet? Maybe they are busy packing their own lunch.
I take back all those thoughts I had regarding moms who said they did not love making lunches. I am not only taking them back I am apologizing for not empathizing with them. BUT, I finished their lunches and sat down and felt a sense of accomplishment for taking the time put my kids and their health first. I do see how easy it would be to grab pre-packaged crackers and cheese, cookies an apple and a sandwich. I will even attempt to find more convenient snacks and meals that don’t require as much time as it did this week. What I vow to not do (and please don’t judge me here), is to bring products into my house that are void of any nutrition and/or filled with harmful ingredients.
We don’t want to think that products geared towards children could be so bad, but as a mother and a nutritionist who has done my share of research, I have to say it as it is, they are that bad!
I have been consulting parents for years on healthy lunch options, but have not always appreciated the logistics involved in how long it takes. WHAT foods to pack and how to balance them is as second nature to me as driving!
So no matter how rushed you are moms, please try to fill your house with cleaner products.
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