MOMMY BLOGGER
Another Year of Lunch Box Blues K I M B ER LY R A E M I L L ER WR ITER , ACTR ES S
Sometimes providing for your little ones comes down to simply trying your best, regardless of the results. There is a particular flavor of parental anxiety that happens at the end of each day, as I unpack my son’s lunchbox and realize that out of the smorgasbord of options I have packed for him, he has eaten half a slice of lunch meat and a single strawberry. The rest of his carefully packed lunch, of course, is thrown out, as it has been sitting, unrefrigerated for most of the day in his backpack. “Did you at least drink your milk?” I ask him, knowing the answer.
of the pandemic, we increased our food budget because everyone was home all the time, grazing their way through the days. But I won’t increase it again, so the treats my kids’ love (and will actually eat) but don’t provide any nutritional value to their lives are the first to go. Each morning, as I pack their bags, I err toward their tried-and-true favorites. For my son, carrots and cucumbers are a staple – the only vegetables he will eat.
Hummus to dip. Fresh fruit, cheese cubes, and half a sandwich. A hermetically sealed box of organic whole milk. My daughter’s lunch is provided by daycare, but I pack extra snacks, fresh fruit, and vegetables in lieu of the goldfish and vanilla wafers that the school doles out at snack times. It all sounds so healthy and balanced on paper, but it’s a losing battle because, again, most of it will end up in the trash. And yet, I will keep forging ahead for another year (or 12). I will continue to make the best choices I can for them with the resources I have, even if they don’t care, don’t like it, and won’t eat it. That’s parenthood, right? ■
“Some of it.” He shrugs and runs off to his room to starve to death among the superheroes and racecars that litter his bedroom floor. If pressed, he will tell me that he just didn’t have time to eat, and I will confront his teacher, who will tell me what all his teachers have told me since he was two…he has plenty of time; he just spends it talking. As we start the new school year, I am conscious of the same two things I always am: Getting healthy food into my children and sticking to our food budget. As food prices continue to increase due to inflation, that becomes a bit trickier. In the early days
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