Sack Lunch

Let’s talk school lunches, shall we? It’s been a hot topic around my house lately…

Ayden told me last night that he doesn’t want me making his lunch anymore.

He just doesn’t like the food we’ve got.

I told him, “Son, one day you’ll look back and feel pretty dang lucky that your mom made your lunch each day & your Halloween costume (for that matter)!”

Which my husband then said, “You’re pretty much just setting him up to be a nerd.”

A nerd?  

What?

Really?

When did bringing your lunch become so “un-cool?”

And standing in line for the “cafeteria special” is now the hot alternative?

Here is what I remember about school lunches:

They tell you a lot about a person. Like being naked in front of a crowd, what your mom or dad packed in your lunch…shows the whole world who you are!

“The contents of your lunch said whether or not you and your family were okay. Some bag lunches, like some people were Okay and some weren’t. There was a code, a right and acceptable way. It was that simple.”

I remember having the same old boring lunch packed for me every day:

Bologna on white bread.

Grape drink. (no brand, just grape drink)

And a bag of BBQ chips.

I don’t think this lunch could be any worse for a girl growing up, and a chubby girl at that.

It was a fat man’s lunch. A fat man who works at a construction site and wears a hard hat.

I longed for peanut butter and jelly…

Only every time I opened up my lunch, there it was. Bologna.

Who eats that stuff? (Besides my grandma).

But even as I sat there and ate my bologna sandwich that after each bite would get stuck to the roof of my mouth… it still wasn’t as bad as cafeteria food: a flimsy plastic tray filled with food that was lifeless and colorless.

Insert soggy green beans, a chicken sandwich and a side of fruit cocktail…with all the juices flowing together like a broken levy. Gross.

And now it’s cool?

Maybe they’ve come a long way since I was a kid…

Because now my extremely picker eater is demanding it.

No more turkey roll ups, go-gurts, snack packs, cinnamon graham crackers, grapes or apples.

He wants floppy green beans and French bread pizza.

Well see how long this lasts…