Last Lunch

After fourteen years at the post, I made our eldest their last packed lunch this morning. School finishes for A'level students late morning tomorrow and they remove, as one, to the local public house for liquid lunches that will no doubt represent the real thing for years to come!

Unsure whether to jump for joy, or shed a tear for the speed at which the fourteen years of school have sped by, I remembered the umpteen times I've made up sandwiches at break-neck speed whilst fielding, 'have you seen my socks', and 'is there any milk left' type questions. It's not necessarily the sandwiches that cause the problems - although with the eldest they can do - but what the heck else do you put in there that will fill them up and be nourishing rather than an easy 'fix'?

When we first embarked on this, back in September 1999, I began with brown bread. The four year old child soon asked to try school dinners! A few weeks of tired child later and me assuming that all children were this exhausted after a day in front of the blackboard, a kindly teaching assistant told me that my child clearly didn't like the school food and would 'pick and leave', rather than pick and mix. 

We've tried home made bread (we have a machine, I'm not that much of a saint!), white, brown, a mix; rolls, hastily heated ciabatta, wraps. All have come and gone and begun again. For our eldest the fillings are the trickiest: eggs (smelly, no - but happily eaten at home), tuna, ditto; ham and cheese safe bets, but boring after a while even when mixed with assorted chutneys or pickles; marmite a no-no and not for the eldest the back-up bets of peanut butter or houmous that are acceptable for others. Not a fan of pork pies of sausage rolls, (probably just as well for long term health); we rang the changes with tubs of cold pasta or left over quiche, couscous or flasks of hot soup.

'Everyone else has crisps and sweets every day,' was the constant refrain back at the turn of the millenium. A quick playground straw poll indicated otherwise, but our concession has been Friday crisps and a small treat on high days and holidays - exam days, school trips or birthdays - at other times the food gestapo that is their mother puts in fruit, fruit and probably a little more!  Vetoed at primary school, nuts came into their own at secondary and have been a staple filler ever since. The eldest doesn't do raisins, has gone off kiwi-fruit, used not to like melon, but now does, thankfully, bananas bruise, apples are half-eaten, and our saving grace for these pre-exam stress-laden times has been the import of dried mango in large quantities courtesy of very kind friends in the Philipppines.

I signed off today with the addition of a kit-kat, (my generosity knows no bounds) and a tear in my eye.