Mom Sends Son To School With This Lunch And 3 Mini Cookies Get Sent Home For Being “Unhealthy”
Most parents want to make sure they’re kid eats healthy. But let’s face it: It’s no easy task to get a child to always eat their greens. There has to be some balance.
Plus, balance is important. After all, we need a little bit of sugar and fat on top of all that fiber and protein. That’s why we typically here the retort from parents to their kids, “You don’t get dessert unless you eat your dinner.” This common phrase has been around forever for good reason: Its simplicity. Eat the broccoli to make you healthier, and then rejoice in some ice cream. It’s not going to kill ya.
But in recent years, schools in the U.S. have tried even harder to get kids to eat healthier at home as well as at school. It’s not a bad thing: It’s a time that comes after years and years of popular sugary and highly processed snacks (hello, 90s), and we’re finally in a good place when it comes to health.
To keep up with it, many schools are making healthier school lunches and encouraging parents to pack meals with added nutrition. Some schools even go so far as to check their students’ lunch to make sure the food meets nutrition requirements.
While they may have good intentions, that doesn’t mean schools are always the best judge when it comes to determining what’s healthy and what’s not. One mom, Laura Lee, recently discovered that.
Laura recently sent her 2.5 year-old to preschool with a lunchbox filled with goodies (pictured above). There was a tuna sandwich, hummus, loads of veggies (the cucumber slices were even cut into flower shapes for extra incentive to eat the greens), crackers and cheese.
Oh yeah, and three mini chocolate chip cookies.
They say a meal with color is healthiest, and this lunchbox looks like a rainbow, doesn’t it? There’s protein, fruit, carbs—a totally well-balanced meal. At least in our eyes (and we’d assume most nutritionists’ eyes, too).
Unfortunately, the preschool didn’t think so and sent the child home because the lunch as “too unhealthy,” Cornwall Live reports.
Laura was mostly confused. She took to Facebook to discuss the situation. “‘I sent my 2.5 yr old son to school with this and the cookies got sent home because they’re unhealthy,” Laura posted. “There was 3 MINI cookies.”
Her post quickly went viral with appalled parents everywhere who couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“There is nothing wrong with this packed lunch. It shows a well thought and balanced selections,” one mom wrote to Laura. “Made with a lot of love.”
“I work in a nursery and believe me, I have seen some terrible packed lunches in the past!” another commenter posted. “This looks perfect to me!”
“What an absolute joke,” another person said. “Awesome looking lunch!”
In fact, we can’t find one person on Laura’s page who agrees with the person who sent home the lunchbox!
What do you think—did the lunchbox police (aka the school ) take things too far? Have you ever had your child sent home because of an “unhealthy” lunch? How do you feel about schools getting so involved in what kids are eating?
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