Ever check the time, and realize that you have a little extra time in the day to go visit your child at school and say hello, maybe even share a sandwich with them?

Well what if you were told you couldn’t see them—that you were banned from visiting your kids during lunchtime?

One school in Darien, Connecticut has recently set up a new policy where they aren’t allowing any parents or guardians to come visit their children during their lunch hour. The district has seen an uptick in parents visiting, which has caused a bit of disruption, at least according to some executives and parents.

But others aren’t taking the new rule so well and believe that quality time is important with your kids, especially when you only have such a limited amount of time with them during the school week.

“It feels like a punch in the gut,” parent Jessica Xu, a mom with a child in first grade at the school. “I chose the town for the schools. I’m so frustrated the schools don’t want me there.”

The Darien School District is known for their respected schools, and being a moderate to wealthy income area as well. So more and more parents were finding the time to come eat with their child during their lunch hour, sometimes six or seven at a time.

Another frustrated mother thinks it’s sending the wrong kind of message to ban family from seeing their little ones during the school day.

“To just ban parents from the lunchroom, which is effectively what you’re doing with this email, I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think it’s in the spirit of a collaborative environment,” said Terry Steadman, another mom in the district.

“We believe that schools exist for children, and we work to develop the skills necessary for students to grow into engaged members of society,” said Tara Ochman, chairman of the Darien Board of Education. “We work every day on this mission so that our students embrace their next steps confidently and respectfully.”

One of the biggest reasons for the ban is because sometimes when a parent leaves, it can cause the child to get upset.

“From a professional perspective, when we’re the ones left dealing with your child when you leave, it wasn’t good,” said Franzese, who worked for eight years as a special education therapist in Weston, Connecticut. “We would call them helicopter moms.”

Some parents don’t see any issues with the new policy, and actually think it’s a good idea.

“It was good because kids have to be able to learn how to work with each other and socialize with each other, and putting a parent in changes the dynamic dramatically,” said Beth Lane, a mother in the town.

While there have been other such bans—like a district in Bereavement, Oregon, who had issues with numerous families bringing their children warm lunches each day—it’s mostly a non-issue elsewhere since most parents are at work when their child is eating lunch at school.

“In some schools it’s not really an issue at all because based on the population, parents aren’t able to come and have lunch. It’s something maybe parents aren’t able to do,” said Tanya Arja, a spokeswoman for schools in Hillsborough County, Florida.

Do you ever visit your child during their lunch time at school? What do you think of this no-parents-at-lunch ban at this school district?