Her son’s teacher allegedly refused to open the snack “because it’s not healthy”.
Ashley Griffiths shared the strange experience with her 330,000 TikTok followers in a video that has now gone viral. Photos / Instagram and TikTok
“I don’t remember asking you,” she chuckled in the video.
Griffiths revealed that she made an effort to ensure the lunchbox was “very well balanced” with dairy, fruit, sandwiches and cold meats. She said that there was “lots of selection, lots of variety, because that’s what we believe in this house”.
“It’s our job as adults to provide enough food and variety for our son’s nutritional needs to be met and to allow him to listen to his body and make decisions accordingly,” she said.
“That means he’s allowed to have sweet things sometimes. I know some people call them ‘treats’ or ‘sometimes foods’ or whatever. We just call it food in this house. We do not attach a moral value to food.”
The mum said that she felt “annoyed” by the teacher’s actions, going on to say that she made a decision “based on her own diet culture bulls***” and “shamed (her son) in front of his friends”.
“As far as I’m concerned, if my son has eaten his ham and his cheese and his yoghurt and his fruit and his sandwich, he can have the f***ing cake if he’s hungry. He can eat the f***ing cake because it’s not in there to be a decoration. I made the decision to put it in there for him,” she said.
Griffiths then asked her followers whether she should issue a formal complaint with the school regarding the incident.
Many of the mums who follow Griffiths had similar stories.
“I made my daughter fruit bars that I freaking made and her school labelled them unhealthy. Next day I sent them with the ingredients list,” one mum shared.
“My kids didn’t eat for a whole day because apparently their lunch box was too unhealthy. Had twiggy sticks and fruit and white bread sandwich,” another revealed.
“My son’s kindy did this, so I just put everything opened in containers and told him to tell them ‘mum said yes and she’s the boss’. He did that,” said another follower.
What’s more, one social media user revealed that the problem extended beyond teachers, saying: “There was a parent at my son’s school that took it upon herself to go through the class lunch boxes and left notes saying what was unacceptable.”
One follower suggested Griffiths buy a sticker, sold by Aussie paediatrician Kyla Ringrose, that cautions teachers to not tamper with schoolkids’ lunches.
“Everything in this lunchbox has been packed by someone who really cares,” the sticker reads.
Mum slams teacher who refused to open a snack in her son’s lunchbox for a shocking reason. Photo / Getty Images
“Please let my child eat as much of these foods as they feel like, in whatever order they choose.”
Now it has been reported that Griffiths brought up the problem with her son’s schoolteacher, who was confused by the supervising teacher’s actions.
“Next time, I’m just going to send it to school open so that he doesn’t have to ask someone and therefore be subject to that sort of judgment,” the mum told Yahoo.
“I think if the school system wants to regulate what our children are eating and what they have access to, then they should provide the food. If not, they can just butt out and leave parents to do the best that they’re doing in a pretty s***** situation because look at the economy.”
