Dad left fuming after being told to tone down kid's lunch box

One dad has been asked to rein it in when it comes to his child's lunch box. Photo / 123rf

My kids' school lunches range from super lazy with a plain croissant straight out of a packet, to gourmet Bento boxes with chopped fruit and vegetables hand-carved to look like a family of pandas at the beach (OK, I'm exaggerating).

I like to keep my kids guessing as to whether they're going to get a Martha Stewart-esque creative masterpiece, or something that looks like it was thrown together in a mad rush while wailing "STOP WATCHING YOUR BROTHER WHILE HE PEES!" and trying to tie a shoelace with one hand.

One family has been asked by a teacher, to tone down their lunch box flamboyance, and well … let's just say that the dad wasn't very impressed.

CREATIVELY-PACKED SCHOOL LUNCHES

"My kid is eight. Long story short, my wife tries to make really fun lunches for my daughter," the man wrote in his post to Reddit.

"She follows a couple of those school lunches pages on Instagram for inspiration or whatever. It's important to us that our child likes her lunches and that she's happy."

The man said their teacher had called and left a message asking them to tone the lunches down.

"My daughter's teacher called and left a message asking us that we simplify her lunches and do the typical sandwich thing because other kids 'don't have as elaborate as lunches and it might make them feel bad'," he continued.

So the dad did what many of us have done (and sometimes later regretted) – he wrote an angry email.

He basically said, "no we won't and that I really don't care, and that if other kids get upset then maybe it would be a good teaching moment for her," but has now asked if he was wrong to do so.

A GOOD TEACHING MOMENT

Most people agreed that this could have been a good teaching moment for the school.

"Does your boss request that you drive a 2007 Corolla because your co-workers can't stand to see a Tesla?" asked one person.

Another said, "I could see the teacher being upset if it's just completely unhealthy like the lunch box was filled with candy or a few bags of chips and nothing else. But the fact that it's just decent food to be fun, I don't think this should be any sort of issue."

A few pointed out the dad could have handled his response a lot better: "In the real world, an email like that could be considered a tad AHish; (a**hole-ish) could have been worded better. But yeah, the teacher is tons and tons of AH, because it is a teachable moment. I remember this really good phrase: 'The only time you look in your neighbour's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbour's bowl to see if you have as much as them'."