Jill Smokler, AKA Scary Mommy
@scarymommy
Latest posts by Jill Smokler, AKA Scary Mommy (see all)
- The Disney Reveal - May 14, 2013
- Met My Match At Disney… - May 13, 2013
- Sunday’s Baltimore Sun - May 11, 2013
Yesterday, I was standing in the kitchen making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, when Jeff came up behind me.
“You’re not making those with much love,” he snidely remarked, as I plopped the jelly down, assembly line style, on three slices of bread.
“Love?” I snorted. “No, not really.”
Perhaps it’s that they’ve eaten the same thing every day for years. Perhaps it’s that when I swap out any of the items, they come home, uneaten, and I’m met with famished children. Perhaps it’s that I’m half-asleep in the morning when I’m making them. Perhaps it’s that I would much rather be eating their PB&J than my Greek yogurt. Perhaps it’s that I have six dozen loads of laundry to do and a sink full of dirty dishes. Perhaps it’s that I show my love for my children a billion other ways. It could be any of the above. Or, all of them.
But, no, love is not the secret ingredient in their lunch boxes.
These are the lunches made with love.
A lot of love.
A whole lot of love.
And a little bit of crazy.
Mine are made out of necessity.
And I bet they taste just as good.
{ 205 comments… read them below or add one }
Not sure where those “made from love” lunches came from but I felt the love just looking at them. I think I will make a ritual. Once a month for my princess she will get that kinda lunch. Once a month? You ask. Well hell yes that looks time consuming. So not the point of your post but can’t help it those lunches are so cute!
Oh, they are the cutest thing EVER! But, can you imagine making them everyday? It’s insane.
I bet THOSE moms only have 1 kid. And no outside job.
I bet they’ve got NO kids! Those lunches are fore themselves, for sure.
Ha Krys, maybe so! And ScaryMommy, I think your lunch looks great btw.
xo
This is a super old post and yet I’m still gonna comment. The simple reason for the comment is to tell you, Raquel- I like you. That’s all. That’s it. Does there have to be any other reason than the sharing of the same name? :)
Whaaaat? Who makes those lunches? They are ridiculous! haha.
Also… we can’t bring in PB&J to schools anymore – I don’t know what the EFF I’m going to do – that’s what I was raised on. PB&J, PB&Banana, PB&Honey. None of it. Ziltch.
That, and the cheese buns with nothing inside… just the cheese bun thrown into a bag. Awesome. I think I’ll have to keep with that tradition, at least.
Wowsers…what age group? Elementary? I’m curious b/c my daughter’s middle school was similar in the peanut policy until this year b/c parents claimed the kids were old enough to know what they needed to stay away from. Proponents for the rule staying in place said even a 12 yr old might not know something contained peanuts. But you’re right; that’s hard since it’s what so many of us grew up on (and it’s so much friggin’ easier than making cows outta cheese!).
All pre-schools & elementary schools have that policy. So, basically, you cannot eat PB until you’re in high school – in public, anyway. Although, we aren’t even allowed to give them PB for breakfast on school days, just in case they aren’t washed properly. Ugh.
Wow that’s hard core. My oldest started preschool and they never said anything about what we could or couldn’t bring. I send a pb&j every time. I thought it was weird but it’s a super small school and there’s no one there with an allergy. I’m more than happy to send something else but I’m not going to until it’s necessary. KWIM?
Nope, not all. Mine doesn’t. Yet.
Look for “pea-butter”. It tastes almost the same, without the peanuts.
My son was allowed to take PB sandwiches, but for his snack there couldn’t be anything peanut related because all of the kids with a peanut allergy were packed into one classroom. For lunch, however, some people can’t really afford to go out and buy all the lunch meats and cheeses every week. PB is cheaper and lasts longer.. I think the school understood that because all they expected was for the children to wash their hands after they ate before leaving the lunchroom.
WOW. really?
We don’t have those rules down here.
We don’t have those rules here either. Our school still offers pb&j as a lunch choice although the neighboring school district has decided that no one is allowed to bring any kind of lunch from home.
luv this no pb& j til high school (similar here too) so there you have it cigarettes and pb&j for highschool kids only…geesh. and don’t ask me my theory on peanut allergies and why they are so wide spread now…..
Not every school….We live in PA and neither of my kids’ schools, 1 high school, 1 elementary, have no peanut policies.
OK. All schools in Ontario, Canada.
Does anyone else see what looks like asparagus in the last pic? My kids are in college and they STILL wouldn’t eat that.
I totally noticed it and no way in hell would any of my kids go near that shit!
definitely noticed… that’s how I know these women create these for their own self esteem and blog posts. Kids don’t eat asparagus!
My son eats asparagus – but probably wouldn’t at school.
bacon wrapped asparagus, YUM!
the only better way to eat asparagus is bbq’d.
We have the same no peanut butter to school issue. You can send soy butter. It tastes almost the same….if there is a lot of jelly with it.
I feel your pain. The school my kids go to has an allergy allert sign on every classroom door now and though they still allow PB sandwiches at lunch, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was soon banned here as well…
Here’s a few PB substitutes my kids love that are pretty easy too:
Lunch mean, shredded cheese, shredded carrots, and ranch dressing in a tortilla.
Bagel with cream cheese and lunch meat.
Small salad with their fav toppings with the dressing on the side.
I think all lunches are made with love, even if they are whipped up 4 mins. before the bus arrives as you yell at the kids for not putting their shoes on sooner! :D
As a mother of a kid with a peanut (and tree nut) allergy, I’m sorry for the frustration the no PB rule causes. Even though my kid has known and understood for a few years not to eat PB or any kind of nuts, her friends don’t know/understand/remember that she can’t have it. When she was in kindergarten, one of her friends did the “Open your mouth and close your eyes and you will get a big surprise.” As the little girl went to put something her my daughter’s mouth, my daughter smelled PB. She opened her eyes quickly and looked. Sure enough, her friend was feeding her PB. She told the friend she couldn’t eat it because she was allergic but who knows if the friend will remember. After all, it’s not the friend’s allergy.
I’m very fortunate in that my kid likes the food I make (I don’t know how in the hell that happened) and, after being in daycare from the time she was 8wks old, she likes big lunches sooooo … her lunches are leftovers or things I can make in batch and throw in the freezer. She has taken franks-n-beans, tuna casserole, meatloaf, tacos, corn dog muffins, pigs-in-a-blanket, mac’n'cheese with leftover chicken (boneless) and broccoli added, etc. Add some yogurt, string cheese, fruit and SunChips and it’s not a horrible lunch.
And don’t worry about whether the food is hot or not. They don’t care too much about that in elementary school.
Hope this helps.
I sympathize for those that live with the allergy – it can’t be easy and I’m sure terrifying at times.
All in all, it’s just not like it was in the good ‘ol days, eh?
(I say that while scratching my ass with my imaginary walking cane, hunched over, reading with my bifocals.)
My mother even made us peanut butter with lettuce sandwiches… I never remember questioning that combination and now I’m wondering if that’s weird and since we’re on the topic, anyone else ever had lettuce on their PB sandwiches??
No lettuce, but I got peanut butter and butter – on good old fashioned processed white bread. It’s amazing that I wasn’t 100lbs by the time I was 4.
Those lunch boxes are called bentos and they are from Japan – made by Japanese moms who wake up as early as 5 am to toil in the kitchen!
I have so many friends who are bento ninjas. I’ve lived in Japan for more than 10 years and have become a ninja of so many things but not bentos! :)
Ha Ha : ) I always wonder about those mothers that make crazy fancy lunches : ) Like, I wonder if they have a life : ).
I am making Kaish lunch this week for camp and he told me I am a bad lunch packer. He hasn’t liked any of my choices so far. I asked him if he loves the little notes I put in there and he said ‘NO, I am embarassed every day and I hope noone sees them. Stop sending them.’ Just beautiful…. : )
Aw, I’m expecting the sixth grader to tell me stop it w/the notes this year. But I’m really hoping I’m wrong.
Awe my mom used to put cards and notes in my lunches. I loved them! And when I started making my own lunches she would slip them in my bag. Keep it up!
Awwww! I love the idea of notes. I do it occasionally (OK, like twice) but it’s so sweet. You better not stop.
OMG – so funny. Poor Kaish and his bad lunches with love notes. ;) You crack me up.
My mom left notes for me as a kid. Try sending in jokes… I loved getting jokes and my friends and I would try to guess the answer. Just an idea.
My mom used to always draw me a curly-haired smile face on my napkin with a little note (even when I was being an unrealistic snag, she managed to love me) … and she packed my lunch for me every day until the day I graduated high school. I always thought it was goofy/annoying/embarassing, but later when she’d come to visit and I’d pack her a snack for her plane ride home, I’d return the favor, and it always made me smile thinking of her in mid-air finding my note (she probably cried, but that’s how she rolls). I whole-heartedly agree that you should keep up the tradition, no matter how much he protests … you love Kaish, and you are allowed to show it, dammit … he’ll get over the mortal embarassment the second his attention is diverted, and he will love you all the more for your persistence, once he’s old enough to appreciate it (so I hear, boys’ brains don’t gel until sometime in their 20s, but I’d swear it’s MUCH later!) Good job, Mama!
This fall I’m going to have to add a lunch to the lunch making assembly line (my husband and I both bring our lunches w/ us to work)- thus adding another 15 minutes to my morning routine. So, 15 minutes a day, times 5 days in a week, is 75 more minutes of sleep I’m going to lose in a week or about 50 hours of sleep loss a year once ‘Tons of Fun’ starts school. 50 MORE FRACKING HOURS A SLEEP. THAT is the reason I can’t make fancy lunches.
MAKE CHEESE SANDWICHES IN BATCHES, YOU CAN FREEZE THEM!
Make them the night before? I sometimes do that when I can’t eat in the cafeteria (I start work at 7am and I refuse to get up even earlier then I do now)
agreed! make them the night before and stick them in the fridge. my hubby won’t get up early enough to make one, so he has to make them the night before or he doesn’t get lunch xD
OK so w/the first picture I gained new respect for you because that. is. awesome. At the second and third, though, I kinda wondered if you were a bit off for spending that much time on lunch (but still thought they were pretty cool). By the crazy one I figured it out and agree…a tad bit crazy. Your necessity lunch looks like my girls’. (Wishing Daddy would listen to their protests against those nasty as* Lunchables).
Those are NOT my pictures. Just the last one. :)
Ha! I caught on once I got to the creepy tiki torches :o)
Oh my God. Seriously? My kid is lucky to get a home made lunch. I literally dance for joy on the days that he wants hot lunch at school or daycare.
My cheapness is the only thing keeping me from school lunches. One of these days, I’ll give in.
yes, you totally will. i held out as long as possible, then started begging them to buy. when i realized how unhealthy they were, i taught them to pack their own lunches.
loved the cute pictures, but yours is MUCH more real.
Yeah…..I make them do school lunch. I have 4 kids and there is no fricken way I could do the assembly line for all of them. I would go mental….then with the no peanut butter business. Ugh.
Um. Though the lunches above are beautiful, the people who made them know the kid is going to destroy the thing in about five seconds, right?
Cute name…new mom on the blog – ha! so clever.
Those made-with-love lunches aren’t going to count for much when the mom who made them ends up in the rest home, banging her head against the walls. The most I’ll do is cut off the crusts (which means that I eat the pbj-smeared crusts for breakfast. Calories don’t count if you eat standing up, right?)
Of course they don’t! They also don’t count from food made for others.
F’ing bento box moms! Seriously you put all that effort into it and in the end it’s a freaking pb&j or ham & cheese the kid doesn’t even notice it. The mom’s do it for themselves and for their blogs. AND it’s wasteful. I want to know what happens to the rest of the cheese, or the bits of cheese/fruit/veggies that being shaved and cut and shaped away.
And maybe I’m just lazy and jealous. Who knows.
No, you’re right. There’s no way they’re doing that for the kids, who’d prefer a simple sandwich like everyone else.
I tuck the scraps under, or put them in MY lunch. I don’t do ‘beautiful lunches’ every day, because it IS time consuming, and requires a LOT of planning, but my daughter LOVES her fancy foods (‘beautiful lunch’ is her words for them.) She won’t touch a hard-boiled egg for love or money, but if I draw a face on it with food-coloring pens or cut-out seaweed or cucumber peel? She can’t jam it in her gob fast enough! She tries new foods because I’ve made them exciting and she’s distracted by the ‘pizzazz’ of the whole meal.
Who the H has time to do that stuff? It’s beautiful and I wish someone would make me a lunch like that, but I don’t know that my kids would even eat that. “Momma, my sandwich has a face! It’s too cute to eat!”
I love my children but I hate making lunches. Mine are made with disdain. lol
hahaha, the ones I actually make are also made with a generous portion of disdain. Mostly though I tell the 7yr old she can get off her butt and make pb&j sandwiches for everyone unless she wants them all to starve. Breakfast? Go make yourself a bowl of cereal.. even the 5yr old can do that himself.
My favorite way to wake up….. “Mommy, we already ate breakfast and I made you a pot of coffee” … I love my self sufficient kids!!!
ummmm….can you send your kids over to my house?
PLEASE!!!! Those are the good mornings…. I didn’t say they were the norm lol. Yes, they do a lot of things for themselves, which is awesome….. unfortunately that doesn’t carry over into cleaning or reduced whining. :))
As soon as my kids start paying me, i’ll start making their lunches that way. God knows i certainly wouldn’t get any love and appreciation back for it. Ps I showed the seven year and his response was “no way am I eating that”. How’s that for appreciation.
The pretty lunches are cool, but they do that for themselves. The kids forget the extra stuff as soon as it’s eaten. They do remember food though and as long as it’s what they like, they don’t care!
I spend hours looking at those bento boxes in amazement and admiration, but I would be a little freaked out if that were my mom.
Here’s the question: Is it LOVE. Or someone with WAAAAY too much time on their hands?
That’s much more likely.
I personally do not think that these are real lunches, just made for magazine stuff!! The scary mommy lunch looks good to me!
–>I recently got to the end of the bread which I hate eating. I used both and turned them brown side in to make my son’s sandwich. Thankfully, it tricked him.
His stomach didn’t now the difference.
http://www.websavvymom.com
“Know” not now. Grrr…
You are da bomb! I will use that trick later…
If you use a cookie cutter to make it into a favorite shape, you won’t even be betrayed by the curled-up edges!
Ah, honey I can relate. My lunches are legendary. My whole family, (even my hubby)have banded together in their dislike of my lunches. My sandwiches have been rated as a .5 on the 5 star scale. My youngest refuses to even take a lunch and eats in the cafeteria every day. Well, hard cheese to all of them, they can make their own bloody lunches.
I secretly hate all bento box users. I’m more into the processed food, cheetos OMG my kids love my laziness method.
yea, but when my kids start going to school, our district requires waste free lunches. Even if you send cheetos or wrapped products, you have to take them out of the wrapper and put them in a reusable container. Pain in the ass, but it is the rules. We also have a nut free school district. :-/
are you kidding me?!?! our kids are graduating high school without the ability to write a decent paper or perform simple math equations, but the schools are spending time/resources policing lunchs? I totally understand nut free that’s a life or death matter but really does it matter if I throw the cheeto bag away at home or if my kids throws it away at school? does it cut down on janatorial costs? what’s the logic?
actually it does save on costs, as the schools have private trash pick-up so it costs them less. It doesn’t bother me anyway, cuz I don’t buy the little bags of chips. I buy the big ones and will just pack them in containers anyway. You get more for your money that way.
I am sorta jealous of the waste free lunches you have. Our public school is k-3. Only the kindy kids occasionally get a real lunch tray. Everyone else gets styrafoam trays. Or they pack their crap hot lunch into a paper bag and call it a bagged hot lunch (think a hotdog wrapped in alum foil, a bag of baby carrots, a juice pouch) and all the cutlery is plastic when they get it at all. I cannot even imagine what the trash bill is for just our school.
We also do peanut free classrooms. They put all the allergic kids in the same class. My kids will starve if they ever end up in one of those ;)
those god damn bento box things drive me crazy.
who has time for that shit
pass me the teddy grahams!
I put Teddy Grahams in my bento lunches…. Just in a cute muffin liner! With a teddy-bear-shaped sandwich!
You. are. adorable.
I get to have mine all here for lunch now, so they usually get hot lunches, and to some extent they are made with love. When I packed lunches in the past or when I do occasionally now for field trips etc. I did put effort into it. Lots of healthy things, a treat, and I always took a bite out of one sandwich half. Because then they’d think of me when they were eating it and it made them smile :)
Ohhh the notes too, they love the notes. I had a little keychain voice recorder too and I used to record the baby laughing, then later saying “Hi Daddy” and put that in my hubby’s lunch. He so loved that, and would listen to it while he ate every day. See? We don’t need sculpted food animals to show love in lunches.
You sound like my mom! She would often excise the “Mommy Tax” from whatever we were eating. Especially M&M’s or french fries. :)
I have always called it “quality control.” After all, I wouldn’t want to serve my angels something I wouldn’t eat myself, right?? *insert high quality eye roll here* Just another reason for the extra poundage on my hips! :)
I think I saw the mom that made those lamb sandwiches get punched in the face by a PB&J mom. Seriously, though, she had it coming.
Jay
PS – Hi Jill! ;-)
You know, after jostling around in a bookbag for a while, those lunches would NOT look that way anymore. I show the love by putting a note in my children’s lunchbox.
I love this! These are bento box lunches! They are fantastic! And freaking adorable. My friend just turned me on to these yesterday. What a coinky-dink that you should post about them today.
You’re a totally rad mom. And you know it. ;)
Er…I’m one of those crazy lunch packing mothers. But, not TOTALLY crazy – my son will not eat seaweed, no matter what cute shape it’s in! I did try to make a fun lunch for him everyday in Pre-K this past year, with normal food I had in the fridge. Took ten minutes tops in the morning. (Yes, I even made a blog about it… http://www.snackstyle.com)
I’m with you. I love the look of those lunches, but just have it in me to do that every day. Or ever. The grapes? One half of each color? No. Not ever.
Lol!!! I made a lunch with love once and it was met with disapproval. So yay I was back to peanut butter and jelly the next day. I approach lunch making with avoidance and irritation which I think is the secret to a yummy PB&J.
eff that shit. i grew up on leftovers in thermos containers, lunchables, and deli meat rolls (i hate soggy bread, no matter how mom made the sandwiches the bread always ended up soggy), a fruit snack, drink, and either a mini candy bar or some other type of dessert.
I….ummm….I have no words.
I’m both in awe/jealousy/wonder & two-point-five seconds from sharing my therapist’s number with these people because DUDE.
I honestly think Harrison would look at a lamb sandwhich & be like, “The fuck?” He’s way too much like me.
Wow, I get asked to make lunch, and my response? WHAT?! Our school has free lunch for all the kids, are you kidding me?! That, DS, is money I have already spent on taxes. Besides, they are much healthier. Love you!
OMG! You make me miss Japan! My aunt used to make bento box lunches like that. Those things are like bonsai trees. (FYI, she had to get up at 4 am to be all artsy and she spent all day in the kitchen. Who has time?)
I would totally love to have those lunches made for ME. Why waste that shit on kids???
Love the artsy lunches if I was in some sort of contest to win ‘prettiest lunch award’ and award being money or spa day. Not for my childrens consumption. Now I DO attempt to make their lunch look funny. so balogna and cheese are cut up, then with raisins I attempt to make a smiley face of sorts. And this is only because they eat the same damn thing all the time. Spice it up a bit.
My question is, would my children be in charge of returning reusable bags? I’m not seeing that happening. So they would just throw out more expensive bags…
I agree.
While I think those bento boxes are NUTS – I do use cookie cutters on our sandwiches to make them look cuter. Nothing nuts, just a butterfly, a kitty, a circle and a heart. :)
And also, not every school has banned pbj – ours doesn’t.
That’s what I do, and if I’m feeling extra nice, I have smaller cutters for the cheese slices.
My older son carries a bento box, but it’s not all cutesy like those. He just likes it because he doesn’t want his food to touch, and they come with all sorts of compartments and containers.
Sometimes I cut their PB&J sandwiches into triangles instead of squares. That’s loving, right?
I occasionally even cut their sandwiches into 4 little triangles! That’s even more loving!! LOL!
No. Way. In. Hell.
MAYBE for their birthday lunch…. no, probably not even then.
It’s totally cute for pictures, though, for at least the 3 minutes before it get shoved in the book bag and jostled around.
I love the idea of making these fantasy lunches. Key word being the IDEA. Making the lunch itself? Not so much. My kids are definitely more likely to eat something if it’s in a fun arrangement or shape, but I’m talking using a flower cookie cutter to cut cheese, not creating an entire farm scene. Someone’s trying to make use of their art degree. And I have an unused art degree, so I can say that. :)
I’m so glad my daughter is not allergic to peanuts, or I’d be lost as to what to make her for lunch :)
Love the made with love lunches, but in my world 1. I don’t have time, and 2. I don’t think she’d notice or appreciate them :(
Someone’s got too much time on their hands or they do this for a living. I can love the hell out of their lunch by paying $15 for someone else to do it too.
I make my sons’ lunch from necessity. If we had that kind of time in the morning, I’m losing precious sleep time.
First of all I’m glad I’m not the only one who makes PB&J everyday for the kiddos … it’s their fav, so why fix it if it isn’t broken. And the “love” lunches…well WOW! That person has ALOT of time on their hands, and that person is NOT me.
I had to hide the computer screen from my DD. She is in the cutesy-princess stage right now and everything has to look “fancy.” While they wouldn’t last more than a few seconds, I would be stuck in the hell of making (or hearing about making) those *every *stinkin *day. She starts kindergarten next month…Momma thinks she can eat the school lunch unless she can make it herself.
I wish I could like some of these comments! Yes, after being bounced around in thier bag it will not look like that, and no they probably aren’t going to appreciate it. And I would bet money those moms have people cleaning for them, or they have nannies. No way I’d have time to do all of that.
Jill- I am sure your kids know you love them, and I bet it because you hug them, not because you take hours to make their food look silly.
Umm. My kids get hot lunch. From the school. So they don’t die from food poisoning. This is how I show my love for them.
I love your response. Mine gets the same. :)
the closest I come to those lunches? is using fun cookie cutters to make shapes out of the PB & J sammies I make my kids. They are partial to a snail one we have and a butterfly. WHatever. But the rest of this shiggedy? OMG. Who has time for that???
I laugh at these women behind their backs. But I figure it is alright because they are probably totally judging/laughing at me about something different.
WHO has that much TIME? Really??? I buy the rice krispie treats you can write on and put notes on there for them. But yeah, all that would be wasted on my kids.
but making lunches out of love tastes so much better..
at least that’s what I think
This so sounds like something my husband would say, especially since he NEVER makes lunches. Erin your lunches look just like the ones I pack. My kids are insistent that they have the same exact thing in their lunches every day. Even now when they go to summer camp and have to take a sack lunch they have the same thing, except instead of a sandwich they take the crackers with cheese. I tried to do something different once and Paige refused to eat her lunch. That is when you just give up.
The moms that made those lunches? Make me feel like a huge failure as a mom. Seriously, who has time for that? I’m lucky to get the time to take a shower!
First of all, I’ve never understood those cutesy lunches. I think, as parents, we reap what we sow… and I definitely don’t want to sow a kid who refuses to eat anything not shaped like a bunny.
Secondly, am I the only mom in the world who makes her son make his own damn lunch? He’s done it every day since he started kindergarten. Granted, in the beginning we made our lunches together and I had to help him a fair amount with his. But after kindergarten he’d had enough practice and has been making them completely by himself ever since. His sandwiches aren’t always pretty, but they’re perfectly functional. And? Bonus! He knows how to make his own lunch, which is great because the last thing the world needs is another man who can’t take care of himself. :) I won’t lie – it’s kind of a pain in the butt getting them all up to speed (especially when they’re working with clumsy five-year-old fingers), but the pay off is SO worth it.
Amen sister!!!
I was about to commend you for your kid-friendly lunch; but then realized those were baby carrots lurking in the corner.
I thought they were puffy Cheeto’s. =)
How about a happy medium? I agree there is no time for those “made with love” lunches. BUT…how about less preservatives, more vitamins, and less waste? Sounds a little tree-huggerish, I know, but check these lunches out…they are much less time consuming but still totally healthy and delicious:
http://www.eatplayparent.com/2011/07/laptop-lunches-update.html
I completely agree with that. Lunches filled with junk food and prepackaged everything with no nutritional value are a big part of the obesity problem in North America and lets face it, how can you fuel your brain and body to do well at school if what you’re feeding it with? Fresh fruits and veggies, yogurt, cheese, milk, wheat bread with meat and lettuce, salads with shrimp etc. go a lot further than something grabbed out of a box. Sculpting it into animals is unnecessary and silly, but kids need good food, and they do eat things like asparagus if it’s a common thing from the time they start solids. I guess it’s all what you buy and if you’re willing to take a few minutes to plan ahead once a week.
bwahahaaaa ;-) you crack me up.
Those are gorgeous and adorable lunches, I am not that crafty.
My kids do get sandwiches cut with cookie cutters, though ;-)
:-)
Yes, I bet they do girlfriend! XO
Your lunch looks delish.
I want the last one because it comes in a fanny pack like container (multiple uses possible) and does not scream “Martha Stewart was here! You losers”.
No and hell no. Who has the time? And the “loving notes of encouragement?” Ditto.
http://tinyurl.com/68963gp
Those are some…interesting lunches. Disturbing. And interesting.
My lunches aren’t really made with love either. Although, sometimes I do stamp out sandwich shapes with a cookie cutter. It looks like love, but it only takes a couple of seconds. :D
There is no way in hell I wud ever waste my time making that! My kid wud probably be trading the whole thing for a bag of cheetos anyway.
I love the pics. And Im a Bento mom, But I dont do the super cute shaped food. DD dosent like her food touching either, and she likes to dip. I make rice balls into fun shapes, Sandwich, fruit or veggie and something to dip what ever shes eating that day. And she has cute little boxes, etc to put it in. I learned early from my days in Japan that bento dosent have to be super cute. Its more about serving size and whats healthy and easy to pack and ship off. Also I can do it the night before when Im cleaning up from dinner (huge time saver) Since I pack my with left overs most days.
She also falls into the no PB&J category. But she gets it at home when she asks.
Ha ha! we ride the PBJ train almost everyday. Lunch is just the meal before the 2nd most important part of the day. Naptime.
Yours are still about 3x better than mine. Since half the stuff I put in he never eats anyway, I’ve stopped adding it all. So now he gets the bare minimum. Sandwich, banana (for a snack, not even his lunch), juice box. Voila, enjoy!
In regard to the photos of those fancy lunches, are f’g kidding me? No, i do not have that kind of time or patience.
Those lunches are adorable and even if I had the time to do something like that mine would never remotely resemble that.
My mil is convinced that the ONLY thing that I can send for my DD’s lunch is PB&J because everything else will grow bacteria and kill her by the time she gets home. FML
I loved the post! Although I would go postal trying to make those fancy ones, I sometimes take the cookie cutters to my kids’ food. I have tons, so it makes it special for them (I can spell their names in bologna), do holidays, etc. And sometimes I take a Sharpie and draw faces on their bananas. Oh, and the love? The packed lunch IS the love!
Who has time to make lunches with love?! I think yours is made with love, just a lot less time consuming.
My daughter is so picky that she wouldn’t eat the “love lunches” anyway – all the foods are touching each other! ewwww… gross!
I’m not a shape maker for the lunches…and when my son says he doesn’t think it’s made with love…I say that’s what the school lunches are…if I didn’t love you I would not be here pre-coffee making your lunch. You should feel lucky you have a Mom that will make your lunch….Granted he doesn’t like PB&J but he gets Pepperoni and Cheese with spinach…but all the same.
Pre-coffee lunch making? You’ve got the order wrong. It’s 1) hit the snooze bar, 2) hit the snooze bar, 3) make coffee, 4) make lunches. I can’t do anything until the coffee is ready. And the noise from the coffee grinder gets everyone else out of bed!
Love the look of the lunches “made with love” but have never put together anything that fantastic (and I have been making lunches for a long time). I am the oldest of five children and used to make all of our lunches (yes, I did, Mom) and those were certainly not made with love – efficiency and speed, yes. I had to make Kosher Dairy Lunch for a while – http://bit.ly/mZaC9M
Those lunches are gorgeous! Way above my time and interest level, unfortunately, but gorgeous nonetheless. My lunches look like your lunches… both for the husband and the kids, and they love them just as much as they would if they looked like zoo animals. :)
The multi-racial grapes and the carrots floweretts SLAY ME in the second to last photo.
Love this post so much! Frankly, I’m impressed you have some many food groups in yours. I’d consider that MUCH love. Those cows are out of control. And the two toned grapes on a stick. Oy. My poor kids. We’re long PB & J and yogurt tubes.
Were you spying at me this morning when I packed PB&J and yogurt tubes in my kids’ lunches?
I choked on my lunch at the first line; my thought being REALLY?? Other husbands say that @#$#! to their wives?? This completely changed my day. Thank you!
I am totally not game with making school lunches and I tried to not have to by giving my son money for lunch but he refuses to eat school lunch. Something about it being made with gross things so I make his lunch.
It sucks.
Making lunch in genral sucks. Why can’t we just all eat out all the time?
I would NEVER make lunches like that just to make my kid think he’s LOVED. Stupid.
At my daughter’s school they can’t have meat AND she’s allergic to peanuts. Try finding nutritious foods to fill five days a week with that. Arch! The closest my kids get to these is a sandwich cut with a cookie cutter in the shape of a heart.
My favorite lunch trick that I’ll share is to freeze applesauce cups. It works like an ice pack and thaws by lunch! I freeze yogurt sticks too.
By the way, I’m a teacher and for sure 60% or more of those fancy lunches would end up in the trash at school. Parents can say that their kids eat that stuff at home, but at school, with other kids watching, they wouldn’t dream of consuming such fare!
Those are works of art! What kind of an animal would eat a work of art?!
I’m glad that I am not the only one that just slaps food together for the lunch box because they refuse to eat anything that I ever put real effort into.
Lunch! I hate making lunch, more than I hate doing laundry or unloading the dishwasher…oops I might be divulging a little too much here. Anyway, totally feel ya on the lunch thing.
Lunch isn’t about love. Making up dorky dance routines together and letting your kids draw chin people on your face and then singing with your head hanging upside down off the couch–that’s the real love–in my house at least!
i have 3 boys. none of them would ever eat anything that looked cute. even when they were really little, i tried cutting sandwiches into stars, hearts, etc. they wouldn’t even eat that! i can’t even imagine the rath i would recieve for those, but later i’m going to use them to let them know….it could be WAY worse!!:)
one question? WHO IN THE HELL MAKES LUNCHES LIKE THAT FOR THIER KIDS? Seriously, I think PB&J is love, one if my fav memories growing up.
While on maternity leave with #2 I made great lunches for my toddler. I used shape cutters on her sandwiches, special tupperware to separate stuff out, well-balanced super healthy meals… now that I’m back to work with both kids in daycare it’s all pre-packaged crap, I can’t even be bothered to make a PB&J now that I have frozen uncrustables! Ugh.
I’m not going to lie: I am jealous of those lunches. Super jealous.
Those lunches are ridiculous. I’d take your “necessity” lunch over any of those any day!! (Who doesn’t love teddy grahams??)
My kids never eat their lunch anyhow, because there is “never enough time” for lunch… I don’t think a rice cow covered with raisins would make a difference, either.
Plus, I just don’t want to be that kind of mom. I just don’t.
Ok. So new to this blogosphere…..I am a mom of 3 boys and one girl all under 10. I work 40 hrs a week and have a husband in Iraq. Every damn thing we do is with love. Time is a luxury we do not have. Yeah, yeah pretty little lunches are nice love notes too….but really, lunch isn’t where its at. Do we tell them how much we love them? Do we raise them to be respectful little boys and girls? Your damn Skippy we do! That’s what makes good mommies. So screw the pretty little lunches and go hug your kiddos. Bring on the pb&j!!!!
Wow, I still think your lunch is not a bad one :) maybe it’s made with fondness rather than love LOL….the other ones are just crazy IMO…and my kid’s school is peanut free and guess what the only thing he really likes to eat is? PBJ or PB Fluff. Wheeee!
People who make those freak lunches regularly have too much time on their hands. Or too much mommy guilt. Or too much crazy.
Im sure they do, looks pretty good to me, and after all the love kids get I doubt they even notice :) lunches like those in the pics are made by either morning people or the night before! No way I’m I getting up hours early to make pretty lunches.
I TOTALLY BET THEY DO!!
YOU PRACTICAL WOMAN, YOU ROCK!!!
Go to that much effort for it then to be torn apart, partially eaten and thrown around the school ground? I don’t think so.
Your lunch looks perfect to me!
I have a fussy eater. She gets exactly the same thing for lunch every day. Exactly.
Wow some of you really have the knives out here, haven’t you? I especially love the comments that the mums do these kinds of lunches for themselves and their blogs… ouch. Next year when my cherub starts school I can’t see myself making animals or faces out of anything but I can say for sure I won’t be feeding her a whole lot of crap that will do nothing but make her fat and unhealthy. Just sayin’…
I’m praying that this wont turn into a worldwide trend.
And also: peanut butter and jelly? Yuk! That is just nasty. But hey, de gustibus et coloribus non disputandum (or something like that, my latin is a little rusty).
My Dutch wife would agree with you completely.
Pindakaas en jam? Ben je gek geworden?
Those fancy lunches are made by parents with tooooo much time on their hands! When I used to make the lunches (finally past the milestone of never having to do that anymore!), mine looked like yours :)
Those “loving” lunches are scaring me. One of my kids wouldn’t even eat half of what is there anyway. He is a “picky” eater so goldfish gogurt and PBJ is what he gets every day. He won’t eat anything else. Glad I found you Love you confessional. Come on over and join the ARMY. http://realarmyofmoms.blogspot.com
Must be some “sashimi-master” creation. Looks great though, I doubt the poor kids will have the nerve to eat those beautiful lunches, it will be like eating their “friends”.
The poor kid next to the kid with a lunch-box like that will get “lunch-box-envy”.
This comment cracked me up…eating their “friends” funny!
My food always taste great but looks like shit. I am all about taste and nothing about presentation. And I beg my kids to take hot lunch!
On a different note why can’t we see other people’s blog titles anymore on their comments? Is that just my computer and some setting I undid or is that taken out now? Not complaining just curious.
Yeah, the blog titles were a nice touch.
So the Bento boxes are a bit much for me, but this is something these people are interested in doing for their kids. One in particular studied in Japan and it helps her stay connected to that time. I know this is Scary Mommy and I pride myself on being among the scariest mommies of them all, but taking the pictures from someone’s site with their name tagged on it and calling them crazy? Sounds like a drive-by momming to me. Can’t we all just get along, y’all?
The mom who made the cow lunch lost all of her pregnancy weight within two months and looks better than she did before. She is so happy that she puts out twice a week for her husband and runs the PTA.
Isn’t she amazing.
THAT just made me laugh out loud (err, LOL? I feel so lame every time I write that…)
I think those lunches are made with too much fucking time.
Oh and love. Yes, love too.
MAYBE once in their lifetime as young kiddos. Come on, if someone ever even did this just once, it would be SO memorable, right? As for me, my kids are grown now but maybe one day for the grandkids!
My kids hate peanut butter and jelly! I guess it’s because they’re half Dutch and Dutch people would never eat PB&J. Dutch people wouldn’t eat peanut butter and chocolate either, so no Reese’s cups. I can’t explain it. My four-year-old son doesn’t even like milk on his cereal!
I don’t consider making lunch a love-inspired activity. It’s a necessity and that’s all. I throw a sandwich in there and some Sun chips and some carrots and send him on his way. I do think the notes are a cute idea. When he learns to read I might try that.
This Eric Carle lunch *almost* makes me want to go all Bento…
You are way ahead of me. I make one kid make the lunches for the rest for a whole week, then we switch to a new kid.
I am sure they make their lunches with love. Ha!! More likely with spit!! (I caught one of them licking another’s sandwich one time.)
I’d add love to my sandwiches if I got love, credit, acknowledgment, something for making them!
Dad gets to be the fun, cool guy in our house but I do all the behind the scenes things that makes our life run smoothly. Nobody ever credits that!
I think I wasted all the TLC in scrubbing the toilet thoroughly!
This is fantastic! I have never seen such lunches prepared before, those pictures look uber time consuming. I can simply say that my little one, when he or she finally arrives, will have to do with loveless PB&J :P
Making those lunches would be a full-time job. I’m going to say yours win, hands down.
Oh, Jill.
I don’t need love. (Many men can assure you of this.)
But I would LOVE someone to make me a lunch every day.
It would seriously up my nutrition from my current Cheez-It meal.
And really, I would be totally okay if it was made with hate.
As long as sandwiches were included, I’d be happy.
With 12 years in between my eldest and my youngest, the love left my sandwiches long ago. Thanks for reminding me that it is OK.
Ok, I might could see a stay home mom of one little angel doing this, but certain not the mom of normal children with more than one! Besides, it looks so time-consuming! When would you ever have time to blog and tweet???
Those Bento boxes are made quicker than you think, They use lots of moulds and cutters, And yes the Japanese housewife does do this. its a keeping up with the Joneses thing.
As for the second, No british school would ever allow a child to eat that. We are not allowed to put ANYTHING with sugar into the lunchbox.
If you do Its removed by a teacher and returned to the parent at the end of the day, The parents soon get the message and the kids learn too.
Those lunches must be selling the nifty boxes! When ever I try to make cute lunches they look like a copy of a Picaso painting (-:
Woops, I meant Picasso – I feel real smart (-;
Feel quite lucky looking and reading though this post. I live in Sweden, we don’t have to make lunch boxes for our kids. They get everything they need in school.
I want to know what kind of monster children could eat those adorable babies and cows!
*My* children are much to empathetic to be able to handle those kinds of lunches. I’m SPARING THEM trauma by not making those.
My boss plans to do the top-style lunches with her daughter in the fall. I think it’s a bit crazy, but to each their own I suppose. lol.
Just the absolute cutest little lunches ever! But waaay too adorable to allow children to eat them. ;-)
I think those lunch boxed look like they’re made by someone with too much time on their hands ;)
Whoever is making lunches like that ain’t gettin’ NOTHIN’ in the bedroom.
#WhoTheFuckHasThatMuchTime
#NotMe
There is no way I have the time to make those kind of lunches. My kids are now old enough to make their own and if they forget, they won’t forget again.
Still, every now and then I leave a small treat and a love letter in their lunchboxes (when they have finished making them).
They pretend to get all cross with me because I embarrassed them at school but I know they love it ;-)
I am laughing out loud. Those lunches are adorable…but no one in my house will EVER eat anything that looks that good…
I make bento lunches for both my kids pretty much every day. They’re not nearly as pretty as Anna Yamamoto’s are, granted, but I do it because I enjoy it and it makes the boring task of packing lunches more fun for me. My kids and I get up around 7:00 or 8:00, they’re at school/camp/day care by 9:00 and I’m sitting down at my desk to work by 9:30. The lunches really don’t take that much time, my boys love them, the kids at their schools don’t make fun of them and I know how to pack them so that they don’t get all messed up in their backpacks.
I’m pretty disappointed that you called out this woman by name on your blog and that you and 100 odd people have taken the time to call her crazy in the comments. You didn’t even give her the courtesy of linking up to the blog post these came from (http://www.parenting.com/gallery/bento-lunch-boxes) so she can check in and defend herself.
There’s nothing wrong with the lunch you packed and there’s nothing wrong with the ones she packs. Neither of you love your children more or less than the other.
And here I thought writing my kids a quick “I love you” note was good enough. Some people love their kids too much. How is a kid supposed to grow up and be well adjusted with a lunch like that? How are they supposed to live up to their own mothers when they have kids of their own? They’re cute as heck, but holy cow. Some people need lives outside of their children.
so making a cute lunch means they have no life? i think it’s cute. i don’t pack lunches, since my kids aren’t in school, but i do make cute lunches for my 3 year old. it doesn’t take alot of time, i spend more time making clothes for my daughter than i do making lunch for my son. and yes, i do have a life outside of my children, thank you very much, although it isn’t a very social one since i’m home alone with my 2 small kids with a deployed husband.
and in my opinion, you can NEVER love your children too much, that is absurd.
I just found your blog. Love it. We might be kindred souls. You know you can make pb and J’s the night before and freeze them? Then … they are like those lunchables the next day :) From our craziness to yours – to more lunch making….Kristen http://www.alittlesomethingforme.com
This post is fantastic. Making lunches (and believe me mine are 100% necessity) is a major deterrent for having another baby. True story.
Those lunches are made by people with way too much creative time on their hands. And I don’t have either – the creative OR the time.
Those lunches are not made of love, they are made of OCD and likely a high dose of uppers? What is it speed? Something that makes people have the time for such things. Crazy.
YOUR lunch, now that’s love.
These are wonderful lunches – I want one!
I hated packing lunches – I spit in my ex-husband’s every day!
My boys wanted to buy lunch they could have french fries and slushies!
My mom’s idea of a treat was celery!