Did you pack or buy your school lunches as a kid? What about your kids now?

Mom always wanted us to have a hot lunch. Back when I was going to school it was 60cents. Little did she know that I just would pocket the money, and skip lunch all together. Now, my twins take lunch to school, I want them to have a hot lunch too...but they say the school food is disgusting. Well, I ate there with them one day...and you know, I have to agree. We always pack lunch now.

My mom sends me packed lunch when I was in my grade school days but not always and it stopped because she doesn't have time to do it anymore. My parents just give me my daily or sometimes weekly allowance to spend and budget on my own even until now.

I did both when I was little. Of course, my son is too little to do either one. :) I've always been really picky, so I packed my lunch on days that I didn't like what was on the menu. I went to a small school and we only had one choice in elementary. About half the time I didn't like that choice, so I brought my own. My mom packed mine usually, and she made it healthier than the school food anyway. She always packed a sandwich of some kind, along with a piece of fruit and some kind of veggies.

I packed lunch. My mom made real fancy sandwiches for me, ham, cheese, liverwurst, salami, real tasty things. And I always got fruit to go with lunch. My lunches were so good that the other kids alway envied them and wanted to trade. So sometimes I traded for some other kids lunch but I mostly ate what mom had made for me.

I've always packed my lunch, except for a couple years in elementary. There was this nearby small restaurant by our school and they deliver lunch to the school gates and you just get it from there. Pay is every month. It wasn't that expensive. I guess my mom wanted us to have warm lunch because when we bring lunch from the morning it gets cold and kind of wilted. And it's like, I have hotdogs for lunch everyday. So that was for variety. After those two years I've always packed my lunch. Even now that I'm in college (my house is not so far so I don't have to live in a dorm) I still bring lunch to school. Some find this really embarrassing but I don't care. It saves money. I did try to buy lunch at school for the first week of college, having a bigger allowance and all it's like, whoa, I've got money. So I did, and I kind of grew tired of it. And the food's really oily. So I went back to packing my lunch. I was glad to see some other people doing the same. It's healthier and it's cheaper and I get to save a lot more of my allowance now.

I always ate the school lunches. I guess I was really lucky that they had a snack line and you could get things you liked if you didn't like the main meal they were serving. My kids all eat at school too. Though in grade school, they sometimes wanted peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, so I'd pack lunches for them.

Here in Singapore I guess it isnt really much in our culture to have ur lunches packed when we go to school, although looking back it would probably be much better as we are able to control what goes into our meals, unlike the Oil and MSG and sodium that is used so freely in canteen food.

i am just out of school...and i am very sad about the fact that throughout my school life....i was never allowed to eat anything from the school canteen Lol!! i was always given boring usual lunch in my tiffin box...which i had to literally bear!!...that was tough...especially when few other kids around u are daily having junk food from the canteen duh!!

I bought mostly everyday- I loves school lunches- We had a choice of 3 things though so I almost always liked what was on the menu. My daughter packs and buys about evenly through the month. It isn’t a cost thing- School lunch is $1.30 and a snack is from .30 to .50- I can remember buying lunch and getting an ice cream for about $1.00 when I went. My daughter is super picky! She is in 5th grade- When she moves up to the next school next year- she will have more choices for lunches- Salads and stuff. She only packs when she doesn’t like the menu- I think she gets a more healthy lunch when she packs- I make her take a fruit and a veggie in her packed lunch! Never soup!

i always packed a lunch as a child. We didn't have the extra mone for buying lunches, my mom thought it was healthier (which it was), and i actually preferred to bring my lunch from home. Once in awhile we would buy when we saw something on the menue that interested us. i always liked buying on days when there was a tostada for lucnh! i bought milk nearly every day, though. Just a quarter and you could get a small carton.

Hiu, I have a kid of grade four. I also will do the same as you do.My parents not did packed anything to me.They did not pack us or else can say we did have that much time for lunch so its not happened for me. but now i used to give all packs and also daily as snacks i'm spending so much as you said.

erm.. i seldom packed when i was a kid.. i always buy my school lunches as my mom seldom have the time to do it for me.. erm.. i should say my grandmother. .she always prepare breakfast for me.. and now .. when i come to think of it. .i feel as if i owe her alot.. and i don't even know how to repay her since she's already gone... last time i don't have much pocket money.. it's less than $1.. and the food are quite cheap too.. so.. usually i'll just spend as little as possible.. then i can keep the balance in my piggy bank.. and accumulate it for my future.. :) .. that's what my grandparents taught me tho

When I was growing up, I'd take a lunch, but as I got older, it was easier for the family to let me buy lunch. Because we now live in a high cost area (HI), we are eligible for reduced lunch and the kids buy their lunch. We can't make a lunch that cheap.... When the kids were bringing their lunch, they wanted to buy, now that they are buying they want to pack...go figure.

My school didn't have the option of buying lunch till 10th grade so I always too kpacked lunch. After I changed to Pre-University for 11th and 12th grade, I almost always bought lunch and it came cheap too.

i always had packed lunch till high school. it was cheaper for my parents which i didn't mind because i didn't have to line up to buy lunch, all i needed to do was look for a space in the canteen to have my lunch. college was different - i had to buy my lunch because there was no one to prepare my lunch for me. i was not living with my parents then and i was not yet accustomed to doing it by myself. that's why i really missed my packed lunches while i was in college.

I used to mostly pack my lunch from home to school as a kid. My mom is very concerned about healthy food. When I was young she was more worried about my eating habit, she just wanted to build up a good eating habit for me so that I would not eat a lot of junk food when grow up. I think that was a very good thing for me. Also I bought my lunch sometime, but it was not very often.

My sisters children

WHen I was a kid I used to either go home to eat or eat in the cafeteria at school. There were days where I really like the food so I wanted to eat in school, when the food was nothing that really interested me then I asked my mom to go home. Until grade 6 my daughter used to take lunch to school. She didn't like sandwiches that much so we had a thermos and she would take whatever she liked the most ( soup, Sheppard's pie, tacos, spaghetti and meatballs LOL ) After grade 6 she felt it wasn't cool to take food from home anymore so she started taking money to buy her food. My son is in grade 8 and still prefers to take a lunch with him. Like his sister he avoids sandwiches and prefers what he calls "real food" .

My mom used to pack us lunches when we were kids. Schools in S Africa didn't have canteens or a place to buy food. Because we always complained about our lunch, my dad banned my mom from packing our lunches one and and we had to make our own. We went from having the most wonderful roast beef sandwiches, chicken and mayo (gourmet type lunches in comparison) to peanut butter and jelly or just plain jelly if we could get up in time to make lunch, otherwise we just didn't eat till we got home. I still hate making lunch to this day. I premake all my husband's lunches and freeze them and he takes out as he needs. My son eats brunch, so that saves lunch. We'll see what happens when he gets to school age. I think I'll make his lunch then.

Our children bring home a breakfast/lunch calendar at the start of the month. The children will mark the days on the calendar that they want to take a sack lunch. There are a variety of foods for them to pick from so that they can pack a sack lunch. Children need to have choices.