I surprised Nathan and had lunch with him at school today.
First of all, God bless teachers and administrators. I successfully engaged Nathan and his classmates and prevented our table from heading in a Lord of the Flies direction, but I only did it for 30 minutes. If you do it 40 hours a week for three quarters of the year, my hat is off to you. Thank you.
And 200 voices under the age of 10 is a special sort of cacophony.
After giving him lunch money because he had left his in the classroom, my firstborn ambled out of the line with a chicken patty, a roll, a cup of ranch dressing, and a chocolate milk.
Yeah, and come to think of it, I didn’t get any change back from my $5 either. I’ll have to ask about that tonight. Anyway…
“Why are there no vegetables on your plate, son?”
“All they had was broccoli.”
“Ah. Well, fortunately for you, Dad has a couple of carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes he can share.”
Heh. Actually those aren’t particularly controversial for him, so he ate them.
It really was a lot of fun. This was me delivering on an earlier pledge to go, and I had just never gotten around to it, which I was definitely feeling bad about. This was my last chance for the year. I’m making it a more frequent event this fall.
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I agree with you – teachers have a very, very difficult job. I do Duty-Free lunch at my kids’ school once a month (same day, back-to-back), and it’s the longest hour of my life! I have no idea how teachers do it day in and day out.
Did you realize “eating with the first grade” fits to the tune of “Running with the Devil?”
Lunch room = Thunderdome
Don’t get me started on the extra crap they sell to the kids either. You’re lucky he didn’t come out with 7 fruit roll-ups and Milo’s tea.
The times I’ve eaten with Nathan, I’ve noticed that the kids usually eat their dessert first and then might not eat the rest of their lunch. (I don’t think *any* of the kids ate the taco soup the day I was there.) I’m seriously considering packing their lunches next year so that I can control the quality / quantity of things.
I hoard my tots like there’s no tomorrow
Eat my banana, but first I peel…
This cracks me up. The photo is awesome.
God I loved school lunch as a kid. Don’t know if it was because the food was just better then, my mom was a lousy cook, or we as a family were never big breakfast eaters. Whatever the reason, I have fond memories. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if my dad had come one day. You’re a good Dad Bo.
Fighting: Thanks! Sometimes you get lucky with the phone camera.
Lee: You’re very kind, and I certainly try. I definitely need to close the gap between saying I’m going to do something and actually doing it, though!
“Napoleon, give me some of your tots”
School lunch was great when you could play paper football or coin basketball on the perfectly sized tables after eating.
The lunches now are only fair with no supervision over the quantity, selection, or consumption. You can’t make the kids eat their vegetables, but you shouldn’t make the job harder by offering TONS of extras to be purchased at a premium. What Mrs. BD is doing is getting the kids to look at the schedule and pick 3-4 days they want school lunch and packing the rest of the time. It’s got to be healthier and certainly cheaper.