Obviously I’m a Bad Mommy

There’s this blog I peruse every few days called Design Mom. It has some fun things.

This week’s guest mom has a post up about lunches and bento boxes. Go read it. I’ll wait.

What did you think about it?

I mean, really, what did you think about it?

After guffawing over the ingredients of her husband’s lunch (“an eggplant or roasted tomato spread with yummy cheese, lettuce and any veggies in season, and put them on a piece of lavash bread” – if my husband wants to take lunch to work, he’s gotta make it himself), my first reaction to the bento box part was, “Oh, puh-leeze!”

See, it sounds to me like just another way for some moms to dis other moms. “What? You don’t garnish your child’s lunch with cute faces and put it in perfectly designed Japanese-inspired boxes? Huh? You don’t make your child’s lunch at all? (GASP!) YOUR CHILD EATS THE SCHOOL CAFETERIA LUNCH!?!? BAD MOMMY!!”

I can channel Martha Stewart as well as anyone, but I draw the line at garnishing lunches. First of all, my kids’ lunch repertoire is sadly limited. The only packed lunch I can guarantee they will eat is peanut butter and honey on white and a small cup of yogurt. Second, if I sent my boys to school with lunch that looked like that, they would be laughed out of the cafeteria. I do have to make my daughter’s lunch, and yes, she might like smiley faces, but time is tight in the mornings and it does not include any leeway for carving radishes.

My boys eat better- or at least more - when they get the school lunch. Somehow “made by mom” hold no allure for them. I agree that school lunches aren’t perfect, but our district is making efforts to provide better and more balanced meals, and increase healthy options. I know each boy gets fresh fruit with their lunch, and they drink their milk.

Okay, okay, I can see doing something like this on a special occasion. But every day? No way. If you have enough time to create lunches that look like that on a daily basis, you need to get out into the world more. You need a life.

Truth is, there have been more that a couple mornings that we’ve been rushing around so much that I’ve forgotten to brush my teeth, or put on matching socks. I figure if everyone (not including me, clearly) gets out the door fed, dressed appropriately, with backpacks (with homework completed) and anything else needed for the day, knows where they are going and why, we’re ahead of the game.

In the depths of my (sadly disintegrating) memory, I recall reading a piece on the pressure of Japanese moms to produce these perfect bento box meals. I remember thinking then, “Thank goodness there’s not that specific pressure here, too.” I wish I could find that article again.

But let me just say this - let’s just NOT GO THERE, okay?

Update: A ha!! I found it!! The article I mentioned above…from 1999…is here.