Mommy Tip- Preparing Lunches for the Week Ahead

I have a love/hate relationship with lunches. I love that I can make and provide my child with healthy food… I wish the school provided a healthy meal so I can mommy-slack on this one thing.

Instead, I continue to pack a lunch and pray that it ends up in my child’s tummy and not the trash.

My days are chaotic, to say the least. I wear whatever I can grab first, I’m never on time, I’m trying to get work done/write/clean/breathe when (and if) both babies are napping. Come dinnertime, the last thing I want to do is make a lunch. Actually, I don’t want to do anything more than what I have to do.
My night= feed a baby, make dinner, clean up dinner, make coffee for the morning, change poopy diapers, feed a baby, clean up some more, give baths, feed a baby again, change more diapers, put kids to bed (this is not a one step process), shower, put laundry away, feed a baby again, and go to bed.

So, I try to keep this tip in the forefront of my mind each week.
I pack lunch for the entire week on Sunday.

I pack all the snacks and dry food into small containers and place those in a storage container (that has a lid).

The majority of fruits and veggies also get put into small containers but some can’t be prepared till the night before (or the morning of school).

By using this system, I get lunches 90% out of the way before the school week even begins! Sandwiches and “main course” type foods also get made the night before or the morning of; but having to do 1-2 things is a heckavah lot better than scrambling to do it all. At least for me.

When my kids get older I plan on doing the same thing (having them help prepare it, hopefully). Each of them will have their own bins, with their names on it and they will get to pick their lunch for that day. If they pick all the yummy stuff on Monday, tuff stuff. It’s gone. If they forget their lunch… well.
This, my friends, hopefully teaches them responsibility.
Oh, this brings back fond childhood memories of 4 different lidded containers with puffy-painted names on each one. I just hope my boys don’t go all sneaky on each other like my siblings and I did and steal things out of each others lunch bin.

PS use a sharpie to label your containers. Any excuse to use a sharpie really.