Mum puts note in 3yo's lunch box after teachers enforce weird meal time rule

After she discovered her daughter was given "antiquated instructions" from her preschool, the frustrated mum took matters into her own hands. 

Another day, another child’s lunch box being used as a vehicle to transport messages between parent and teacher.

This time, it was a mum wanting to let her daughter’s preschool know that different foods aren’t inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’ after they tried to make her eat her lunch in a particular order.

She was alerted to the issue recently after her three-year-old came home from school and said her teacher made her eat all of the ‘good’ foods in her lunch before the ‘bad’ foods. 

The teacher told her to eat her sandwich and cucumbers first, otherwise she couldn’t have her cookie. 

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The lunch box note a mum sent her child's preschool. Image: TikTok

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The lunch box letter to preschool

The mum, Caroline, posted what she did in response on TikTok.

“In this moment, I felt a little frustrated by the antiquated instruction from the teacher,” she said, “but I responded to my daughter saying, ‘Well that’s silly. There are no good foods or bad foods. Food is just food!’”

After having this chat with her daughter, she thought it was important to let the preschool know her stance as well.

She wrote a note and put it in her daughter’s lunch box that read: “Hi! Evelyn has our permission to eat lunch in any order she chooses. None of her foods are ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ they are just food!”

Caroline tries to teach her daughter the principles of 'food neutrality'. Image: TikTok

"Three years old someone has told her that foods are good or bad"

In the caption of the clip, Caroline explained that she didn’t always feel this way about food, but has learnt since becoming a mum.

“This was not my internal dialogue growing up, but because of the information that I have from so many great accounts created by mums and experts, in the field of childhood and nutrition, I am armed with better responses, knowledge and practices for my kids,” she said.

“Three years old,” she wrote. “Three years old someone has told her that foods are good or bad.”

Caroline then explained how proud she was of her daughter for “sensing something was off” and telling her about it.

She also expanded on how she teaches her kids to think about food.

“If you only eat carrots or broccoli your body won’t have protein it needs to grow strong muscles. If you only eat chicken, your body won’t have enough energy to do things like run and play all day long. We need little bits of everything to make sure that we are able to learn and play and grow all day long.”

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"If their belly is full, that's all that matters"

In the comments, fellow parents praised her for sticking up for her kid and making sure her preschool knew about the food principles she was trying to teach at home.

“Good on you!” one cheered.

Someone else replied, saying, “Well done you!”

Even teachers weighed in, with one saying, “As a teacher, if their belly is full, that’s all that matters. And trust me, we’re so busy they’re gonna eat it all!”

“As a daycare teacher I will always try to encourage kids to eat at least some of their ‘foods that give them energy to play’ but I can’t imagine telling a kid that foods are good or bad,” another added.

Originally published as Mum puts note in 3yo's lunch box after teachers enforce weird meal time rule