My kid has been in kindy for 5 days and I've already got a lunch box note

Can you spot what the teacher said was wrong with this lunch box? Because many parents have been left scratching their heads...

It's only been a week since Lara* waved goodbye to her daughter on her first day of kindergarten, and already, she's found herself on the receiving end of a frustrating lunch box note from a teacher. 

The Aussie mum sent her child off with a healthy balanced lunch which included a sandwich, an apple, a banana, carrot sticks, pretzels, a biscuit and a hot cross bun. 

But she soon received a note from her daughter’s kindergarten teacher firmly instructing her to keep pre-packaged foods in their original wrappings so the ingredients could be read and cleared of any allergens. 

But Lara explained that, like many of us, she prefers to buy food in bulk and then decant it into lunch boxes as it’s more cost-effective and better for the planet.

“I buy everything in large packets and send them in containers because it’s so much cheaper, not to mention more environmentally friendly,” she said in a post in the Lunch Box Ideas Australia Facebook group.

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Image: Facebook

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"I don't think I should have to change my shopping list to cater for someone else's child?"

She also mentioned that anything that says ‘may contain tree nuts’ is also banned, which rules out the majority of the snacks she buys and has in her pantry. 

“I understand kids have allergies but I really don’t think I should have to change my shopping list to cater for someone else’s child,” she wrote, before asking the group, “How do I go about navigating this issue?”

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"I wish teachers and schools would stay out of lunch boxes"

She's not alone in her exasperation. Many parents voiced that they were equally as annoyed when teachers tried to meddle in their children’s lunch boxes. 

“I wish teachers and schools would stay out of lunch boxes. Their only concern should be if a child has no lunch,” one mum wrote.

Another said, “Teach your kids to wash their hands, be aware of their allergies, and what they can't have.

“In the real world, we don't cater to your child, they don't enforce this in the workplace, your allergies aren't anyone else's responsibility.”

And a third parent made the point, “I understand ‘no nuts’ in lunch boxes but something that 'may contain' can be over the top considering if that family went out they wouldn't ask every restaurant customer if they could please not order nuts as their kid is allergic.

“Or say, ‘Please don't bring snacks that may contain nuts to the park in case your child touches the swing that my child wants to go on but now can't because she's touched it’.”

Parents urge others to show more compassion for kids with allergies

But amongst the grumbles and eye-rolls, others tried to get parents to see it from the other side of the story. 

“If my son has a peer with nut allergies in his classroom - all nuts or traces of nuts are never going to school with my son,” one said. 

Another added, “I can't even begin to imagine how stressful and scary it is for a child to deal with grave allergies.”

Someone else concluded, “I understand it's stressful and frustrating for parents who have to go through the ingredients, please understand that these other kids and their families who have these allergies aren't trying to make your life stressful or hard.

“Unfortunately many of us have allergies and they are not to be taken lightly as they can have dire consequences. Obviously, it is a lot easier when our kids are much older, but especially when they are little they don't understand the severity.”

*Name has been changed for privacy. 

Originally published as My kid has been in kindy for 5 days and I've already got a lunch box note