'My daughter confessed to eating another child's lunch'

"My motivation to make her lunch box is falling to another lowest point," said the Aussie mum. Whilst some say the behaviour isn't that bad, others are calling it extremely problematic.

Packing your child’s lunch box for school can be challenging enough as it is, but what if it came home completely untouched, and you found out they’d eaten someone else’s?

One Aussie mum has taken to Facebook with just this dilemma, and the response from fellow parents has been ruthless.

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RELATED: 'My child's teacher wouldn't let her eat her lunch'

“Why did you eat someone else’s lunch?”

An Aussie mum has taken to the Kids Lunch Box - Australia Facebook group after finding out her daughter, in kindergarten, ate food out of her friend’s lunch box instead of her own.

“Is it okay that my child ate her friend's lunch box?” she asked in the group.

“My motivation to make her lunch box is falling to another lowest point as today I discovered she didn’t touch her lunch box.

“I asked her why and she said her friend shared a lunch box with her. Then I asked why did you eat someone else’s lunch. She replied if someone likes to share their lunch box with me then I can eat their lunch box.”

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“That’s not okay”

Parents in the comments were stunned, saying that behaviour like this is unacceptable for a wide variety of reasons.

“Nope. There's probably an actual school policy of sharing food,” one commenter said.

“Not really ok what will the other child eat if ur daughter is eating the others food,” said another.

“Nope that’s not ok. You don’t know the story of the other child and how much they get to eat, allergies etc. You need to teach your child that she has her own lunch and it's not ok to take someone else food,” a third person said.

“There are always vulture-kids who like taking other kids lunches (offered or not), but aside from being a health risk (allergies and germs), it’s really unfair on the parents who prepared those meals for their kids,” another mum agreed.

Others said that while it’s not ideal, it happens to everyone - some kids just like to share.

“It's not supposed to happen because of allergies. But I find girls especially like to share as a way to bond. Sometimes no matter what you do or what policy exists, they just like sharing,” one mum said.

“It isn’t allowed at our school but I understand it’s a natural thing to want to share food with friends. A lot of kids will share food at least a few times. I wouldn’t get angry at her, I would just have a talk with her to explain the importance of not sharing. Perhaps have a chat with the teacher,” said another.

Is there a solution?

Thankfully, a number of people also offered suggestions as to how the original poster could avoid this in the future - aside from asking teachers to police it a bit more.

“Maybe see what that child had and see if you can pack it together and she’ll eat it? I find if I make stuff with my girl she is more interested to try (says me, her whole lunchbox is beige foods)” one mum suggested.

“Contact that child’s parent and ask what they packed plus what their child likes to eat. Ask if you can try to coordinate and make similar!” said another.

“Elaborate and ask oohh what did she have in there etc then surprise her with the same or similar things in hers or you could say do you want me to pack yours so she can share yours tomorrow?” a third person said.

Originally published as 'My daughter confessed to eating another child's lunch'