Mum's 'fake' homemade lunch hack for her kid's daycare hailed as 'genius'

“Daycare makes us send warm, home-cooked lunches and doesn't allow packaged foods," the mum explains as she shows off her sneaky trick.

Image: TikTok

A mum has gone viral for sharing a genius hack to work around her child’s daycare’s strict food rules.

According to her, they dictate what parents can and can’t pack and insist that all lunches brought from home need to be “home made.”

We already know that making kids’ lunches is one of the most monotonous and thankless tasks known to (wo)mankind.

So when daycares/schools add in specific requirements, it’s little wonder mums start to get a  little… creative.

In an attempt to reduce prep and stress, @MammaThings shared her genius hack that promises to save parents a bunch of time. 

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"Nobody's going to know..."

Her video, with 2.5 million views, shows herself decanting ready-to-eat microwavable meals into Tupperware, in order to pass them off as ‘home made’. 

As she’s scraping a delicious-looking pasta into the plastic containers, audio plays over the top that says, “Nobody’s going to know…”

She then tips some Bluey cookies into another smaller container and calls it a day. 

“When daycare makes you send a lunch and you aren’t allowed any packaged foods… and they request warm homemade meals over winter,” she writes in the text overlay. 

The caption reads: “Bang some berries in and a banana.”

Speaking to Newsweek, the mum admitted this isn’t a typical practice for her, but she “was showing a way to fake it because it’s been a long week!”

"Sometimes daycare requests, although well-intended, can place additional mental loads or pressures on mums so we need to find a way to work around that from time to time,” she continued.

Image: TikTok

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"You made it... go into a lunchbox"

Fellow time-poor mums weighed in on the hack in the comments, applauding her for the lunch hack. 

“If they aren’t paying or packing it’s not their concern what your feed YOUR kid. They say fed is best,” one of the top comments read. 

Another remarked, “As a daycare teacher I can promise you it’s management and as long as kids are fed teachers don’t care.” The mum responded, “This is comforting to know.”

“You made it... go into a lunchbox,” joked a third. 

“You got to do what you got to do. Go mama!” said a fourth.

Others called the daycare’s policy “insane” and shared their own strict food rules they’ve experienced. 

“Honestly I feel like it's the audacity for them to mention anything because on top of paying for daycare, they also want to restrict what my child eats,” mentioned a follower.

Another shared: “A local school won’t allow the same type of food twice in one week. One sandwich, one pasta dish etc.”

Then this person said, “My school’s ‘wrapper-free’ days are the worse. I’m a single working mum!”

“My preschool didn't allow chocolate and put a big sticker on our lunch box if we had any, so embarrassing,” concluded someone else. 

Originally published as Mum's 'fake' homemade lunch hack for her kid's daycare hailed as 'genius'