So I was going to write a really intelligent and thoughtful blog about the recent media reports on proposed changes to school lunches. I thought about lots of things I could write, including the fact that it would take an age to get even a small school like my children's through the lunch hall if they all had school lunches, therefore it would be totally unfeasible. Also about how they could cater for severe allergies, restricted food diets by parental choice, and where would they draw the line at "exceptional circumstances" without being discriminatory. Another thought was that it would merely be a "look good" exercise, because I could quite easily pack my child a packed lunch full of vegetables, salad, brown rice and dried fruit and pretend it was all getting eaten but it wouldn't actually improve his health at all or help him learn to make independent healthy food choices. The same as serving all children a school lunch may look good on paper but it doesn't mean they will all eat it, in fact it may just create more food waste, more food issues and higher obesity issues due to a generation of children who wouldn't know how to make their own independent food choices and would think they had to clear all their plate and that a pudding was a "reward" for doing so. I was even going to write about how I'm not that bothered if they have a crack down on "unhealthy" lunches but only if they are equal and let packed lunch children have a cake for pudding the same as school lunch children get without getting all hypocritical about it. Plus there is the fact that they don't know what other food the children have at home so can't really judge whether or not they are having a balanced diet just from seeing one meal a day. I never send my 9 year old with vegetables because he isn't really into salad or raw veggies (plus he seems to only get 10 minutes to eat his lunch so anything that is too faffy is a no-no anyway), but he eats plenty of cooked vegetables every tea time. But hey ho. I had a busy week and I'm tired and I decided that I'd leave it to all the Super Mum Bloggers out there who somehow manage to have massively professional looking blogs AND children who are still alive every night at bedtime. Not sure how they do it, I seem to be able to actually keep the children alive and the house vaguely tidy OR creatively and attentively write about the best methods for doing so. Doing both in the same lifetime is rather out of my reach. I wonder if maybe when my children are grown up I could do it in flashback style. Maybe that is their secret, their photos are all 20 years old as are the events they are writing about..................................hmmmmmm conspiracy ;)
I have booked myself a couple of nights away with my littlest baby in just over a week, when the eldest two are at their Dad's for the week having fun. I keep having vague flashes of guilt that I am looking forward to some time just wandering around aimlessly, reading/knitting in an evening, eating a meal in peace (albeit with a baby stuck on my boob but lets not get unrealistic here), but then I shake myself and remember I am a person too and part of my personality is that I need to reset myself every now and again, get away from busy situations and stress and noise and just have a little bit of a break from, well, people.I may be an imperfect parent, but I'm perfect at being me, I just have to remind myself how to do that every now and again. And to be yourself is surely one of the most important life lessons a parent can give their child x.
I promise I will put some pictures up of our goings-on this month very shortly......................when I remember how to get the stupid things off my phone and it stops constantly bleeping at me because apparently the voltage is too high and it has stopped charging, despite the fact it is not even actually on charge....
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