It is that time of year again! If your kids haven’t gone back to school already, they will be going back soon. We are right in the home stretch at our house. School starts next week and there is still so much to do! Every year there are clothes and shoes to buy – who told these kids to grow so fast! There are notebooks, pencils, paper, glue, crayons, and so many other things on the shopping list. There is one thing about back to school that always seems to spark debate among friends and family. Lunch time – it seems to bring endless discussion about school lunch and home lunch. Which is better and which should you do? The debates get heated and talking can quickly turn to ranting. I’m not going to have any of that here today – whew! I’ve seen enough online already! I want to talk about a few good ideas assuming some of you have already made the lunch time decision. Let’s talk about packing home lunch.

There are so many reasons that parents choose packing home lunch instead of school lunch. Some people like it because it is cheaper. Some like it because they think it is more nutritious. Some like it because meals can be adapted to fit picky eaters or food allergies. Some people like it because they just like packing home lunch. Whatever the reason, lots of people are starting this school year packing home lunch.

Sometimes packing home lunch gets really discouraging. It might seem easy now, but as the days go on it seems it gets harder to think of good lunch ideas. It seems like many people start the year saying they will be packing home lunch for their children but end up purchasing school lunch for ease or out of frustration. Many times that switch to school lunch leaves parents feeling guilty or frustrated. It has happened to me many times. So that made me wonder, what is it about packing home lunch that is so easy for some parents and so frustrating for others?

It seems that some parents just popped right out of Pinterest and have thousands of great ideas about packing home lunch. Their home lunches are not only nutritional they are cute, fun and Instagram worthy. They foods are always pretty and so very fun to look at not to mention eat. Their kids show off their lunchtime creations with pride as they enjoy the oohs and aahs of their classmates. Then there is the rest of us. Our lunches are usually nutritious; we try really hard for that point. We shop and pack and do our best. The lunches are nothing to Instagram but our kids have something good to eat. We are the crowd that burns out. We are the ones that ask, “How do they do that?” There is an answer to that question, actually many answers! And I’ve found a lot of them and see that there are quite a few good tips and tricks to make packing home lunch easier and maybe a bit fun. I promise there is no culinary arts degree or Pinterest fan club needed! If you come back tomorrow I’ll share the tips and tricks with you too. Let’s take the guilt and frustration out of packing home lunch.