Lunchboxes

From Mondays to Fridays, when the alarm clock rings at 6am, mummy wakes up to another morning of ‘creative challenge’, i.e. preparing the 3 lunchboxes for the worker bee and the 2 schoolgoing kiddos...

How many varieties of sandwiches are there? Loads – from the Internet… but for me to get them into the lunchboxes, quite a challenge, well… it’s something we’re still getting used to. Our taste buds are pretty exotic. In other words, we’re spoilt! Back in S’pore, we have a buffet of food we can pick from everyday. And no effort on your part, just pay! Alvin used to buy his fried beehoon with ngoh-hian for his breakfast and for lunch, his favourite Malay rice. All his colleagues have a home-prepared lunch too. I suspect that those who grew up here would have taken their lunch from lunchboxes since they go to kinder (at 3/4 years old)…

Gone are the days when Timothy has his pocket money to spend on his favourite soup noodle and chicken rice from the canteen stalls in his primary school. During his recess, he used to buy those little cuttle-fish snack and the fried fish fillet … Although there’s a canteen in his school now, and it’s run by the parents, Timothy’s not asked for pocket money and I doubt he’s any interested since the stuffs there are not his cup of tea – he’s not very keen on muffins, slices of cakes, cereal bars, salad…

This particular morning, everyone's going to have ham, cheese and lettuce between the slices of bread...hehehe...that's by far the easier to prepare... nobody's complaining. I'd usually pack some fruit and snacks into their lunchbags. For the kids, the snack is the highlight and they come back to tell about their friends' lunchbox snack, which can be rather annoying becoz potato chips doesn't sound good for me to give to my kids. So a healthy snack is what I'll pack for them. The kids have learnt that they will never see junk food in their lunchboxes... but once a while, I will surprise them with a sweet treat!!! ;)

No lunchbox for me!!! I usually just take anything whenever I’m hungry. Since the kids’ are starving when they get home, I’ll always have a hot meal prepared for them. It’s either noodle or porridge – one pot meal!

The kids' get to eat at 2 intervals in school, a break at 11am and another break at 1.10pm... I believe they gobble down their food and spend most of their break times at the playgrounds... Well, there are 4 playgrounds for Tricia! That's more attractive than the food. For Timothy, he can’t wait to play with his friends.

Their lunchbags goes into their schoolbags and off they go... NO textbooks or workbooks to lug around. Besides their lunchbags, they only have to pack their diary and take-home reader. There’re no TB or WB for the primary school kids to bring home. We didn’t buy them so it’s kept in their classroom, shared, and handed down year-after year… Timothy does some written work, but mainly reading and discussions and presentations in class. He loves it! Tricia does a lot of craftwork, reading and presentations too. And she’s totally happy. What about the mummy? WORRIED!