Empowering Girls: Lunchables

Throughout the school year Ainsley has harassed me nearly every day for a Lunchable or a tray.

For most of the year she got a whole wheat ham sandwich, a fruit or vegetable and a juice box.

I find my daughter is one of the very few kids who bring a lunch. Some parents are assisted with the free lunch program, some buy their Lunchables with food stamps. Some simply make more money than we do and can absorb the cost easier. Some parents just gave up and found the $35 a month to pay for the school lunch tray to never have this loathsome conversation again. One month’s worth of Maxed Out Lunchable is $60.

Upon examination she claimed it was the drink powder and the piece of candy that made her desperate for the Lunchable.

I went for the homemade Lunchable.

Box of crackers, block of cheese, a crucial misstep with cheap salami instead of ham, FulFill powder tube, refillable thermos and Tupperware and some fruit.

Is she satisfied?

Of course not.

Her desire for Lunchables has nothing to do with the sub-par food that fills the boxes. It has to do with the packaging itself. The packaging is a Kindergarten status symbol – like designer jeans.

She’s the kid who’s Mom erroneously believes she can substitute the real status symbol with a cheap imitation. All the other children probably pity her.

But, doesn’t that build character?