18 Mistakes You Should Avoid When Packing School Lunches

Packing a school lunch for your kiddos sounds like such a basic thing. Grab a few foods they like, toss them in a lunch box, and send them on their merry little way to school. Of course, we all know reality is nothing like that, especially when you consider there are typically about 180 days of school each year, which works out to over 2,300 days of school from kindergarten through 12th grade. Even if you only pack lunch about 50% of the time, this still means you'll be packing 1,150 lunches ... for each child!

With all of these lunches to pack, it is no wonder (and completely understandable) that most parents will make some mistakes along the way. We're all only human. However, taking a few minutes to read about some of the most common mistakes that parents make can help you minimize what can go wrong when packing a school lunch for your son or daughter.

You'll want to think about how messy a particular food item is going to be before putting it in the lunch box. Spaghetti, buffalo wings, sloppy Joes, and other foods that are hard to eat without making a mess might not be the best choice for a school lunch, particularly one for a younger child.

While the mess from eating these foods at home can be better contained (you could even have your son or daughter wear a bib), at school the mess is only going to be amplified. They're not going to have a bib on, will likely be eating out of the lunch box, and will be sitting close to other kids. It's not only your own child's shirt that could end up covered in food — the child sitting next to them could also end up wearing some of your kid's lunch, and their lunch box could also become dirty.

It is a good idea to check your child's schedule to see how long their lunch break is before planning out their lunches. 30 minutes is a common length for lunch periods. However, the actual amount of time that the students are in their seats eating could be less than 20 minutes, when you take into account how long it takes the class to walk to the cafeteria, time for bathroom breaks, and leaving enough time to clean up before the period ends.

Because lunch is often short, you'll want to plan accordingly when deciding what to add to your child's lunch box. Avoid anything that is too involved, such as building several mini sandwiches from different stacks of food. When possible, do as much as you can to leave everything ready for your child to eat. For example, you could peel or slice their orange instead of dropping it in the lunch box whole.

Another mistake you'll want to avoid is not packing enough food. The job of your child's lunch is to nourish them and give them the energy they'll need to make it through the rest of the school day. You don't want them to still be hungry after eating and unable to focus on learning.

Of course, the definition of "enough food" can vary pretty significantly based on the age of your child and their appetite. As a general rule, keep portion sizes in mind. For example, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a 1-ounce serving of meat or fish is appropriate for children between the ages of four and six, while kids between the ages of seven and 10 typically need between 2 and 3 ounces of meat or fish per serving. You can also check in with your child each day about whether they had enough to eat and adjust future meals accordingly.

If you are feeling in a rut and like you don't have enough options to rotate through your child's lunch, don't forget that you can pack hot foods, too. A Thermos can keep foods warm for several hours, making it easy to warm food up in the morning and pack it for your child to enjoy at school.

With the ability to pack hot food, you'll find you're less often caught in a rut. You can heat up some soup, send leftovers from the night before, or even make a hot ham and cheese sandwich for your little one to enjoy.

No one wants to bite into soggy sandwiches, pretzels, animal crackers, or really anything else. If parts of the lunch you pack for your child become soggy by the time they're ready to eat, chances are these unappetizing items aren't going to get eaten. If you've ever heard that the juice from the watermelon leaked onto the chips or that the ice packs defrosted too much and dripped over everything in the box, then you know precisely what we're talking about.

Because the various foods in the lunch box will be sitting together for a while before your child has lunch, taking a few preventative measures can help prevent a soggy and disappointing situation. If you're packing any juicier fruits or other wet items, place them in a separate container or compartment to make sure they don't leak over the dry foods in the lunch box. You can also try wrapping a towel around the ice packs so that any water that drips from them will be absorbed and not leak onto the other foods.

Trying to throw together a school lunch in the morning is rarely a good idea. If you're like many parents, getting your kids up, dressed, and fed is a large enough undertaking. If you add making a school lunch to the already chaotic morning, you're just asking for something to go wrong. Either your child will end up late to school or the bus, you'll forget to add something to their lunch that they'll need, or it will throw off the rest of the morning's schedule.

Instead of adding the stress of packing a school lunch to the morning, try making it the night before. You'll be less rushed and better able to focus on the task at hand. The next morning, all you'll need to do is move any of the perishable items and a few ice packs to the lunch box, and it will be ready to go. If there are a few last-minute additions in the morning to ensure foods stay fresher, that won't be such a big deal. You could even consider writing a note to yourself and leaving it inside the lunch box with anything else you need to add to it before heading out the door.

When possible, take just a few extra minutes to make your child's school lunch a little "fun." One idea is to slip a little note into their lunch box telling them that you love them. If you don't have the time to commit to this every day, consider reserving it for special occasions or events, such as birthdays, holidays, field trips, or days when your child has a big test.

You can also try to make the food itself fun. If you're planning to give your child cheese and crackers, use mini cookie cutters to cut the cheese into cute shapes. You could also use a larger cookie cutter to cut their sandwich into a heart, a star, or a seasonal shape (such as a pumpkin around Halloween or a snowflake in the winter). Any of these will help make your son or daughter a little more excited about eating what's inside their lunch box.

Asking your kids to bring home any food from their lunch box that they haven't eaten may sound like a weird request. However, there are actually a few reasons you'll want the leftover foods to come home. First, you'll be able to track what your child is actually eating. If the lunch box comes home nearly full each day, you can have a conversation with your son or daughter about why they aren't eating their lunch. If one particular food item is always leftover, then it can help you realize that maybe you just need to pack something else in its place. You can also get an idea of whether you're packing too much or not enough (if the lunch box is empty every day, check to see if your child is still hungry).

Another reason to ask your child to bring uneaten foods home is that it can help you reduce food waste. Non-perishable leftover foods — such as chips or cookies — can be saved and eaten later. If you have a home compost bin, you could also compost any inedible food scraps instead of them just being tossed into the trash can at school.

Avoid letting the food sit in the lunch box or individual containers for too long after your child gets home from school. The old food can start to smell if it is left too long, and it could leave a lingering odor inside the lunch box. Plus, leaving the food in the lunch box will just add an extra step when you're ready to pack it later that evening or the following morning.

Unpacking their lunch box is a task that most children should be able to do independently. Have them remove the containers from the box and place them on the counter, in the sink, in the dishwasher, or wherever you prefer, and return their ice packs to the freezer so they're ready for the next day. Make this part of their routine upon arriving home from school, and it should soon become a habit.