Dad Praised For Leaving An Angry Note In His Daughter's Lunchbox After Staff Shamed Her For What She Eats
His daughter was being criticized by the lunch ladies for the food in her lunchbox.
TikTok A father decided to hit back at the school employees who would comment on what he packed for his daughter to eat at lunch.
In a TikTok video, Ross, a father of three young children, shared the genius hack he used to ward off unnecessary comments about the meals his daughter would eat at lunch, which were accused of being non-healthy by the school lunch staff.
He was praised for leaving an angry note for his daughter's school in her lunchbox.
In Ross' video, the father-of-three explained that he decided to leave a note in his daughter's lunch bag after hearing that many students at her school were being berated by the lunch ladies for the meals they were bringing.
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"Since we can make our own labels, I've done this for Isabelle's lunchbox," Ross shared. "Basically the kids in school have been getting sh-t [from] the dinner ladies for eating 'non-healthy' food."
He said the lunch ladies at his daughter's school would tell the children they shouldn't be eating certain foods in their lunch bags, and instead try to tell them what they should be eating.
"It's f-king irritating and it's put Isabelle off from taking lunch with her," he continued, pointing out that when the children are served meals, such as chocolate cake, by the lunch ladies it's fine, but when it's packed in their lunch containers, there is a problem.
As a solution, Ross decided to make a label to attach to the inside of Isabelle's lunch bag, which would hopefully deter the lunch ladies from making any more unnecessary comments about the meals she was eating.
"Welcome to Isabelle's lunch box! We are aware of the contents of this box and are happy for Isabelle to eat whatever she wants," the label read.
Ross pointed out that "in short," the school's lunch staff should "stop telling kids what they shouldn't eat" and leave their nutrition worries to the parents, who know best about what to feed their children and what not to feed them.
In the comments section, people commended Ross for taking a stance against the school's lunch staff.
"It’s a nightmare, they promote healthy eating but my child comes home saying they had pizza and chips and some cake. So which part of that is healthy?" one TikTok user wrote.
Another user added, "I work in a school and have this argument often. I would rather a child ate and was full than lots of 'healthy' foods they won't eat."
"My son and daughter are so conscious about what they eat due to the school promoting ‘healthy eating,'" a third user chimed in.
In 2020, registered dietician Jennifer Anderson shared a viral Instagram post urging adults to avoid shaming certain food groups due to the impact his can have on kids.
"Did you know kids will skip free school lunch because of stigma? And stigma comes from other kids criticizing them. And when stigmatized kids skip a school lunch, they miss tons of nutrition that they can't get later," Anderson wrote. "This is one reason I say over and over, let's not call food 'good' and 'bad,' 'healthy' or 'unhealthy.' It hurts people when they hear us say their food is bad!"
As Ross successfully achieved, encouraging kids to feel positive about filling up their stomachs and enjoying the food they eat is vital in cultivating a strong, positive relationship with food and body image.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics.