Parents know how it annoying it is when their child doesn't eat their lunch. The baby carrots you so lovingly cut in star shapes and Tupperware'd, the ham sandwich with the crusts cut off, the East-meets-West bento box you diligently recreated from Pinterest. All ignored.
Here's some food for thought: an Australian-based study says that parents are wasting their time by creating elaborate lunch boxes.
1,000 Australian parents were surveyed as part of Nestlé's Healthy Active Kids programme about their lunch preparation techniques.
49 per cent of parents admitted their biggest concern was making sure their child eats a healthy lunch, while 32 per cent revealed they were worried their child will go hungry at school, resulting in multiple snacks packed.
The study also revealed that one-in-five parents summon their artistic flair and use food styling techniques to create a meal that will get their child excited about lunch. However, a large chunk of parents forgo flashy sandwiches and instead spend less than 10 minutes in the morning packing lunch. For these parents, their children's lunches almost always came back empty.
For these parents, talking to their kids about what they like and keeping it simple, is actually more effective than any quadrants of culinary art.
“We really saw a shift where parents were mostly spending less than 10 minutes preparing the lunchbox each day. Within this group of parents, they weren't spending time creating technical snacks and styling it. They kept it pretty simple,” says Megan Darragh, Market Nutritionist at Nestlé.
“The battle most parents face at lunchtime is that their children actually prefer being outside playing and not eating. They just want something they can eat quickly and not have to spend too much time unwrapping.”
So, instead of spending time making owl-shaped peanut butter sandwiches, why not take a more open approach with your kids? Try asking your kids what they like and dislike; ask them to choose their favoured food from the five food groups, and even get them to help cook and prepare their own food.
