Yes, I realize school started weeks ago and October is almost upon us, but I’m still struggling with the stress of packing lunch and snacks for my two boys. Last year they were in school half days so I only had to pack snack, and they went in the afternoon so we had lazy mornings in pajamas where I was hardly stressed about putting some fruit or raisins in their backpacks by 12:30pm.
This year is completely different. I decided to enroll both kids in full day school, which in addition to requiring lunch and two snacks for their day, also means that I need to have their lunch boxes filled by 8:05am and in their school bags. Another addition this year is my 7 month old baby girl. Yes, she was around for half of the year last year as well, but she was so new that when she wasn’t eating or being changed she was asleep. Now, she’s awake for hours at a time so in addition to the lunches, snacks, watching the clock for that 8:05am “let’s start getting shoes on” warning, I have to entertain my little girl who’s not quite sitting up on her own yet, not quite entertaining herself for more than 5 minutes at a time, oh….and yes, we all need to get dressed and eat breakfast too.
So, what I’ve come to realize is that if we’re all not up and out of bed by 6:30am then we’re totally screwed. I’ve started getting some of the kids snacks ready the night before but I leave their sandwich or main lunch for the morning. And I still have a hard time picking out a variety of snacks for snack and snacks to go with their lunch. I’ve been stocking up on fruit, carrot sticks, pumpkin or banana bread, cereal bars, raisins, Cheerios, etc. in the house but the assembling and sorting still has my head spinning in the morning. I’d like to try to be more prepared the night before but I haven’t gotten a complete handle on the dinner, bath, milk/formula, bed, clean up routine yet. And by the time all that is over and all 3 kids are peacefully sleeping upstairs that last thing I want to start thinking about is preparing food for the next day! What’s your story? How do you prepare for a long day of school lunch and snacks with an early morning?
Luckily Jake is 15 and handles his own breakfast as well as eating at lunch. I just worry about dinner.
I get everything ready the night before.
My kids are getting older, and I still have to get everyone up by 7am in order to be ready to leave at 8:40am. I have the bigger two starting to make their own lunches now, which is nice.
It’s a lot to handle in the morning for sure. Everyone is kinda jumbled at that time anyhow, and there are just so many loose ends before you can walk out the door. I’m not helping, am I?