60% of parents feel pressure to send their kids to school with Instagram-worthy lunchboxes
Helen Skelton shares her simple, tasty sandwich ideas to help relieve pressure to make lunchboxes look perfect.
Children haven't been back at school long in the UK, but parents are already feeling the term-time pressure over the presentation of their kids’ lunchboxes, a new survey finds.
Last month, Warburtons and 3Gem Research and Insights asked 2000 parents of primary-school children about ‘lunchbox guilt’ — the pressure parents feel to make perfect-looking packed lunches for their kids.
60% of the parents said that they feel this pressure, and 45% said they feel guilty that their children’s lunches don’t look good enough.
Two thirds of the parents agreed that there are unspoken social rules about what a child’s lunchbox should look like, with social media and parenting influencer content contributing to this sense of pressure around impossibly beautiful meals.
This pressure is even bleeding into some parents’ financial choices, with 38% admitting to spending more than £15 on products to improve the appearance of their children’s packed lunches.
Easy packed-lunch recipes to take the pressure off
Helen Skelton, a former Blue Peter presenter and mum of three, has teamed up with Warburtons to release two of her go-to packed lunch recipes, to show that it's more about what's in a lunchbox than what it looks like.
“When you’re parenting it can feel like there’s a constant expectation to get it all 'right'," Helen says. "It's so easy to feel overwhelmed by the seemingly endless parade of meticulously crafted bento boxes, themed snacks, and home-baked delights, but for me, the most important thing is that the kids actually eat and enjoy what is packed for them.
“A simple, tasty sandwich, made with a bit of love, is all they need. I want to remind parents that we need to cut ourselves some slack and remember that a happy, well-fed child is far more important than a 'gram-worthy' lunchbox!"
Cream cheese, pesto, and chicken sandwich
What you’ll need: 2 slices of Warburtons half and half loaf, 1 tbsp cream cheese, 2 tsp red pesto, 90g cooked chicken
How to make it: Spread a layer of cream cheese on both slices of bread, and a layer of red pesto on one slice. Assemble the sandwich with the chicken inside and add lettuce or tomatoes if you’d like.
“As this is quite a simple sandwich, I sometimes mix it up to keep it interesting by cutting it into star shapes. You can get star-shaped cutters cheaply online, and they can make lunchboxes more fun,” Helen says.
The ‘Skelton’ club sandwich
What you’ll need: 2 slices of Warburtons half and half loaf OR a Warburtons plain bagel OR Warburtons wholemeal pitta, 2 slices of ham, 2 tbsp cream cheese, lettuce, 1 big tomato
How to make it: Spread a layer of cream cheese on your bread/bagel/pitta, then layer the ham, lettuce, and tomato slices between the bread layers.
Helen loves this sandwich because “it ticks all the nutritional boxes including protein, fibre and lots of wonderful vitamins from the tomatoes and lettuce,” she says. “If I’ve got more time at the weekend, I’ll replace the ham with bacon as a special treat for the kids.”