An end of an era

I was even more surprised to find out that this discussion was to alert everyone watching that parents in our town could no longer drop by the schools unexpectedly...even to bring a forgotten lunch to their school age children!

My initial reaction was some concern for the elementary age students coping with this new policy. Well, it seems that the age group being the main focus of this new policy is...HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! Evidently they forget to bring their lunch on a pretty consistent basis and those moms going to the schools to drop off the lunches left behind are now considered...A SECURITY CONCERN!

The interviewer then went on to speak with some moms [of High School age students] and some of those same age group students about how they will all cope with this new policy.  And there is a back-up plan in place: All students who have forgotten their lunches will be able to eat from their cafeteria and will be issued an IOU for later payment

This does of course raise the question as to the reliability of those students to remember to bring home the IOU.  If these are left behind as well, will the school start mailing them home?

Of course I started to think back about how our family managed with lunches and even school papers and projects being brought to school.  And what came back to me was: Responsibility!  Every year our children were given home chores to be done, even before school [age appropriate ones].  Once each child was in second grade, this included MAKING THEIR LUNCH EVERY DAY!  I was in charge of their breakfasts and dinners and made sure we had plenty of choices for each day.  I supervised to make sure lunches were healthy [no cookie sandwiches allowed!]

Our children had to pack up their lunch and make sure it traveled to school along with their backpack, projects and homework, coats, whatever.  And if they wanted to buy a lunch, that was fine too.  There was 'NO LUNCH LEFT BEHIND" in our home and there was never a need for me to drop off a forgotten one!