The bento bitch

You guys, I feel like I should share my shame – sometimes I send my kids to school with lunches consisting of an apple, a hunk of cheese, an uncut bagel and a packet of Scooby gummies – all in a plastic grocery bag.

And I still have the nerve to show my face at school.

I have a few bento boxes. I have a whole whack of Tupperware – some pieces still even have their lids! Yet my kids go to school with lunches that just barely pass for nutritious and are wrapped in layer after layer of plastic and resealable baggies that will inevitably end up being thrown out after a single use.

It’s all over mommy groups – the bento box with crazy food art. Yes, I can do this too. No, I don’t do this even though I could – because I DON’T HAVE TIME. I’m a real mom with 2 little boys and a fulltime job (and a blog!) and I really don’t know how I’d fit slicing and dicing veggies and shaping rice balls to make a panda into my morning.

Yes, my morning. I know that I’m supposed to make lunches the night before – that’s the way all those über-organized moms do it – but I can barely fit dinner, laundry, homework, dishes and bedtime stories into my evening.

So I’m the bento bitch. Unimaginative. Uncreative. I don’t do animal shapes or vignettes or any type of art, whatsoever. I dig deep just to find foods they’ll eat without sending the same things, day after day.

I don’t actually feel shame, but I do wonder what kind of pressure these creative moms with the time to bask in bento glory are putting on the rest of us. They’re not doing it purposely, but they shouldn’t be the yardstick we aspire to measure ourselves against. Perhaps it gets a picky eater over the hump. Maybe Pinspiration alleviates some mommy guilt for the first few weeks of school separation anxiety, but a good old SBnJ (sun butter, not peanut butter, for goodness sakes – I’m not a monster!), a fruit and some snacks are good enough.

Say it with with me: My lunches are good enough.