Amuse bouche... Lunch rush
Parents were complaining about lunches coming home from school uneaten. When Grainne had gone into teaching, she hadn’t imagined that performing as the food police would be part of the job. She was trying to develop some patience with it.
Not that the kids were the problem. The kids didn’t seem to give a damn if they ate their pots of veg and whatnot. The parents really cared, though.
Way too much, if you asked Grainne. So a few half-eaten sandwiches went home again; none of the kids were likely to die of starvation. And anyway, wasn’t there an obesity crisis? Perhaps it was no harm for a few of them to eat a little less.
Grainne had been warned by the principal not to share this opinion with the parents. Grainne was only in her second year of teaching. She was getting the hang of the children, but she was still learning how to handle the parents.
They could be very sensitive. And the types who could be bothered to come in and complain about stuff like rejected strips of red pepper or bagels that went in the bin, were the most delicate of all.
No suggesting their lunch might have been unappealing — that would be a slight on their culinary skills. No suggesting that the lunch was too big — that would be a hint that they were over-feeding their offspring.
And, dear god, no suggestion that the child might be talking, messing or being obstinate in their refusal to eat their lunch within the alloted time.
One parent had taken the serious hump when Grainne said that the school couldn’t curtail time in the yard to allow one child to consume their pot of quinoa. It’s key that they get some exercise, Grainne said.
The parent said that her pet needed the protein boost of his pot of quinoa in order to have the energy for his after-school activities. The parent wondered if there was any proven value of yard time, anyway. Like, what skills does it develop?
Well, it gives me a brief break, Grainne thought. But she told the parent she’d look into it. You never mentioned needing a break to the parents, otherwise they started going on about the long school holidays and all the other jollies attached to being a teacher.
Keep nodding was the principal’s advice. If you have to say something, say it’s a developmental stage: it passes, and they all start eating their lunches again. It’s all part of learning self-determination.
Grainne knew that words like that were magic to parents. Made it sound like the kids weren’t eating because they were so bright. And not because, as everyone knows, raw red pepper and pots of quinoa are just yucky.