(Once you get bitten by the homework bug, you're hooked apparently.)
This week's theme is "school lunches". I think you can look at other participants from here.
Making school lunches for my children is no big deal. There is an upside to having fussy eaters, and it is that they don't complain about having the same old boring lunch every day: yoghurt, fruit log, sultanas, crackers, sandwich. I can assemble these ingredients in a very short period of time as I trudge around on sleepy feet, cup of tea in hand. The last task in the production line is always making the sandwiches. Ham for the Climber, Vegemite for the Cherub. Cut in half for the big boy and quarters for the small.It is the sandwich cutting that triggers an odd emotional response in me, a strange leftover bit of angst from my childhood years. Angst over sandwich cutting, you ask? I could not blame you for wondering if there was some tragedy in my early life involving a bread knife and possibly the loss of a finger. But no. My schoolyard angst was rooted in the fact that my mother cut my sandwiches in rectangles, not triangles.
My younger self worried about this. The other mothers cut triangles for their kids. I thought this was the proper way, the method that gave you the best sandwich presentation and better biting access whilst eating. I thought my mother didn't know the right way to make sandwiches. It's just possible that my sandwich-related paranoia was triggered by some lovely schoolmate making a disparaging remark about the contents of my lunchbox. It would not surprise me in the least if this were so. But I don't remember that, I only remember the angst.
When I think about this more deeply, I can see it objectively: what need had my mother for sandwich mores? Why would anyone feel the need to keep up with the Jones' in this regard? My mother thought about classical music and art, about politics and social justice and rights for women. She didn't, and still wouldn't, give a flying fig for what Martha Stewart might say about her lunchbox presentation. I applaud this, I endorse this.
When I was older, Mum organised us into making our own school lunches; sandwiches and cakes made, then cut, wrapped and frozen. The Sunday night production line. Oddly enough, and despite my angst, I'm pretty sure that even when I gained sandwich autonomy, I cut my sandwiches in rectangles. They were much easier to freeze that way.
But look:
Look how I cut the sandwiches for my children.
Sandwich cutting is a BIG deal. But, wait, there's more - morning toast cutting is an even bigger deal. Must cut toast into two rectangles for daughter but sandwich diagonally. Why? Who knows?
ReplyDeleteMy kids make their own. I don't think they even bother cutting them, particularly if they're running late and I'm screeching at them in the background.
ReplyDeleteOoh Ooh Ooh ! (Jumping up and down in seat and raising hand in the air) Me too ! My mother gave us rectangle sandwiches too, and I always felt they were not quite right. Though we did have weird lunchboxes that would only fit them in that way, side by side, standing vertically on the long crust. I now have a flat lunchbox and cut my sandwich in triangles.
ReplyDeleteTriangles are AWRIGHT, I reckon! I think rectangles look a bit like something is missing - like they are miniature and somehow less of a sandwich. But triangles look like a smaller part of a larger whole. And are good because of that! I am so glad you cut triangles! I don't even cut my kids sandwiches. I 'm such a lazy cow. I'll have a bit of talk to myself about that. It never occurred to me that it was a bit naughty to wrap up one big un-cut sandwich. But maybe it is.... do you think?!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! xx pip
Yuk! We had the Sunday night production line too - but i absolutely hated the soggy sandwich that I ate at Lunchtime - still only freeze tehm if I REALLY have to! As for the cutting - I am the same as you! Siobhan
ReplyDeleteGod, the sins of the mother are visited on the daughters, even unto the third and fourth generation. I need to go and flog myself (but am off to choir instead).
ReplyDeleteI can't even remember whether sandwich cutting was an issue, let alone why I chose rectangles. I must have blocked out the trauma. Mea culpa!
It is like your haircuts. You always wanted long hair, no matter what I said. So long hair ruled and was ok.
ARGH!!! you can cut them anyway you like but please dont freeze them! i threw away years of frozen sandwiches...and feel horribly guilty as a result of course. enjoyed reading your school lunch post though :-)
ReplyDeletethanks!
YES! Triangles! And the rules. I cut them in squares - and not because I want to, it's just that the Bloke makes the kids lunches and he got squares (or rectangles) so our kids get the same. I get told off if they're not square. Only Nonna (my mum) is allowed to do triangles and that's only because the children decided to indulge her eccentricities.
ReplyDeleteI cut Princess Curly-Wurly's sandwiches into triangles for several years in her earlier school career until my sister, Giovanna (a teacher), pointed out that it makes more edges for fillings to escape the clutches of small hands. We have been a recatngular household ever since.
ReplyDeleteUnless daddy is making lunches (school or weekend). And then they may be any geometric concept he can think of!
Interesting... I thought the rich kids had glad wrap and white bread, and the poor had brown bread and paper. I was a poor kid.
ReplyDeleteWe also had home made bread for many years, which I just didn't appreciate at all.
I cut rectangles, because we do rubbish free, and they fit in the little box that way.
I got triangles I think. Although I got my sister's lunch once and it was just WRONG. Ham! Only ham! And all the side accoutrements were the WRONG ONES! I remember this very clearly. She was fussier than me so I have no idea how she coped getting my lunch.
ReplyDeleteWhat? You don't cut dinosaurs? :)
ReplyDeleteack! my mother cut squares and now i only do triangles. and i remembe a grade 4 jag of cheese sandwiches and then later a run of sultana and honey sandwiches.
ReplyDeletemy kids are old enough to make their own now and i don't miss it at all
We had frozen sandwiches: cream cheese and celery (yuck) or honey and sultanas (a little less yuck) made with vogel bread. Now for picnics and the like we do cheese square cut quarters with an apple.
ReplyDeleteYou are a champion lunch maker!
ReplyDeleteMy kids got triangles - with the crusts cut off. I don't like the crusts, so I didn't inflict them on my children. I made my daughter's lunch right to the end of year 12. I will probably do the same for my son. I even make lunch for my Pete and am mightily offended if he leaves it at home... if he truly loved me he'd remember to take it to work!
Ooh, the great sandwich debate.
ReplyDeleteI'm a triangulator myself. Rectangles just seem...Wrong. They make my tummy itch to look at them. Stuffed if I know why.
My daughter is a very fussy eater and had 13 years of Vegemite, or ham. On white. Thats it. Maybe a Petit Miam. And a cut up apple minus skin. Or a few seedless grapes. A box drink of milk. It. Is. Hard. I gave up quite quickly, but my hubby, bless him, is a martyr to the School Lunch Cause, and still does it now that she. is. working. There's no hope for him.
However I am the ONLY idiot who cuts teddy bear Vegemite sandwiches when she's off her tucker. The bread must be fresh. Try it - they're charming!
We came home on our bikes at "lunchtime" and ate our dinner! The only time we had sandwiches was when we went to the seaside. Then my mother would make them triangular and cut off the crusts, which I thought at the time was tres elegante! Later, when I would take my own tribe to the seaside, I wondered "What was she thinking?" You must know how ravenous children become the instant they're exposed to sea air? I left the crusts on! Figured they could have bridge club sandwiches later on in life, but for right now, I'm trying to fill their bellies!
ReplyDeleteYou ARE a good mother.
ReplyDeleteFunny isn't it, these self imposed childhood ideas about the RIGHT way to do things?
I had a giggle imagining your dear mother flogging herself over a sandwich transgression. I always thought triangles had a more dramatic appearance, so that was my preference. J.T. eats peanut butter on whole grain crackers, yogurt and grape juice. Everyday of every year. It would drive me MAD.
ReplyDeletehahaha, yes, at the end of the year it WAS noticed, and I made myself scarce in the shame and disgust of it all....honestly, why would I do that?!?
ReplyDeleteps - you sound like a LOVELY mum! keep up the good work!
EGADS! I've been cutting RECTANGLES for 3 years!
ReplyDeleteTomorrow - TRIANGLES! I bet those sandwiches get gobbled down.
Love Harry's journey pages. Great Job!
oh dear, I've been doing triangles too. No wonder the sandwiches are coming home uneaten - I had put it down to the tahini...
ReplyDeletegreat story, I dont remember being too worried about sandwich cutting as a kid! I now prefer triangles though.
ReplyDeleteand i remember purposefully wanting things not cut out like the other kids. what an odd bird. then again, a sandwich was a sandwich which is always better when someone else makes it so i would eat it no matter what shape it was in. heehee.
ReplyDeletethough, grilled sandwiches do taste better cut into triangles.
Erg! The sandwich scourge! I.hate.lunches. I laugh in the face of summer 'cause then I don't have to make them anymore!
ReplyDeleteI support triangles all the way! They are self supporting when you stand them up, squares aren't. They let you in straight away to the yummy middle, there just seems to be too much barrier with squares. Hmmm, this is starting to sound like some strange human analogy. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThinking outside the triangle!!
ReplyDeleteI definitely prefer triangles. :)
ReplyDeleteAlthough now I think of it, I've always cut the kidz' sandwiches into squares!
What does that say about the sort of mother I am?
Am I treating my children as second-class citizens?
I need therapy...
I didn't even think of cutting them into trangles. They've always been squares. This morning, we had jam on toast cut into triangles just to see if we like it. It felt alright, and not at all as if the world would end. Might do it again, just for fun.
ReplyDeleteNever really thought the triangles versus rectangles issue through before but now you mention it those triangles look pretty classy!
ReplyDeleteLove your theory on triangles vs rectangles. I always prefer triangles, but tend to cut rectangles. For no other reason that I find them easier to cut and still look neat... Hmm. I hope I am not sending the wrong message to my smalls!
ReplyDeleteOMG - the triangle vs rectangle!
ReplyDeleteMy mum was a rectangle cutter. I was always nagging for triangles. It makes even Vegemite sandwiches seem posh.
And frozen sandwiches - I may have to go back into therapy now.
Hmm. Rectangles for the lunchbox but always triangles for the ham and cheese toasties at home. Go figure!!
ReplyDelete