Back to school; Is it lunchtime yet?

Written by Cindy Nevitt Friday, September 14, 2012 01:00 am

Last week, my children – like everyone else’s – went back to school. But mine are not children anymore. They’re adults.

They have been, for a number of years.

One is a graduate student, finishing her master’s degree. The other is in his third year of college.

In many households, this would have meant an empty nest for the last few years. In my house, it means waking up every morning and packing school lunches.

Having older students at home is different than having younger ones. There’s no need to drive them to school as they are capable of driving themselves. There’s no need to take them shopping for school supplies; they know what they need and can get it themselves. And there is far less homework for me to review. When there is a paper to edit, it’s either about serial killers or lighting techniques in theater, two topics that are endlessly fascinating to my children.

My primary responsibility is making lunches. The menu has changed a bit over the years, with both children big brown baggers. Until he was a junior in high school, my son bought lunch at school every day. About midway through the year, he miraculously came to the realization that the lunches I was packing his sister looked better than anything he could buy in the school cafeteria. He became a convert at that point. Unfortunately, his resistance to transporting his lunch in anything but a bag eliminates all cold choices, which is why I am still slapping together PB&Js for him on a daily basis.

Which reminds me: I think he still has $11 on his cafeteria account at Ocean City High School.

His sister, who will consent to carrying a cooler with an ice pack, has a greater variety of lunchtime options at her disposal. She might get cubes of three different kinds of cheese with crackers, some fresh fruit, yogurt, granola and pretzels. Or she might get a turkey sandwich, banana, fruit cup, pretzels and a bagel with flavored cream cheese. Sometimes she gets carrots sticks with hummus instead of pretzels.

When she’s tired of cheese and sandwiches, she takes a salad. If she’s lucky, there might be some steamed shrimp left over from the night before, which makes a very nice surprise atop her salad. Or she might get grilled chicken strips atop a bed of greens, shaved carrots, red or yellow bell pepper strips and tomato wedges.

At first, my daughter appreciated all the choices I packed her, thinking I did it in case she found one of her choices unappealing on that particular day. I did it for a more practical reason: There are days she leaves the house and doesn’t come home for 14 hours. On those days, a girl needs more than a standard lunch.  

Lately, her boyfriend has voiced the suspicion that I pack her so much food because I’m hoping she won’t come home.

One of my sisters believes I have done something horribly wrong to have college-age children still living at home. I’m in the camp that believes it will happen in good time, and until that time, on Sunday nights, I’ll be making sure there’s a loaf of bread in the house, something to put on the bread, cookies or chips to put on the side, and bottled drinks to wash it all down.

One of the perks of having kids still living at home who need school lunches – and work lunches – is there’s almost always something to eat in the fridge. That’s something worth getting up for in the morning.

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