Pack a Kids Lunch or Give Them Money to Buy It?

When you were a kid, did your parent(s) pack your lunch....or give you money to buy it? I think I stopped taking a lunch when I was in like the 5th grade. After that, my mother just gave me the $2 or $3 to buy it there.

If you have kids, how do you handle this? My twins still take their lunch, but that's probably gonna stop soon enough.

I used to make the kids lunches, but then they were bringing home their whole sandwich every day and barely eating anything I packed. It's cheaper to just buy lunch at school than to buy all the things that they would like for me to pack for them (that they would actually eat). Plus their school has the BEST fresh veggies.

I was a hot lunch kid for most of my school years.

up until i got into high school, i was always on free lunch... i ate the schools lunch.. only time my ma would pack me a lunch was if we went on field trip at school.

My mom gave me money to buy lunch. I used to horde it and by the end of the week i'd have 10-20 dollars. Moms intuition told her i was doing it too cuz she used to accuse me of not using the money she gave me to buy lunch.

I took my lunch to school until I was in the 5th grade. Then my folks started giving me money to buy it. It was cheap then. $2.50 a day.

I only took my lunch when we had a field trip. I don't know if it's changed, but school lunch in Hawaii was subsidized for all students when I was a kid. It was only a quarter when I was little and changed to $0.45 when I was in middle school/high school.

My eldest went to public school until halfway through second grade, and it was easier to let him buy lunch at school. It was probably pricier, but I really couldn't see him being responsible for his lunch and containers when he was that little.

My kindergartner takes her lunchbox to school with her. My 4th grader buys her lunch.

My lunch was almost always packed. When I was little, my Mom made my lunch but by about grade 5 or 6, I was making my own lunches or helping make them. In high school, I bought lunch maybe once a week but other than that, made my own lunches.

I mostly bought lunch at school. There was the occasional lunch from home. I remember in grade school, the school would send the menues home with us for the week or month so we could plan accordingly.

In elementary, I packed it for my son. They were hardly given enough time to eat, so if he had to stand in line to get it, he didn't eat much anyway, so it was a waste of money and food.

Now, in jr. high, I let him buy it most days.

In grade school it was hot lunches (as was my daughter's). Junior high I took sack lunches, and in high school it was vending machines or a hamburger from the school's burger shack (which were actually quite good).