My lunch-packing prowess

I am really sick and tired of packing lunches. Aside from crying for the entire month of September when my son heads off for University, the one perk I see will be retiring my lunch packing repertoire.

I estimated that over the years I have packed somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,100 lunches; which means that lunch packing has been one of the most frequent activities in my life, to date. Yikes! I've packed more lunches than live theatre performances I've attended, holidays I've gone on, and visits to the gym — okay the last one I can live with.

Lunch packing, like all new things, started off with a bang. It was fun. I loved it. Now I long for the days when my teenage son was back in Grade 3 and loved eating leftover dinners out of his thermos. I always felt very June Cleaverish heating up the leftover lasagna and carefully filling his thermos each morning. I'd pop in a frozen tetra pak of 100% juice to keep his milk cold for lunch; the juice would be melted by afternoon recess for a healthy snack. I baked homemade whole grain cookies or my recipe for heart-healthy brownies and of course an apple or maybe even a cut up orange. Yes, I felt virtuous, he was getting a great lunch, and hopefully it was contributing to his brain function to boot.

One of the saddest days in my lunch-packing history was the day he told me he was never taking that stupid thermos again. The next blow was the demise of his thermal lunch kit, rapidly followed by his dabbling in takeout food. I was horrified. He might as well have told me he'd joined a cult.

I reluctantly went with the flow and gave him $5.00 a week for bought lunches — OK, I'm cheap. I figured if he wanted to spend anything more than that it was coming out of his allowance. It took him most of Grade 10 to figure out that he was spending all of his cash on lunch and then we were back at square one, mom packing lunches. I had mixed feelings — he'd learned a valuable lesson on consumerism and the Gross National Product, he was going to have healthy lunches once again, but how many more roasted turkey subs with leaf lettuce and low-fat Caesar salad dressing could I pack for a teenager? Apparently, a lot more.

We have new rules — I'll pack him a lunch when he asks. Yes, I know he's in Grade 12 and should be packing his own lunch, but let's be honest, I like packing them. It makes me feel slightly wanted. All of you young moms out there who are scoffing at my pathetic need for teenage love, just you wait...

Yes, his lunch is usually some kind of leftover roasted chicken, turkey, or beef on a whole wheat sub with lettuce, peppers, pickles, and low-fat Caesar salad dressing, a frozen tetra pak of 100% juice to keep his lunch and milk cold, homemade whole grain cookies or my recipe for heart-healthy brownies, and an apple all packed in a plastic bag. It may sound boring and monotonous, but it's healthy and he'll eat it.

Having a teenager is really all about give and take.

Click here for my brownie recipe.