A mother has shared her straight-to-the-point response after a teacher told her daughter "how to eat her lunch" while at school.
Getting kids to eat their dinners can be a difficult task at the best of times, but the person who is most responsible for their own child's nutrition is the parents themselves.
One mother was left furious after she packed a lunch for her three-year-old to have at preschool but found out that her teacher had told her to eat it in a specific order.
Caroline, who posts on TikTok as @pezzi.shop, revealed that the incident sparked her to leave a note in her daughter's lunchbox telling her teacher how she felt.
The mother was left furious after a teacher told her child what order to eat her food in. Credit: Cavan Images/Getty Images
She told her followers: "My three-year-old came home from school yesterday, telling me that her teacher told her that she had to eat all of her 'good' foods before she ate her 'bad' foods. She couldn’t have her cookie before eating her sandwich and cucumbers.
"In this moment, I felt a little frustrated by the antiquated instruction from the teacher, but I responded saying, 'Well that’s silly. There are no good foods or bad foods. Food is just food!'"
She shared a clip of her opening up her daughter's lunchbox, which had a unicorn print on it as well as the name 'Evelyn' embroidered on it. revealing that she'd put a note in telling the teacher: "Hi, Evelyn has our permission to eat lunch in any order she chooses.
"None of her foods are 'good' or 'bad' - they are just food! Thanks!"
She added that this outlook was not what she had been brought up with herself but that she had educated herself on parenting and nutrition in order to instil these values in her own children.
The mom added: "Three years old. At three years old someone has told her that foods are good or bad. I am so proud that she had sensed something was off - to know that was not right enough to tell me about it.
"We talk about it all the time at home… If you only eat carrots or broccoli your body won’t have protein it needs to grow strong muscles. If you only eat chicken, your body won’t have enough energy to do things like run and play all day long. We need little bits of everything to make sure that we are able to learn and play and grow all day long."
She thanked the other accounts that she follows for helping her realize how important the dialogue around food was while raising children so that she had the "confidence" to send the note back in her daughter's lunch bag.
Her followers praised her for dealing with the situation so well, writing: "As a former teacher, my thought was the parents packed their kid's lunch with the intent they eat it; in whatever order or amount!"
She is teaching her kids that no food is 'good' or 'bad'. Credit: Sally Anscombe/Getty Images
Others added: "As a para that goes to lunch with the kids I [love] this so much. Eat in whatever order you want, just please eat is my motto," and: "As long as my daughter is full enough to concentrate I don’t care what part of her lunch she eats first. It’s usually mostly fruit and deli turkey anyway… but she could start with Oreos for all I care."
Another commented: "my first graders always ask if they can eat dessert first and i always tell them they can eat the food in any order they want as long as they eat!", as someone else added: "Good for you for saying something! I would be happy if my child ate the food, in any order."
