Mum fined for putting THIS in her children's lunchboxes

A mum who thought she was sending her two young children to school with a healthy lunch has received a note berating her for not including any grains and slapped with a $10 fine.

Wait until you hear what she sent ... Gawker.com reports the mum made a lunch of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, oranges and milk. It was leftover dinner, but because it didn't include any grains, it was deemed 'unhealthy' and confiscated.

The children were fed Ritz crackers with their lunch to make it 'healthy'.

RIDICULOUS.

Get a load of the note:

My son is lucky to get corn thins with butter and vegemite and a juice popper. If this mum was sent a nasty note and a $10 fine I'm pretty sure I'd be sent to the firing squad for the school lunches I pack. This story is yet another extreme example of how educators are sticking their noses inside our children's lunchboxes.

Sure this happened at a school in Canada, but how many notes have you received from your child's school regarding healthy lunches? I've had three in three years and one phone call. I packed my son a choc chip muesli bar to take to pre-school. By the time they had finished berating me on the phone I felt like I'd packed rat poison.

Food allergies aside, shouldn't they mind their own business?

Kristen Bartkiw is the mum who was on the receiving end of the note from the vigilant pre-school in Manitoba in Canada. She told Weighty Matters that the food guidelines are so silly that her lunch would have been accepted if it included Ritz Crackers, or if she'd sent a lunch of 'microwave Kraft Dinner and a hot dog, a package of fruit twists, a Cheestring and a juice box'.

I understand the strategy behind encouraging healthy lunches but the best way to do this is through the kids. All parents start out packing super healthy foods for our kids but after the 100th ham and cheese sandwich on wholemeal comes home untouched, we settle for sending something semi-reasonable that they may actually eat.

And what's with the Ritz crackers? They don't contain wholegrains, although they are crumbly and delicious but quite high in saturated fat.

At the end of the day, it's the parents understanding of what constitutes a healthy food that matters, and they are well withing their rights to send their kids to school with whatever they feel is appropriate, without a stupid note like this being sent home.

Do you ever feel guilty about what you pack in your kids' lunch box? 

Image credit: Gawker.com