Packin'

4th grader. All "grown up" now. Still need to eat. The fine art of packing a lunch isn't hard if you follow some rules:
1)ASK: Your child knows what they like. At times a lunch bag returns home with much of its contents still present. That's not always their fault. Let your kids know that you won't take it personally (and DON'T) if they shun certain things that you think they would or should like. Keep it real though, dad. The school nutrition board may consider pizza a vegetable, but Cheetos are not a fruit. The trick is to find a blend of good (or at least, not bad) for them, and good to them. Sandwiches are easy enough but, find a good bread that they like. Or try lawash or pita. The shit's round and that's just crazy. Pita can be stuffed and lawash can be used to make a roll up (lay the sandwich ingredients in a flat lawash and "roll it up." Slow poke western thinking has finally placed these options in almost every grocery store and market. 2) VARIETY: I like to pack 4-5  things besides the "main course." Vegetables cut into convenient sizes (these can be pre-cut in advance and kept at the ready in the fridge.) Fruit such as grapes and strawberries or peeled oranges are great. Bananas get beat up by lunchtime, and does anyone really enjoy bruised and brown bananas? Get a banana in them at breakfast if you can. Apples, I have found, are a crap shoot. Pears? come on now. Unless you can pre-slice these things, the odds of consumption are not good. And slicing these things risks "the browning" which is death for kids' lunch bag items. A sweet of some kind such as a couple cookies (not 1, not 8), and a savory offering like Sunchips or pretzels or crackers/with some cheese slices. My son likes juice, but I rotate this with water. And remember, do YOU like to eat the same thing everyday for lunch? Mix it up. 3) PREPARATION: PACK LUNCHES THE NIGHT BEFORE. Less AM chaos. 4) INJECT SOME FUN: I draw on the bag, or stick a funny note or drawing into the bag for my son to discover like "Hey, are you having a good hair day?" 5) PANIC: Don't. Most schools that I know of, have a lunch program that you can pre-pay an amount towards. I use this in emergencies when the home packed lunch just doesn't work out, and it happens. I also put a couple bucks in my son's backpack in a secret pocket that he and I know about.

Stitches

Learn to sew on a button. It's easy, and it will provide you with a great (though let's be real, an inflated) sense of personal accomplishment as caregiver supreme. I took what was called Home-Ec (home economics) in high school. I built enough birdhouses in junior high. Also a cutting board. my mom still has it.

Kids do things to things. Clothes are things. Getting comfortable with fixing, patching (and knowing when to cut bait) is key in the single dad's house. I promise it won't emasculate you. In fact, it may even add to your status as a modern, or renaissance  man. But, as "Bob" would say, baby steps get off a bus.

It is also a must to know how that iron works. I don't iron my son's clothes except for a trip to Mass (not Massachussets) which, by the way, we are WAY overdue for. But that's between our Maker and us. Anyway, that iron also puts patches on holes, which if not included in the "style" of those small pants, will certainly appear in due time. The best time to sew a button on is not at 7:00 in the morning. That's a good time to "go get another shirt." I prefer doing any sewing at night, when the news is on. I don't want to watch the news anyway. it's all bad. But that's another post...