Prepackaged snacks

Maybe I have mentioned this before, but I cannot help it. I am really not going to miss pre-packaged snacks. Purchasing boxes of individual bags of crackers, granola bars and other such snacks drives me a little more than batty. Who is it that only needs 6 of these items?  The boxes do not contain enough of these snacks to make me feel good about the purchase. Why is that? There are enough preservatives in these tiny packages to store them for a while, so why only put 6 or 9 in a box? The cost of keeping a single child supplied with these during a single school year is astronomical.

So that is my first complaint. My second is that I have not yet met the child who can remove the last snack from the box and actually dispose of the box. I look into my pantry and feel a little less stressed about my week as I see the boxes neatly lined up, ready for the children to add one to their lunch box each day.  I then walk toward the boxes to make sure there are enough in each box, only to discover three completely empty boxes. AAAAAACCCKKKKKK!

Starting this summer, I will be able to simply purchase regular family sized boxes of crackers. We will be able to sit together at the table and I will know that my children are eating the food that is presented to them. They are not trading their cheese sticks for a sandwich, or trading their sandwich for more crackers.
  
At this point, you are either thinking I am extremely petty or you are rolling your eyes because you have been here, or you are here with me. Who really tries to control what their children are eating anyways?  Okay, I get it, you do not have a child coming home STARVING every day only to find out that they have only eaten crackers for lunch for a week.  I was adding more protein items to her lunch with no change. I really could not understand it until I dropped by at lunchtime to watch the swap. 

Ahhhh... I remember a time when I had convinced my mom that I would only eat Hoagie style sandwiches. She was purchasing pickles, peppers, peperoni, salami, ham, tomatoes and lettuce just for me. Ummm.. I did not like these items and she was puzzled as to why I would eat them on a sandwich, but she bought them anyway.... so that I could trade them for other things. Yes, it probably would have been easier just to tell my mom what I really wanted to eat, but I was a pre-teen. What I was doing somehow made more sense to me.

Please excuse me... I have to call my mom.