What is the norm when your kids have to take a picnic lunch? Kids had to take one last week for 'une journee de reflection' as there was no school but garderie was provided. Pushed the boat out, small sandwich, boiled egg, saucisson and carrot rape as well as dessert and apple.
This week there is an inter school sports tournament, picnic required, small son has said - 'I don't want to be the one with the biggest picnic' Isn't the idea with a picnic that you can do swapsies with everyone - or is this pretty British??
I think they always compare & share & swap - my girls get different types of packed lunch depending on how much notice they give me, so it goes from "grab whatever is in the fridge/fruitbowl/larder/storecupboard & improvise in 2 minutes with one foot out of the door" to proper japanese bento-box with rice balls, seaweed, pickled ginger, pot of soy sauce etc as requested by the organised child..... they don't ever get crisps twix etc simply because I never have them to hand. I am old enough to have had a bit of baguette and a couple of squares of black chocolate for goûter & usually put that in as well. They always have 'too much' since one of them asked me ages ago to put in extra 'for so&so who never has a packed lunch' and they never come back with leftovers so it must be eaten.
Bane of our life in a way. My daughters both 'prefer' a couple of sandwiches, something sweet, some kind of fruit which includes the dried variety and a drink. The idea of little boxes or bags with salads of any kind, pieces of carrot or cucumber, grated carrot and so on is an anathema. Now one of them is complaining that the other children have bags of crisps, a Twix and the like and that 'nobody else' has fruit. As parents we both have a different way of doing it. I make a sandwich which both girls prefer whereas Maman does it very Italian style with a piece of bread, piece of cheese, separately wrapped ham or whatever, and slices of sausage likewise. Because she peels apples (!!) she is reluctant to put them in, but an orange will always be segmented in a little bag. The girls prefer my picnics but even then do not have the same as the others. I think the bottom line is that in principle we have the same problem with it as you Tracy, but in our case we are not going to climb down to the lazy option of giving them garbage.