In Praise of the After School Meal
When you’ve got kids, you are busy. That is just an unavoidable truth
As adults, we have lots of practice with the routines of living. We know how to stuff our faces even if we're not hungry - knowing that the opportunities we have to eat are minimal. We know to prioritize our future well-being over our current comfort. The dishes need to be loaded and unloaded, the laundry needs to be washed, folded, put away (sometimes even on the same day!), etc.
We’ve developed unique systems over decades to adapt to our chores and fluctuating needs.
Kids are new to all of this. And their worlds are constantly in flux. They go from class to class, from task to task, with little autonomy. Their only sanctioned social time during the school day is recess or lunchtime. It is unsurprising then that not much eating takes place during lunch for many (maybe even most) kids.
Hungry kids become hangry kids FAST.
Plus, kids - especially neurodivergent kids - can be notoriously unskilled at recognizing body sensations. Even identifying pain can be hard. Most kids are good at “I feel bad” or “I feel happy” but less good at more detailed descriptions. “Bad” can mean a lot of things. It could mean - my shoulder hurts, or my heart feels heavy and sad, or I’m so hungry I can’t think straight so I’ll just explode into blind rage!
At school, social interaction is powerful medicine. So powerful that a lot of kids are so busy soaking up the sweetness of talking with friends that they don’t eat enough food.
I say all this to offer a small solution: The After School Meal.
Many of us were raised with the sacred dinnertime ritual. At around 6:30 or 7 (or later, if your parents were really wild), everyone would gather around the table for supper. It was (mostly) lovely - at least with the rose-colored glasses of memory.
But now, we pick up our kids from aftercare at 5ish and then they are off to soccer or dance class or tutoring or whatever else. We give them some sort of sustenance in the car and then rush to the activity, then home, and pray to the refrigerator gods we can throw something together to feed them and ourselves. Sometimes, this is the best we can do! And it is good!!
I offer you today another solution: The After School Meal
A caveat, this will require some additional planning.
Obviously this won’t necessarily work all the time.
Certainly, you will get some weird responses when you tell people you’re doing this.
HOWEVER, I remind you that everything everything everything is made up. You can brush your teeth in the shower if you want to. You can eat soup for breakfast. You can put green eyeliner on one eye and blue on the other.
You can eat or prepare a meal whenever you want if it works best for your needs and your family’s needs.
As with all meals, a nice mix of carbs, protein, and fresh veggies or fruit is the goal.
Here are some ideas for an afterschool meal:
Snack dinner : It’s charcuterie with more kid-friendly stuff. Think cheese and crackers, pickles, fruit, cut up veggies, hard boiled eggs, hummus; PB&J (or cream cheese and J). I always include a lil’ treat, too.
Breakfast for dinner: egg bites, sausage, waffles or pancakes (extra points for adding protein powder to the mix), smoothie
Pasta Salad: I use a ratio method: 2 part cooked pasta pasta, 2 parts chopped mixed veggies (bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and chickpeas are my go-tos), 1 wild card (feta or chopped mozzarella, salami), enough dressing to coat. Add store bought pesto to taste if you want! This keeps great in the fridge and is chock full of nutrition.
If you like the dinner table ritual, invite your kids to join the adults for a small serving of what’s for dinner. Include fresh fruit and veggies for snacking. That way, you get the dinner table ritual (if you want it), and they have an opportunity to eat some more food, possibly trying new items in the process.
Good luck out there!
