Mom shows how she 'fakes' homemade lunches to get around her child's daycare's strict rules

Packing lunches every day for kids can get too much for parents. It becomes more of a job when the school or daycare is specific about what they can bring as lunch. A mom and TikTok user @mammathings shared a perfect lunch hack that could be a relief for parents on somedays. 

In the video, Caitlin can be seen packing chicken and pesto pasta into a lunchbox from a microwaveable container. She then takes packaged Bluey cookies and puts them into a separate container. The text overlay reads, "When daycare makes you send a lunch and... you aren't allowed any packaged foods and they request warm, homemade meals over winter." The video is captioned, "Bang some berries in and a banana." She basically packs ordered food into plastic food containers and passes it off as a home-cooked meal. 

The mom's incredible hack went viral with over 2.6 million views and 77.5 thousand likes. Caitlin told Newsweek, "I make 'mom content' on TikTok and focus on sharing easy recipes and ideas for children, but sometimes a raw moment like this slips in." She continued, "We are not allowed packaged foods in the daycare lunches that we send, so I was showing a way to fake this because it has been a long week!"

"Sometimes daycare requests, although well-intended, can place additional mental loads or pressures on moms so we need to find a way to work around that from time to time," Caitlin explained.

People on the social media platform were upset with the rule set by the daycare. @white00k commented, "If they aren't paying or packing, it's not their concern what your feed YOUR kid. They say fed is best." @clu1960 wrote, "New follower here. That's genius!" @klan1021 said, "The last 3 months of school, I went to Dunkin and got my kid a bagel and two donuts for snack and lunch." @tiffanynicolerent pointed out, "Honestly, I feel like it's the audacity for them to mention anything because, on top of paying for daycare, they also want to restrict what my child eats."

Talking about lunch, a dad surprised his adult son at his work with lunch and the moment was truly beautiful. The dad, David Monroe, got a meal from Burger King as a gesture to let his son know that he always has his back. The text overlay on the video posted on TikTok reads, "Just because they get older, our kids still need to know that we'll always be there for them."

The father said, "I wanted to bring you something, bro. I wanted to bring you lunch." He gave the lunch to him and the son smiled. "I love you, boy. I just want to say thank you, man," he said. "Thank you. Have a good day," he responded. The loving dad also gave his son some advice, "Keep working hard."

Many people loved what the dad told his son. @Mr.Magik commented, "He'll always remember this. That look back was a boy still amazed by his super dad. You are appreciated." @DaphneNanaEdwards wrote, "I'm so proud of him, tell him to keep making good decisions in ALL situations!"

Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 6, 2023. It has since been updated.