Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #197 School Lunches with Jessica Rowe
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
- 0:06Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the time poor parent who just
- 0:09Speaker 2: wants answers.
- 0:10Speaker 3: Now. I used to put far too much pressure on myself.
- 0:13Speaker 4: To think I had to have all of that together,
- 0:15Speaker 4: and the only person I was letting down was myself.
- 0:18Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mom
- 0:21Speaker 1: and dad.
- 0:22Speaker 5: Hello. This stock Justin Colson, the author of six books
- 0:25Speaker 5: about raising happy families. And I'm here with my wife
- 0:27Speaker 5: and co hosts missus Happy Families, Kylie, the mum to
- 0:30Speaker 5: our six daughters. Today special guest, Kylie.
- 0:32Speaker 1: We're here with Jessica Row today. I bet it feels
- 0:35Speaker 1: awesome to have the kids all at school.
- 0:37Speaker 3: Yay, I'm so relieved.
- 0:39Speaker 5: It feels good, doesn't it.
- 0:41Speaker 3: Oh, it's the best.
- 0:43Speaker 4: I'm sure I'm not the only one. When the holidays
- 0:46Speaker 4: they were great. It was lovely to have downtime, but
- 0:49Speaker 4: they were long. They were a long holiday.
- 0:52Speaker 2: And I think when it backs, when it backs onto
- 0:54Speaker 2: the year we had, they really did feel long, didn't they.
- 0:57Speaker 4: Well, it did, and I think as well because for
- 1:00Speaker 4: a lot of people it was still disruptive the break,
- 1:04Speaker 4: you know, there was still with various Christmas plans.
- 1:07Speaker 5: Yeah, borders opening and closing all exactly.
- 1:10Speaker 3: That uncertainty kept sort of rolling on.
- 1:13Speaker 2: So oh yeah, yeah, Well I'm sitting there right with
- 1:18Speaker 2: you on that on that couch. I am definitely grateful
- 1:21Speaker 2: the kids are back at school. On Instagram, Jess, you're
- 1:26Speaker 2: known as the self proclaimed a crap housewife.
- 1:30Speaker 1: I can't even say that. It doesn't roll off my
- 1:33Speaker 1: tongue very well.
- 1:33Speaker 5: It doesn't roll off your tongue because you're not like that, es.
- 1:39Speaker 5: I mean, I'm not not making any comparisons, but Kylie.
- 1:43Speaker 5: Kylie would feel a little uncomfortable if somebody walked into
- 1:46Speaker 5: the house and said, you must be a crap housewife.
- 1:49Speaker 5: Just don't know if she's gonna respond well to that.
- 1:51Speaker 3: Well, you know what, we do what works for us.
- 1:54Speaker 4: And I have embraced being a crap housewife, Kylie. I
- 1:59Speaker 4: have piles of washing, I've got dirty dishes in the sink.
- 2:04Speaker 3: I'm not a great cook.
- 2:06Speaker 4: I used to put far too much pressure on myself
- 2:08Speaker 4: to think I had to have all of that together,
- 2:11Speaker 4: and the only person I was letting down was myself.
- 2:13Speaker 4: I'd get myself in such a ladder, And so now
- 2:16Speaker 4: I go, you know what, I'm enough. It doesn't matter
- 2:18Speaker 4: that I'm not good at this stuff, because I can
- 2:21Speaker 4: be good at other things.
- 2:22Speaker 3: But I think the key is you do what works
- 2:25Speaker 3: for you and your family.
- 2:26Speaker 1: I just love it.
- 2:28Speaker 2: This week, it seems that you have made national headlines
- 2:31Speaker 2: for exactly that we.
- 2:33Speaker 5: Well, actually, it wasn't just making national headlines. Let's be clear.
- 2:35Speaker 5: Here was this is Jess's daughter's lunchbox from twenty twenty
- 2:39Speaker 5: that made national headlines.
- 2:41Speaker 2: Can you tell us all why was your daughter's lunchbox
- 2:45Speaker 2: making national headlines this week?
- 2:47Speaker 4: Well, first of all, how hilarious that the lunchbox have
- 2:50Speaker 4: made national headlines. Essentially, what happened? We're getting ready for
- 2:55Speaker 4: back to school. I mean I'm doing star jumps this
- 2:57Speaker 4: morning because both my girls are back at school now.
- 3:00Speaker 3: But we were getting ready just the.
- 3:02Speaker 4: Other day and I thought, okay, time to get the
- 3:06Speaker 4: school bag ready, get the lunchboxes ready.
- 3:09Speaker 3: Low and behold, in my.
- 3:11Speaker 4: Youngest daughter's lunchbox was the lunch that we hadn't unpacked
- 3:15Speaker 4: from last December.
- 3:17Speaker 3: And you think they would.
- 3:19Speaker 4: Have smelled it, but no, because it was in this
- 3:21Speaker 4: cupboard under the stairs and a whole lot of other junk,
- 3:24Speaker 4: so that was obviously sealing the smell in there, but
- 3:27Speaker 4: I unzipped it, and oh my goodness, the smell, the
- 3:31Speaker 4: stench in one tuple wear was just this green liquid
- 3:35Speaker 4: and I'm not sure what it was. I think potentially
- 3:39Speaker 4: it might have been some cucumbers that liquefied. And then
- 3:42Speaker 4: in the other container, which is my daughter's favorite because
- 3:46Speaker 4: it has seals on the front, I undid it and
- 3:49Speaker 4: there were these I think they might have been might
- 3:52Speaker 4: have been once grapes, and they were black and furry
- 3:57Speaker 4: and just foul. So I just had to laughed because
- 4:00Speaker 4: I just thought, I cannot believe this, and I posted
- 4:04Speaker 4: it to my Instagram, and lo and behold. What I
- 4:07Speaker 4: loved is that hundreds of other moms and dads responded
- 4:12Speaker 4: with their foul lunch box stories, with similar things happening
- 4:17Speaker 4: to them, feeling reassured that, oh my goodness, were not
- 4:21Speaker 4: the only ones. Others sharing stories about how they'd had
- 4:25Speaker 4: cheese and bacon rolls in their kids lunchboxes and they
- 4:29Speaker 4: opened them and suddenly they thought they were tennis ball.
- 4:33Speaker 5: Digusting.
- 4:35Speaker 3: Is we've all been there.
- 4:36Speaker 4: I mean, I'm sure for you guys too, perhaps when
- 4:39Speaker 4: you were younger, like I remember putting my hand in
- 4:42Speaker 4: my school bag when I was probably about Giselle's age,
- 4:45Speaker 4: which is eleven, and there was this powdery substance in
- 4:48Speaker 4: the bottom and it was an orange.
- 4:50Speaker 3: It was a whole orange.
- 4:51Speaker 4: That had basically over the time, had just powered into
- 4:55Speaker 4: this foul thing.
- 4:57Speaker 1: So yeah, I do definitely remember the orange.
- 5:01Speaker 3: All kind of boh. And I think the thing is
- 5:04Speaker 3: what I love about.
- 5:06Speaker 4: Instant because we hear negative things about social media, but
- 5:09Speaker 4: what I love was hearing all these other people's stories.
- 5:12Speaker 4: We can laugh at ourselves, we can think we are
- 5:15Speaker 4: doing our best. And if you have that stenchy lunchbox
- 5:19Speaker 4: every now and then, that's okay, because you know, today
- 5:23Speaker 4: my daughter's got off to school with new lunchboxes with
- 5:26Speaker 4: food that wasn't molded in the lunchboxes.
- 5:28Speaker 3: So that's the wind.
- 5:29Speaker 5: I'm just thinking about the detoxifying properties of five or
- 5:33Speaker 5: six week old cucumber juice.
- 5:36Speaker 2: There's no detoxifying crisis. They just go on the bin,
- 5:39Speaker 2: don't they.
- 5:39Speaker 4: Just I had to say to my daughter, I know
- 5:43Speaker 4: that this is your favorite container with the seals on
- 5:46Speaker 4: the lid, but I'm sorry, darling.
- 5:49Speaker 5: God, So I've got I've got a serious question for you,
- 5:54Speaker 5: jess self proclaimed crap housewife. You make no secret whatsoever
- 5:58Speaker 5: that you're not much of a cook. You do what
- 6:01Speaker 5: you do when you're okay with that, and we celebrate
- 6:03Speaker 5: and love you for it. But what I would love
- 6:06Speaker 5: to know is, as somebody who isn't into putting in
- 6:10Speaker 5: a deep, wholehearted master chef effort when it comes to
- 6:15Speaker 5: your children's lunch boxes, how do you how do you
- 6:17Speaker 5: create something to go in the lunch box that they'll
- 6:20Speaker 5: actually eat and not throw in the bin or bring.
- 6:22Speaker 5: Oh well, maybe you don't. Maybe that's why you've got
- 6:25Speaker 5: five week old cucumber there.
- 6:27Speaker 3: That's right, you see.
- 6:28Speaker 4: If someone had the answer to that, justin I would
- 6:31Speaker 4: love to know.
- 6:33Speaker 3: I'm open to any tips, any hints.
- 6:36Speaker 4: Any suggestions, because like so many of us, you want
- 6:39Speaker 4: to pack healthy food that they're going to eat that
- 6:42Speaker 4: won't you won't to put all this sort of time
- 6:44Speaker 4: into it and then they're unopened at the end.
- 6:47Speaker 3: I mean, I always start with good intentions.
- 6:50Speaker 4: So I made both of my daughter's lunches this morning,
- 6:53Speaker 4: but often we'll do a bit of a lunch order
- 6:55Speaker 4: as well.
- 6:56Speaker 3: Somehaps that's pretty good at the school canteen.
- 6:58Speaker 5: You can't go wrong when you're spending any on someone
- 7:00Speaker 5: else's food, right, that's right.
- 7:03Speaker 4: So no, I have no qualms of doing that, but
- 7:06Speaker 4: I honestly I wish I had the answer. I just
- 7:09Speaker 4: you know what, I try and keep it simple. I'll
- 7:11Speaker 4: put a treat in there as well. Of course, the
- 7:12Speaker 4: treats always get eaten first, they do.
- 7:14Speaker 3: Yeah, an apple.
- 7:17Speaker 4: I did get a little excited about new containers. So
- 7:21Speaker 4: I found these containers that had like a little section
- 7:24Speaker 4: for dip and another little section that you could put
- 7:26Speaker 4: carrots in and cucumber. So I'm hoping that the new
- 7:30Speaker 4: containers might inspire my daughters to eat the carrot and cucumber.
- 7:35Speaker 5: The food's that much more attractive because it's in a
- 7:37Speaker 5: container that's attractive.
- 7:39Speaker 4: Right exactly, and that they can dip it in the
- 7:41Speaker 4: other in the little they almost in it. So I honestly,
- 7:46Speaker 4: I'm open to plenty of suggestions because you know what,
- 7:49Speaker 4: keep it simple, they're not going to that. They won't starve.
- 7:53Speaker 4: I mean, if there's food in there, they're going to
- 7:55Speaker 4: eat it.
- 7:55Speaker 5: Today, I thought you were going to say, keep it simple,
- 7:57Speaker 5: they're not going to eat it anyway.
- 8:00Speaker 2: Well, I reckon, Jess, If you carry on listening, You're
- 8:04Speaker 2: going to find out that we've got some tips that
- 8:06Speaker 2: just might help you as well as everybody else with
- 8:08Speaker 2: this whole lunchbox.
- 8:09Speaker 3: Dill Emma, I am listening. I need all the help
- 8:13Speaker 3: I can get. Hid.
- 8:14Speaker 5: We'll do that right after the break.
- 8:15Speaker 4: It's their Happy Families podcast.
- 8:18Speaker 6: Are Screens Creating Tension at Home? Tweens, Teens and Screens
- 8:22Speaker 6: is a webinar to guide families to healthy, safe superscreen solutions.
- 8:27Speaker 6: Bye today at happy families dot com dot au slash shop.
- 8:31Speaker 2: It's a Happy Families podcast, the podcast for the time
- 8:34Speaker 2: poor parent who just wants answers.
- 8:36Speaker 5: Now, you've made some big promises to Jessica Rowe. That
- 8:39Speaker 5: was such a fun conversation. I truly cannot believe that
- 8:42Speaker 5: it was one of the biggest news stories over the
- 8:44Speaker 5: last week.
- 8:45Speaker 2: Like seriously, it is a little bit sad that a
- 8:48Speaker 2: lunchbox is what makes national news these days.
- 8:50Speaker 5: It's better than reading about Donald Trump. So what what
- 8:54Speaker 5: are your hacks? Because you've made this big promise, Jessica's
- 8:56Speaker 5: got to get these tips so that you can actually
- 8:58Speaker 5: get a kids to eat lunch. What do you reckon?
- 9:01Speaker 5: We can do about this? By the way, I have
- 9:04Speaker 5: to mention something that has worked for one of our
- 9:06Speaker 5: fussy kids is that I just love this. I don't
- 9:09Speaker 5: know where you got the idea. You've made toasted sandwiches
- 9:12Speaker 5: in the morning, let them cool off, put them in
- 9:15Speaker 5: the lunch box, and the kids are eating toasted cold sandwiches.
- 9:19Speaker 5: What's with that?
- 9:20Speaker 1: There wasn't even a crust left in the lunch box.
- 9:23Speaker 1: That was what was really exciting.
- 9:26Speaker 2: I don't know what it is, but they love toasted sandwiches,
- 9:28Speaker 2: and I thought, I'll just give it a go because
- 9:31Speaker 2: they won't eat sandwiches.
- 9:32Speaker 5: They're eating them cold. They're eating toasted sandwiches four hours
- 9:35Speaker 5: later cold. So that's our number one hack. I mean,
- 9:38Speaker 5: just try it. You never know what else have you got.
- 9:40Speaker 2: Look, I was really just thinking around the whole dilemma
- 9:43Speaker 2: that Jess had, So it wasn't necessarily about what goes
- 9:47Speaker 2: in the lunch box as much as how.
- 9:49Speaker 1: Can we make sure that doesn't happen at.
- 9:51Speaker 3: The other end.
- 9:53Speaker 2: And these days schools are actually putting a lot of
- 9:56Speaker 2: parameters around parents on what what can.
- 9:59Speaker 5: And can't go to school. And also you've got to
- 10:01Speaker 5: make sure that you bring off the rubbish home and yeah.
- 10:03Speaker 2: So I was thinking more along those lines. And one
- 10:06Speaker 2: of the big dilemmas for parents these days is that
- 10:08Speaker 2: a lot of schools are saying they don't want disposable
- 10:11Speaker 2: plastic wraps coming to school, and if they do, they
- 10:13Speaker 2: have to come home.
- 10:14Speaker 5: Yeah, like you clean rap sort of stuff.
- 10:15Speaker 2: Yeah, And so one of the things that I've done
- 10:18Speaker 2: this year, which has been brilliant. My sister actually brought
- 10:20Speaker 2: them for me for Christmas, is those reusable.
- 10:22Speaker 1: Zip block bags. They're brilliant.
- 10:25Speaker 2: So they've got beautiful little patterns on them, and the
- 10:27Speaker 2: kids know they're there's stick the treats, and then they
- 10:30Speaker 2: come home and get washed.
- 10:31Speaker 1: So that's been awesome.
- 10:32Speaker 5: There is still a risk though, that a cucumber left
- 10:34Speaker 5: in one of those for five weeks could still turn
- 10:36Speaker 5: into some kind of fetid reduced juice of something.
- 10:40Speaker 2: So my tip for Jess on that one is maybe
- 10:43Speaker 2: check the lunch bag at the end of the day.
- 10:46Speaker 5: Or at least at the end of the term. Don't
- 10:48Speaker 5: wait for the whole summer holiday to go on. What
- 10:50Speaker 5: else have we got?
- 10:52Speaker 1: There's beeswax wraps these days.
- 10:54Speaker 2: There's my favorite is just you know, your generic container
- 10:58Speaker 2: with the label that is working for me.
- 11:00Speaker 1: And the reason it's working for me is I can.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Put a piece of fruit in there and doesn't get
- 11:04Speaker 2: squashed because everyone's had a squash banana at some point.
- 11:07Speaker 5: Yeah, So we've actually started using containers for pretty much everything.
- 11:10Speaker 5: The fruit goes into a container, the sandwich goes in,
- 11:12Speaker 5: not wrapped, it just goes into a sandwich size container
- 11:15Speaker 5: with the lid on. It keeps it fresh enough, especially
- 11:17Speaker 5: once it's a toasted sandwich, and it doesn't have to
- 11:18Speaker 5: be kept quite so fresh. So the containers are a
- 11:21Speaker 5: really great hack for keeping lunch boxes clean, not having
- 11:24Speaker 5: too much excess rubbish. That's a really nice way to
- 11:28Speaker 5: move forward with that.
- 11:29Speaker 2: Keeping things cool that's really tricky at times too. And
- 11:33Speaker 2: people think that you could buy these insulated lunch boxes
- 11:36Speaker 2: and you stick everything in and it.
- 11:37Speaker 5: Will keep it cool.
- 11:37Speaker 2: What you have to realize is whatever temperature you put
- 11:40Speaker 2: the food in too, that insulated box is what it's
- 11:42Speaker 2: going to stay at.
- 11:43Speaker 5: So the kids the other day did something so funny.
- 11:45Speaker 5: They filled up their water bottles the night before stuck
- 11:48Speaker 5: them in the fridge. We've got the insulated water bottles,
- 11:50Speaker 5: They've put the lids on, stuck them in the fridge
- 11:51Speaker 5: and they've pulled them out the next day and they're
- 11:53Speaker 5: the same temperature. Well, their bottles cold. The bottom the
- 11:56Speaker 5: water's the same temperature as when it came out of
- 11:59Speaker 5: the tap because theation kept the temperature the same. So
- 12:02Speaker 5: it's got to go in cold and then it'll stay cold.
- 12:06Speaker 5: That's the tip with the insulated stuff.
- 12:08Speaker 3: That's right.
- 12:09Speaker 1: So you know, using those ice bricks is helpful. But
- 12:11Speaker 1: freeze your poppers.
- 12:12Speaker 2: Some kids really enjoy having frozen grapes, and you can
- 12:15Speaker 2: freeze your muffins. One of the things that our friends
- 12:17Speaker 2: used to do, which I actually thought was brilliant. I've
- 12:19Speaker 2: never done it, but they would buy a fresh loaf
- 12:21Speaker 2: of bread, they would make ten or twelve, you know,
- 12:24Speaker 2: vegymite sandwiches right on the spot, and then they would
- 12:27Speaker 2: stick it in the freezer and the kids would literally
- 12:29Speaker 2: just pull out a frozen sandwich each day. And at
- 12:32Speaker 2: the time it sounded awful, like I just I couldn't
- 12:35Speaker 2: get my head around a frozen sandwich. But when you
- 12:38Speaker 2: eat a sandwich that has just frosted on fresh bread,
- 12:42Speaker 2: it's literally like a fresh sandwich. You don't have that,
- 12:46Speaker 2: you know, when the spread kind of gets manky and
- 12:49Speaker 2: it kind of just absorbs into the bread.
- 12:52Speaker 5: Yeah, so the bread sort of defrosts through the day
- 12:54Speaker 5: and the kids are having a fairly fresh sandwich. So
- 12:56Speaker 5: let me do a quick summary, because our time is
- 12:58Speaker 5: running out. We want to make sure that we're using containers,
- 13:02Speaker 5: not sending a whole lot of rubbish to school. In
- 13:04Speaker 5: terms of food, you're suggesting freezing the food, keeping the
- 13:06Speaker 5: food cold because it feels and tastes fresher. You've suggested
- 13:10Speaker 5: things like frozen grapes. You could do the same with
- 13:12Speaker 5: frozen oranges.
- 13:13Speaker 1: Kids really like it in our heat. It's awesome, right,
- 13:16Speaker 1: you get.
- 13:17Speaker 5: In an Australian summer. This is a really nice way
- 13:19Speaker 5: to go. What are the tips, hints, hacks and someone
- 13:22Speaker 5: have you got for making lunch boxes work in terms
- 13:24Speaker 5: of keeping everything fresh and getting the kids to eat it.
- 13:27Speaker 2: So, I guess the big thing with getting kids to
- 13:29Speaker 2: eat it is getting them involved in the process. So
- 13:32Speaker 2: at the beginning of the school year, we sit down
- 13:33Speaker 2: with the kids. I say, all right, well, you got
- 13:35Speaker 2: sick of the lunches we did last year, what are
- 13:37Speaker 2: we going to do this year to just kind of
- 13:39Speaker 2: improve what we're doing? And they'll go through the recipe book,
- 13:42Speaker 2: they'll find a few different recipes. Might be an apple
- 13:44Speaker 2: muffin this year that they want to They're willing to
- 13:46Speaker 2: try and I.
- 13:47Speaker 1: Give it a go.
- 13:49Speaker 5: So it's just about experimentation, and it sounds like it's
- 13:53Speaker 5: actually about intention as well. You've got to You're saying,
- 13:56Speaker 5: make the effort. If you make the effort, it'll work.
- 13:58Speaker 5: I mean, the kids go off soundwiches and you start
- 14:00Speaker 5: doing wraps, they go off raps, so you start doing
- 14:02Speaker 5: toasted sound, which.
- 14:03Speaker 2: Is I think we're variety going to help the process.
- 14:07Speaker 2: If you have a vegiemite sandwich every day for you know.
- 14:09Speaker 5: Am or a year, it's gross.
- 14:12Speaker 1: It gets really boring.
- 14:13Speaker 5: The other thing that our children love has leftovers. I mean,
- 14:15Speaker 5: I love leftovers too, but I'm sacrificing leftovers. They take
- 14:17Speaker 5: the leftovers to school and I know that they're going
- 14:19Speaker 5: to have a good lunch. So you know, if you
- 14:20Speaker 5: have lasagna the night before, stick it in a container,
- 14:23Speaker 5: give them a plastic spoon or fork, and they are
- 14:26Speaker 5: in heaven. They think it's fantastic, even if it's cold.
- 14:28Speaker 2: Well, we hope you've enjoyed the podcast, and Jess, I'm
- 14:31Speaker 2: hoping that you're not going to find any green liquid
- 14:33Speaker 2: in your lunch box at the end of the year.
- 14:36Speaker 5: It's such a greass story. I still can't believe it
- 14:38Speaker 5: made national news headlines, but I can imagine the sixty
- 14:41Speaker 5: minutes expose a current affairs sneaking into Jessica Roe's house
- 14:46Speaker 5: to check out the kids lunch boxes at the end
- 14:48Speaker 5: of next summer. You know, this is a very crap
- 14:51Speaker 5: housewife here so much fun. If you've enjoyed our podcast,
- 14:54Speaker 5: by the way, please tell other people about it. Just
- 14:57Speaker 5: shoot it through to a friend or jump on Apple
- 14:58Speaker 5: Podcasts and leave it and review. That's how people find
- 15:01Speaker 5: out about the podcast and we get to make other
- 15:03Speaker 5: people's families happier or at least help you to get
- 15:05Speaker 5: your kids to eat their lunch. Our podcast producer is
- 15:09Speaker 5: Justin rule On from Bridge Media. We also appreciate our
- 15:11Speaker 5: executive producer, Traig Bruce, for giving us loads of ideas
- 15:14Speaker 5: about how we can help make families happier. By the way,
- 15:16Speaker 5: if you would like to make your family happier, all
- 15:19Speaker 5: you need to do is jump onto Happy Families dot
- 15:21Speaker 5: com dot au find out about our amazing Happy Families memberships.
- 15:25Speaker 5: The family is getting bigger and bigger every day as
- 15:28Speaker 5: more people jump on board and find out how to
- 15:31Speaker 5: make their families happier. All the details at happy families
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