Mother faces furious backlash over packed lunch for her nine-year-old daughter
A stay-at-home mum has faced backlash on social media after showing off the elaborate school lunches she prepares for her nine-year-old daughter.
Alexia Gallegos, from the US, is a mother of three, but it is the contents of her eldest child’s school lunches that are causing controversy on Instagram.
The mom, who insists that “school lunches don’t have to be cold and boring,” recently posted a video to her Instagram account, @lexymariee_, detailing her lunch packing routine.
Placing the clampGallegos was seen preparing a freshly baked potato, topped with seasoned steak bites, shrimp, broccoli, shredded cheese and herbs, and wrote: “Bake potato for the win.”
A stay-at-home mum faced backlash on social media after showing off the elaborate school lunches she prepares for her nine-year-old daughter, including a loaded baked potato
After neatly packing the main course into a round pink Bentgo lunch box, Gallegos added an array of snacks to her daughter’s take-home bag.
These include: a small container of pistachios, a small container of Haribo Gold Bear sweets, a packet of chocolate covered dried strawberries, a packet of sea salt roasted seaweed and a packet of ‘Veggie’ straws from the garden.
The mother then added additional snacks such as two Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a Kinder Joy chocolate, a container of jellied fruit, beef jerky, a gummy pizza candy box and Tic Tacs with strawberries and cream.
To complete the meal, Gallegos included a Stanley bottle filled with butterfly-shaped ice cubes and water, and a handwritten note that read, “Hey beautiful, you are ALWAYS worth it!” Stay yourself! Love mommy.”
Despite Gallego’s display of motherly affection, more than 54,000 Instagram users have expressed shock and concern about the appropriateness of the lunch, with many criticizing the portion sizes and nutritional value of the snacks.
One person said: ‘Sorry to hate to say it because you look so happy and everything made with love… but this is so much food… and also so much sugar for one day…’
Another wrote: ‘All that plastic waste… and wouldn’t one kind of candy be enough? No apple, no banana…
Meanwhile, one joked: ‘Is she going to school or is she building it?!’, while another teased: ‘That little girl is still in the cafeteria eating her lunch.’
After Gallegos neatly packs the main course into a round pink Bentgo lunch box, she adds an array of snacks to her daughter’s take-home bag
Despite Gallego’s display of motherly affection, more than 54,000 Instagram users have expressed shock and concern about the appropriateness of the lunch
A third joked: ‘I’m not sure if we’re trying to kill her with diabetes or with room temperature prawns.’
A third said: ‘I don’t know anything other than that ice cream that put me off. She won’t even see the shape of the butterfly, it will melt.’
A teacher confirmed that the video is likely an accurate representation of the child’s daily lunch, writing: ‘I’ve seen lunches like this before. Children take one or two bites of the main course and then eat the packaged food. Pack less. They don’t need it.’
Meanwhile, an Instagram user claiming to be a school administrator said, “As a school administrator, we don’t allow teachers to heat up kids’ lunches, so they eat it cold the next day.”
It comes after an Australian mother had to defend her choice to send her four-year-old daughter to school with a boiled egg in June 2021.