School lunches are a minefield for many parents, with schools now enforcing 'rules' around what can and can't be included and many parents showing off their children's extravagant and time-consuming lunchbox creations online.
But one Aussie mother who took to Facebook group 'Lunchbox Ideas Australia' to share the lunch she packs for her four-year-old at daycare has been slammed by other parents for making the meal "too grown-up".
No, she didn't pack oysters or a charcuterie board. Instead, the bento-style lunchbox regularly consists of snacks like pistachio nuts, seaweed crackers and snow peas.
In a post this week, the mother wrote she had packed: "Homemade oat pancake with bacon and Parmesan, a hard-boiled egg, some broad beans, a half of avocado, bits of feta cheese, a couple of seaweed cracker, plenty of watermelon and a few dried apricots."
Sounds pretty delicious, right?
But other parents hit out, with some saying four-year-olds would prefer to eat "chicken nuggets" and others questioning how such a young child would be able to shell pistachios to eat.
"Just wait until you have teenagers and send them to school with a lunchbox like this. How embarrassing mum," one woman wrote.
After a series of negative responses, the mum wrote that she never expected a lunchbox could create so much "controversy, criticism and conversation".
"I'm blown away and weirdly motivated to keep posting my bentos."
She did garner support from some other mothers, with one woman writing the lunchboxes were "parenting goals".
"That looks great! I wish my son would eat that and I wish someone would pack me a lunch like that! Well done Mumma," praised another.
It's not the first time a 'controversial' lunchbox has hit headlines. Last month one exhausted Aussie mum shared the reality of her children's packed lunchboxes, filled with "plastic and pre-packaged snacks - complete with cash for a lunch order".
