At What Age Should Kids Pack Their Own Lunch?

If he's old enough to complain, he's old enough to make his own lunch.

Try writing up with him a list of possible "menus" and he can pick from that and assemble (that's what I did for my husband when he was laid off and was home with the kids!)

I stopped getting a lunch packed for me when I was in middle school.

My 8 year old packs his own lunch. My 4 and 6 year olds pack their own snacks. I have them show me before they put it in the bag. I have 2 families in my life right now with older kids and they did EVERYTHING for them. I see how disrespectful they are and they refuse to do anything for themselves at this point. I don't think it's wrong to teach kids how to do things on their own at a young age.
They also do laundry. :)

A friend of mine has always made her boys pack their lunches from the time they were in kdg. She said if they were old enough to open the packages and eat them, they're old enough to make they. I, on the other hand, still pack lunches for my 10 yr old and 6 yr old twins. It takes all but 5 mins for me to do, and I feel it's part of my role as mom to carry out.

I still pack lunch for my 13 y/o daughter because I enjoy doing it and she loves what I pack for her especially when it’s a hot lunch. She always says thank you and kisses me every morning as I hand her her lunch bag. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

What she does in the morning without me asking or assisting, routinely = hugs me and her brother as soon as she gets up, makes her bed, takes a shower, gets dressed, brushes her hair, gets her back pack, makes her own breakfast, takes her vitamins, fills her water bottle, brushes her teeth, gets her shoes and waits by the door with my car keys in her hands. =-)

If your husband enjoys it, let him keep doing it. Teach your son to say thank you and to appreciate what your husband does for him.

Best of luck!

sounds like your husband is enjoying his part of the process. Not many dads take the time to do this....let him be happy!

I don't think there is a right or wrong age. I am one of four and my mom made all of our lunches up until the day we graduated from HS (I remember my friends were jealous because my lunches were so good). She worked and would make 6 lunches every morning (4 kids plus 2 parents). My kids aren't old enough yet (oldest is 5), but I plan on making it for a while! If your hubby doesn't mind, then let him do it.

my mom packed my lunch when i was a senior in high school, of course, i was perfectly capable of doing it and would have done so if i had been asked/told, but that was just something she always did for me. i will prob always pack my kids' lunches.

When they start complaining about what you pack.

Your 11 year old can do it, but if Dad enjoys it, why NOT?

Blessings.....

I never packed my own lunch.... My mom felt that was part of her "job".

I think that he's old enough. Our older kids started packing their lunches by 10 or 11, with parental input. SD has her own shelf for lunch items and learned to make her sandwiches the night before and just grab an ice pack and some filler in the morning.

Do you think your husband thinks the boy is too young, or he will miss doing this for his son? Is HE not ready to pass the torch yet?

Mine decided about that age that he did not want to eat cafeteria food anymore and wanted to brown bag it. I said "Great, pack it". We decided together on what he wanted for lunch - a sandwich, a chip, a piece of fruit and one small sweet thing. He could still purchase milk only at the cafeteria. He normally did bologna or pbj sandwiches. Occasionally, a Luncheable as a treat.

So he started packing his lunch. I just made sure that I had the supplies on hand for him and let it go.

Set some nutrition guidelines and let your child pack his own lunch. At 11 he is more than capable of doing this chore for himself.

Good Luck and God Bless

My son started at six. He gets up on his own (natural early riser, blecch!), makes his lunch (I do random checks to make sure they aren't too "sweet" Lol) and repacks his backpack.

I don't think 11 is in any way too young to make a lunch!

My 5 year old is responsible for making and packing his lunch. As well as getting bkpk together, teeth brush and clothes on. We are Love and Logic parents. which is just a different style of parenting. We have worked very hard to make he take responseability for himself. Now i will double check lunch while he is getting the rest of himself ready. To make sure he is not juust filling it with junk. If need be i make slight changes, only if the main ingredient is sugar. I do that cause the school is strict on what they cannot bring for lunches. Now i dont expect my #2 boy to be as easily compliant. he is my lazzzzzy one. so there maybe many many days he will go to school without shoes, or a shirt. The school runs on the love and logic learning so if this happens they understand how to deal with it. its important they learn to do things for themselves. more for parents sake. they dont have to baby them. they can just enjoy them and be glad you dont have to yell get shoes on thirty times.

Updated

My 5 year old is responsible for making and packing his lunch. As well as getting bkpk together, teeth brush and clothes on. We are Love and Logic parents. which is just a different style of parenting. We have worked very hard to make he take responseability for himself. Now i will double check lunch while he is getting the rest of himself ready. To make sure he is not juust filling it with junk. If need be i make slight changes, only if the main ingredient is sugar. I do that cause the school is strict on what they cannot bring for lunches. Now i dont expect my #2 boy to be as easily compliant. he is my lazzzzzy one. so there maybe many many days he will go to school without shoes, or a shirt. The school runs on the love and logic learning so if this happens they understand how to deal with it. its important they learn to do things for themselves. more for parents sake. they dont have to baby them. they can just enjoy them and be glad you dont have to yell get shoes on thirty times.

My 7-year-old packs her lunch!

I check it before she goes out the door with it, but she is more than capable of doing it herself!

My oldest can do her own, she will be 8 in June. The other two, almost 6 and just turned 4, can certainly help with theirs. They get juice boxes, gummies, and depending on what fruit/veggie they pick, they can get that too. I make the sandwiches and grab the chips since they are kept out of reach :).

I suppose as soon as they can, if you so choose to.

My six year old started in kindergarten. I give her choices and help her pull it all together because she gets distracted sometimes. I also do the heating of things for a thermos and slicing when a sharp knife is needed. But she can pretty much do it with minimal supervision. I see no reason an 11 year old couldn't do at least that. My daughter enjoys it - I just hope tha tcontinues! If we ar etight on time, I do it myself, maybe once per week.

PS - She only gets water in a water bottle, which she fills. She can make sandwiches, scoop hummas, grab yogurt and fruit.

My DD is 3 and helps to pack her lunch for pre-k. She gets out the bread and decides soy and jelly or meat and cheese. She has a drawer of "healthy" snacks to choose from and puts that in her lunch: applesauce squeeze pouches, yogurt, cheese sticks, etc. If she wants a drink, she can choose from a flavored water pouch or milk. It gives her some investment in process (she's 3, obviously younger than your son) and she feels like she's got some control over what goes in her lunch. With some guidance, I'm sure your son will get to a point he can do it...11 is certainly a reasonable age.

In the morning I am a lazy bum (correction: without my morning coffee, I cannot function). Therefore, I've told my kids that if they want to take lunch to school, they must pack it themselves. My morning duties end with ensuring they eat a healthy breakfast, dress appropriately and do their "grooming". Lunch-packing is optional and only after they're completely ready to go otherwise. They're 13, 10 and 8. The only ones who've actually made their own lunches are the 10 and 8 yr olds. And they do it perfectly well. So yeah, your 11 yr old should be perfectly capable after he's shown how to do it.

My daughter is almost 5 and she has been packing her own lunch and after-school snack for quite awhile now. I check it each morning and generally she does well. But I also do a lot of prepping at the beginning of the week to make it easy for her. I will portion veggies, fruits, crackers, cheese cubes, etc. into single serve baggies and let her put together the combination she wants to take. She even fills up her own water bottle for the day as well. It is really cute because she already knows how to identify proteins (says stuff like, "I still need a protein in my lunch I hope there is leftover chicken."). She also gets her own breakfast together most days, usually consisting of yogurt, granola and fruit. She also gets to make the choice of eating her breakfast at home, taking one on the commute(fruit smoothies, I make a pitcher at the beginning of the week and she can pour into a to-go cup), or waiting to eat the school breakfast(we read the school menu the night before). I try to give her a lot of autonomy so that she is not clueless when she gets older. I want her to have lots of opportunity to practice making healthy choices for herself.

So 11 is not too young, in my opinion. Good luck!

My daughter start around 8, but I still was doing some too, around 10 she was doing it all the time with a few exceptions. Now at 13 I have stared to do it for her sometimes because I start noticing that she was staring getting lazy about it. I would do her lunch for a week, and I do so awesome that she normally feels the pressure to kept it up, lol.
Is important that they have what they need and options, I ask my daughter what she needs and is there where I can add my opinion.

Anything a child can do and it's safe for them, they should do and enjoy doing. I am saying this as I waited on my kids WAY too much. They would have enjoyed doing many things way earlier and it was fun for them, they learn to help out, and why shouldn't they do it? I hope it's not done as a punishment though but just as helping out and doing things for himself that he can do.

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I would have him make his own lunch supervised of course. Or make him buy eeryday no matter the menu, then he will appreciate dad's packing!

If he doesn't like what you send, he should make his own lunch. Give him the ingredients and some options. If you don't have candy in the house, he can't put it in there...

My children - a high school senior and a high school sophomore - have never made their own lunch -- nor have they every complained about what was in there. I think they know if they squawk about the contents, they'll be making their own lunches...

I send leftovers in those small squat thermoses very often. They love left over spaghetti, friend rice, chicken and rice, the list goes on. Maybe your son is just sick of sandwiches. We tend to also ask our kids what they want to have as far as lunch meat during the week when we go shopping. The choice is theirs - roast beef, salami, turkey, whatever...

That said, your kid is 11. He has no appreciation for anything.. that stage doesn't come until they have their own kids! LOL!!

YMMV
LBC