Of Cats and Kids

Lunchbox love

Posted by: Carol Lombardi

Friday, September 8, 2006 12:00 AM

Lunch notes are apparently all the rage these days, at least at my daughter's lunch table. It seems that the most popular sentiment from a parent to a child via lunchbox is, "I love you." It is a very sweet sentiment, although I would like to think that my daughter is not going to lose sight of how I feel about her between 8:15 and 11:30 a.m. I mean, I MADE the lunch, didn't I? I don't see anyone else slapping together those no-crust, cut-to-order PBJ's every day.

I want to acknowledge at this point that my dad made me a version of lunchbox notes back in the '70s, in the form of napkins decorated with markers. They were beautiful, inspired works of art. I inherited his heart for this type of thing, but not his artistic talent. If I tried something like that, it would look like the markers bled to death on the napkin.

So to get a handle on this lunchbox note thing, I looked around the web. Lunchbox notes are apparently extremely far-ranging, from bad jokes to Bible verses (which you have to BUY, no less) to saccharine love notes to cute little talking lunch box notes that you can write "I love you" on yourself.

Who knew?

The notes most in line with my parenting style included sentiments like, "Katie, Can you find out if your new bus driver is single?"

My first lunchbox note effort was a take-off on one I saw online: "Guess who's thinking about you right this minute?" Only I made it into a quiz, because she has the ACT in ten years and needs to get a handle on those multiple choice test skills.

The answer options included such tempting choices as "some guy in Ohio mowing his lawn." But she is obviously on her way to great things, because she saw right through it. She knew it was me the whole time. This kid is smart. And I love her, even if my lunch notes inadequately express that.

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