Growing up in an Italian-American neighborhood, my lunches were pretty close to those of my schoolmates, though maybe different from kids in other areas of the country--lunch was often a sandwich made with salami or capicola (my favorite) and fresh mozzarella or provolone on semolina bread, some olives on the side, sometimes cheese, in the winter soup in a stermos was popular.

But I did love sardine sandwiches! This used to get me teased, but I didn't care, I used to beg my mom for them! She was hesitant because she didn't want me to get teased, but it certainly didn't bother me at all. Oh, and anchovy and provolone sandwiches. So stinky, so good. Still a favorite of mine on some good bread.

I was in elementary school in the 80's and I still remember that one girl in my class always used to bring whole cans of sardines in her lunch. It always grossed everyone out, but she did it anyway. The rest of us usually had white bread sandwiches, chips, fruit, etc.

My mother is from Germany, and we would always have "weird" food around the house. I can remember in elementary school bringing tomato sandwiches to school on hearty wheat bread, and liverwurst sandwiches as well, all on the hearty bread. People must have thought I was pretty weird, and later in elementary school I did too... I soon started asking for plain turkey.

My lunches were pretty boring for the most part but a few times I did bring a sardine sandwich (one of my favorites!) and was definitely teased about it.

I'm Taiwanese-American, and my mom would pack me sandwiches made with "mantou" instead of regular Wonder bread. My favorite filling was egg and "rou song", or pork floss. Sooo yummy. I was actually glad that none of my other friends would want to try it. =)

My experience is kind of similar to mimi2856's. Most people I went to school with had sandwiches, chips, cookies, soda, etc... but my mom didn't pack chips or soda for me; I usually had fruit and juice so I got made fun of for being healthy. This was in the 80s; I can imagine the teasing is much worse now since parents are probably more creative with their children's lunches.

I was teased relentlessly for mine! I usually had a salad with a separate container for vinaigrette; leftover pasta; veggies and hummus; fruit--nothing that would shock anyone now. Even wheat bread was something to scoff at. But I grew up in a poor area where everyone else ate processed food: Lunchables (ick--remember those things!); turkey on white bread; Gushers; Little Debbie cakes; Doritos..... But learning how to get over being teased is just a part of growing up :)

Growing up in another Italian home whose dad was right off the boat, I often when to school with salame sandwiches on white bread. Noone else was eating that at my school so I often threw my sandwich away and just ate the chips/snack that my mom packed in addition.

I struggle with this with my 6 year old son. He is an adventurous eater at home, but doesn't want to take anything "weird" (like leftover lentil soup, we're not talking extremely different) because he doesn't like to answer questions from his classmates about what he's eating. My challenge is to still make him a lunch full of real, whole foods.

Although growing up with a German father, mom was in charge of the lunch boxes and therefore they were pretty "normal."

I do remember one time in high school seeing my best friend pull out a delicious looking deli quality sandwich (nice french bread, meats & cheeses) her mother made and being immediately jealous. I proceed to go home and tell my mom that "so and so's mom makes good lunches," a comment that I didn't think was such a big deal. Well the next day my mom presented me with an equally (if not better) sandwich. This was even weirder because by high school I was buying lunch every day in the cafeteria. It's something I joke about to this day.

I remember dumping my baggie full of sliced veggies into a storm drain on the way to the bus stop because one of my classmates told me that having veggies for snack was weird. I can't remember what he said, but I avoided public consumption of raw green peppers for years. I was also taunted for having strange bread (homemade marble rye).

My daughter is only starting to need packed lunches and I keep it pretty simple - she usually gets some greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and multigrain crackers - but the other kids at her daycare seem to eat a lot of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. I'm waiting for the day when she balks at her yogurt. She came home recently yelling 'pizza! pizza! pizza!' so I think it's already started.

I got mocked in the south a lot for having couscous and left over mexican in my lunch. Anything that was not collard greens and chicken or a sandwich was frowned upon. But I loved the couscous so I was happy.

I honestly don't remember being teased by the other kids for my lunches in grade school (too busy being teased about my height, my buck teeth, my glasses, I suppose!), but that may have to do with one of my first lunch-at-school experiences. Mom sent me to school with a thermos of soup (chicken noodle, I think), and my first grade TEACHER picked on me, asking where was my sandwich? Where was my apple?

personally i found that whole article at chow beyond rediculous. the kid in question was not actually teased, the mother is fretting because her kid is worried other kids *might* tease her because her lunch looks different. talk about a non-issue. this is the type of parent/kid combo that makes me want to get my tubes tied.

i was never teased for what i brought to lunch because i had to use the schools free lunch program due to my family being broke as hell. i did get teased for having to use the free lunch program though.

sidenote: did anyone else immediately think of the scene in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' where young Toula gets made fun of for bringing moussaka for lunch? hilarious!

Of my favorite rare lunch time treats was a peanut butter & bacon sandwich. In fifth grade, I made an excited exclamation about it and everyone thought I was a nut.

Mom kept trying to push cream cheese & jam sandwiches on us, but we weren't having it.

I took weird lunches. Mainly the fact that I rarely took sandwiches made me an outcast. They were always little homemade individual pizzas, or salad all in different individual containers to be mixed together later so nothing got soggy, or homemade soup in a thermos. I got bugged a lot. But was always then asked if I could share.

My mother's parents were German immigrants and her father was a restaurateur, so I occasionally had slightly "weird" things for lunch -- liverwurst sandwiches, goat cheese sandwiches, both with cornichons (one friend in 6th grade said, "what are those little penises on your sandwich?"). And like the above poster, I also did cream cheese and jelly (in my mind, the jewish version of PB & J) -- not SO weird, but everything not completely mainstream seems weird in elementary school...

mimi2856, I was that girl with the can of sardines. And I f-ing loved them! And still do.

My lunches were pretty standard and boring. Sandwich, chips or fruit snacks, apple, and usually a fruit juice box. The sandwich was usually either tuna or some variety of luncheon meat (I hate PB&J).

I do remember elementary grade kids pointing at me eating my cornflakes from the Kel-bowl-pac, the little cardboard box you could cut open and pour in the milk into the wax paper lining. They were envious. Maybe I had that several times.

Bento with rice and vegetables and meat... It was weird for a little kid in the Canadian Prairies, but my parents were from Asia. Eventually, they relented and packed me sandwiches made with lunch meat and iceberg lettuce.

My leftover dirty rice was "dog food." Kids are delightful!

My favorite lunch was a thermos of homemade minestrone soup, which my mom would put in a reusable lunch bag. Kids would totally tease me for it, and in middle school I insisted on a "normal" turkey sandwich in a brown paper bag, maybe with a jello cup. Now i'm back to the minestrone and the reusable bag - Mom was so ahead of her time!

My mom used to use cookie cutters on my sandwiches until my teacher told her to stop because it was "making the other kids jealous".

I also remember my second grade teacher reading us a book called "Vincenzo Eats Stinky Meat", about a boy who gets teased for bringing mortadella and provolone sandwiches to school, until the the kids try it, love it, and he brings sandwiches for everyone. Being Italian, this was a typical lunch for me so my classmates (who never teased me for it), asked me to bring mortadella and provolone for them too!

No one gets through childhood without being teased. No one.

My daughter brought Japanese rice balls just yesterday. I know a Japanese woman though who stopped sending them for her son because the other kids commented on them. I'm an Italian-American New Yorker and I think my tolerance for commentary is probably way higher than this woman's. And that's the crux--do you want to eat what you want and handle the flak or do you want to conform (and catch your flak elsewhere)?

My lunches were pretty standard, but I do remember friends having some unusual lunches. In elementary school one of my friend brought in pre-packaged snack sized sheets of essentially nori. This was WAY before sushi became standard fair in the states so it was pretty unusual at the time. I also remember my best friend in high school loving peanut butter and rice mixed together. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.

I was noticed for my odd lunches, but I really liked the spotlight as a child, so I basked. I thought it was my charge to teach my classmates about more 'exotic' edibles and would pass them around to share with my friends ("This is a lychee fruit. LEE-CHEE. Careful; there's a big seed.") Obviously, this was presumptuous and more than a bit snobby of me, but I l-o-v-e-d it, and at age 29 I've yet to grow out of the enjoyment of watching people try new foods :)

someone scoffed at cold pizza??

I went to inner-city schools so in elementary we all ate whatever frozen junk the school gave us.

In high school I never had a lunch at all, so I would have been pretty thrilled to have a lunch like that one! I don't remember what other kids ate. They probably bought samosas and pizza. I don't think anyone would have scoffed at any kind of lunch, it just seems really silly.

My middle school daughter brings "weird" lunches. Seitan po' boys are a recent favorite, stuff like that. Kids make comments but it doesn't seem to bug her, she still requests the "weird" stuff.

Honestly, I think my husband gets teased more about lunch than she does:)

Like a few commenters above, I went to inner-city schools where everyone automatically qualified for free lunch on the theory "if they could afford to bring lunch, they could afford to go to school somewhere else."

My mom packed me a lunch anyway, because I was a semi-vegetarian and picky eater; I recall being the only person in a school of 700 or so who brought my own lunch, so I definitely got teased some, regardless of what was in it.

My lunches as a kid were normal and pretty boring. My son however, because of food issues, brings all kinds of different things. Some of his favorites are potato vada, soborro bowls and beans and rice. As far as I know he's never been teased about it although, he does tell me his friends are curious about what he brings.

my dad was a wonder bread/hostess delivery guy when i was a kid, but we never, EVER had anything but whole wheat and melba toast in the house (my dad would trade with the 'home pride' bread guys for whole wheat bread). all the samples my dad brought home were promptly distributed to neighbors... oh the horror! but, every once in a while, he would bring home these little promo wonder breads - a tiny sandwich size loaf in a miniature wonder bread bag - and my mom let me make my sandwich with it. I got to be "lunch cool" just for one day...

as for my kids, about 5 years ago, my son got teased at school for - get this - having a trader joe's granola bar... some wretched little beast said: "what are you, POOR?" My 9 yo said, your mom must not really love you, she lets you eat HFCS. He's a funny kid.

Ha! This post hits a note in me--I was always teased about my homemade bread and jam and natural peanut butter, sprinkled with flax seeds. And my crinkled, reused paper bags with oily stains on them. I recall begging my mom for SunnyD (she never gave in, which I now respect!).

I don't remember getting teased about our lunches growing up, unless they were the homemade wholewheat bread sandwiches.

My own children however always get a comment or two on their lunches. Being dairy and gluten free has made their lunches quite interesting this last year. As they are middle school they are in charge of packing their own lunches. I would say the number one thing they got teased about was corn tortilla peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They say they like them though and at least they can eat a sandwich. Lately I have tried my hand at homemade bread we can eat and they say its good so far.

I went to an experimental elementary school in the 70's. I think we probably all brought "weird" lunches! The weirdest sandwich I remember bringing was cream cheese with sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives.

My parents are immigrants with a stubbornly passionate love of their home cuisines and as a result I used to have the most embarrassing lunches as a kid. Cold potatoes with Peruvian cheese sauce? Check. Cauliflower and zucchini fritters? Check. Sardine sandwiches? Check. I'm not sure anyone really made fun of my lunches but I remember fervently wishing that just once I could have a sandwich on wonder bread instead of some unpronouncable stew. I actually just wrote about this, here: http://gluttonforpunitions.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-orahnjaca-and-origins.html

I like italianyc84 used to eat sardine sandwiches with mustard and my friends would make fun of me. Now my daughter says her friends make fun of her for bringing a lunch cube container from Sistema. It makes packing my kids lunch a lot easier and I don't have to waste plastic bags.

Lunch for me in elementary was always a Tupperware of rice and some sort of Filipino main dish (adobo, sinigang, etc)--a far cry from the sandwiches my classmates ate, but I don't remember being teased about it. I remember getting comments that I wasn't eating sandwiches or Lunchables like everyone else, and I remember complaining to my parents that I wanted sandwiches and Lunchables. They didn't relent, and today, I'm thankful for that.

Melvina: that's probably exactly what I would tell my kid to say back to that wretched little beast! Good for him.

My brother and I always had the "weird" lunches. We were the kids with arancini or pita with hummus and zaatar instead of PB & J. It made me a little self-conscious at first -- I remember envying my friends who got cold grilled cheese sandwiches -- but eventually I realized how much better my food was than everyone else's. I do think that in the early years, it's hard to find a balance between serving your kid something good and helping them fit in and feel "normal."

Some kid told me one time that applesauce wasn't supposed to be pink, that's gross. Actually, I think the colorless beige glop from the Musselman's jar is gross - everyone knows that homemade applesauce is pink if you leave the skins on when you cook and sauce the apples!

Kids are awful, I hope the little monsters that teased me got it back in spades when they grew up to be adults that would only eat white bread and chicken nuggets.

White-bread sandwiches, packaged sugary "fruit snacks" that contained very little fruit, chips, cookies, sugary juice box. Totally normal - and totally unhealthy.

Guess who had a dad who still won't cook and a sickly mom who's just now learning what to do with kale?

I stopped eating lunch around 5th grade, I remember my elemetry school made us buy lunch if we didn't bring one so I would routinely buy the chicken nuggets, pizza, burgers, feistada (whatever that was) and throw it away.
I only remember the lunch that I would inevitably request when I was little (and sometimes got): tuna sandwhich with deviled eggs. I do remember getting teased for having a stinky lunch. I still love tuna salad sandwiches (wheat bread, white cheese, and cucumbers).

I usually went home for lunch because we lived so close to the school, but once I distinctly remember the 'Uncle Buck' lunch my mom packed - including jar of milk and a big pickle in a ziplock bag. I was mortified.

I used to make packed lunches (leftovers from the previous evening's meal) for my kids, but I find that eating school lunches makes them less picky, even if it means eating some processed food. If they don't eat much, it's not the end of the world either.

I remember some strange looks at primary (elementary) school because I hated bread so would bring a salad and a whole tomato, which I ate like an apple. I didn't mind being stared at, I didn't like the other kids much anyway so I didn't care what they thought. My lunches in high school were just as weird- no bread but I would eat tiny melba toast with tiny pieces of cheese, or bread sticks. A friend had spaghetti sandwiches which everone tought was strange. In high school I got to buy my lunch once a week, and it would always be something hot like a meat pie and then an ice cream. In winter that would get me teased but I love ice cream in winter.

I have never liked white bread, even when I was in elementary school. So my sandwiches would be on whole wheat and usually pb & j or turkey with lettuce and tomato. My mom would also give me some fruit. It was more "normal" than what others would get, but I also got leftover pasta and such.

I kind of think that the kids that did the teasing are the ones that still primarily eat HFCS, McDonald's and the like as their main diet. And the more adventurous kids turned out to be today's foodies and chefs.

I had weird lunch at school, nobody cared.

My clearest memory of elementary school lunch was my friend who got Lunchables (a huge score in everyone else's eyes) and refused to eat the cheese because she thought it was gross. 8-year-old me was happy to take it off her hands.

When i was young, I used to get teased all the time bc of weird lunches like California rolls and korean kalbi and rice. that was a good 20+ years ago... I couldn't handle it and went to boring ham/turkey sandwiches.

My nephew is my hero! He is in the second grade and NEVER wants school lunches, he insists his mom make him Kimchi fried rice, udon, and I swear if it didn't go bad in room temperature he would want uni(sea urchin), mirugai(giant clam), abalone, and ikura(salmon roe). this boy knows how to eat :)

My four sons (in school in the 1980s-90s) were the envy of their classmates. I never packed the "standard" and took the time to cater to each of their tastes. Whole wheat pitas, salad wraps, fresh fruit kabobs, etc were part of the menu. The other kids begged to trade. Even today, when I run into these kids, now adults, they mention how envious they were of my sons lunches.

I remember a treat used to be a fried egg sandwich.