A Dad Wrote An Epic Note In His Daughter’s Lunchbox After Teachers Criticized Her “Non-Healthy” Food

A British dad is not messing around when it comes to his daughter’s relationship with food. After teachers at school made comments to the young girl about her food selection and how she chose to go about eating it, he made sure to put a stop to it in a smart (and funny) way.

Ross Hunt from Wales, a father of three, posted a now-viral TikTok to explain how the staff at his daughter’s school were consistently making comments about her “non-healthy” food.

In the video, Hunt impersonates his daughter’s teachers criticizing and making comments about what and how she should eat her meal. “Oh, don’t eat that! Eat your sandwich! Oh you shouldn’t eat that!” he says.

More: Nobody — Including Teachers — Should Criticize What I Put In My Kid’s Lunch

Hunt says that the comments from the teachers have gotten so bad that his daughter, Isabelle, doesn’t even want to bring a lunch to school anymore.

“It’s f*cking irritating and it puts Isabelle off from taking her lunch with her,” he explains.

He then points out the hypocrisy of the staff. “It’s OK if she eats the chocolate cake the school gives you, but if you put it in in their lunchbox, ‘Oh no — you shouldn’t have that!’” he says, imitating the staff.

He then shares his brilliant solution to get Isabelle’s teachers to back off and let his little girl eat her food in peace “I made a label!” he says.

The label reads “Welcome to Isabelle’s Lunch Box! We are aware of the contents of this box and are happy for her to eat whatever she wants.” The label also has an adorable photo of Isabelle pointing to the message.

He then jokes about the second label he printed off that his wife, Rachel, vetoed from being added to their kid’s lunchbox. This label is a bit more curt and every parent’s inner monologue when they think their kid is being wronged.

“STEP AWAY FROM THE LUNCHBOX YOU NOSEY F*CKING ARSE BANDIT” Hunt says, showing the label.

“I think we’re get in trouble for that one,” he jokes.

Hunt goes on to say that he wishes he could be petty and fill Isabelle’s lunchbox with only sweets but obviously he knows how to feed his daughter and give her a balanced meal.

“In short, stop telling kids what they should and shouldn’t eat, and let the f*cking parents decide!” he concludes.

The video, which now has over 500,000 views, had several TikTok users commenting on how this dad’s attempt to get school staff to butt out of his daughter’s food choices was admirable.

“I work in a school and have this argument often 🙈 I would rather a child ate and was full than lots of ‘healthy’ foods they won’t eat,” one user wrote.

Another mom revealed that her daughter had become so beaten down by criticism about her food choices that she was nervous to even have a sweet in her lunchbox. “The work I had to do to convince my daughter she could eat a kitkat with her lunch of salad and ham wrap, cucumber sticks and a satsuma was unreal,” the user wrote.

“That’s what Isabelle is like. She’s genuinely worried if you start putting snacks in 😩,” Hunt replied.

At a time when young girls’ mental health is at an all-time low, the last thing that they need is for teachers and figures of authority commenting on their food, contributing to possible eating disorders and complicated relationships with food.

In a follow-up video, Hunt shows exactly what was packed in Isabelle’s lunchbox along with the foods she ate and what didn’t get touched.

“Right, let’s have a look what she brought home in her lunchbox. First thing’s first, she didn’t touch her rainbow drops,” he says. Then he drops the bomb of why Isabelle’s candy remained untouched after school.

“Apparently she could only eat them if she had her carrots first,” he said. So, clearly the label in her lunchbox did not get seen by the right eyes.

He claimed she didn’t eat her carrots because they had fallen on the floor, but she was too afraid to speak up to the dinner lady. Gee, I wonder why!

“She did eat her sandwich, which for reference this sandwich would have contained more sugar than these rainbow drops,” he said.

“That is 6 grams of rainbow drops — calm down,” he explained while holding the container of candy.

She ate the majority of her apple, but didn’t touch her pear, chips, or chocolate egg because she said she didn’t have time. He then jokes that she got into the car after school and said she was hungry.

He also mentioned that there was nothing said about the label in her lunchbox.

“In short stick your f*cking nose out of my kid's business. Hopefully this will get dealt with, but I f*cking doubt it,” he said.

Thankfully, the issue did get resolved, although Hunt isn’t sure if his label is the reason why. “...our daughter said that the dinner ladies got changed and we never heard any issues since,” Hunt tells Scary Mommy.

“We didn’t have any communication with the school on the issue. Part of the reason I did the video was because our daughter was having issues with a certain dinner lady and so too were other parents having issues. Others had tried talking with the school.”

Hunt decided for a different approach and thus, the viral TikTok was born.

“I went down the ‘moan about it on TikTok’ route. Probably not the most sensible idea but I don’t usually do sensible. These days they have free school meals anyway, so lunchboxes don’t really happen much,” Hunt continues.

Food morality is something that Hunt himself admits to struggling with though he is working to break those cycles for his children. “This is a very complicated issue and one that I mentally go through on a regular basis,” he explains.

As for his kids, he’ll teach them balance and moderation when it comes to food. “When you start labelling stuff as unhealthy you inevitably allow things like guilt and shame to enter the picture. Suddenly we’re meant to feel bad for picking the ‘bad’ option,” he says.

“Whilst I don’t really agree with the idea of foods being labelled as healthy or unhealthy — it’s all about moderation.”