Back to School Rush: Tackling the Lunchbox

Three weeks from the start of school and, like most parents, I am wondering where the heck summer has gone. Some moms complain about how crazy summers are, but summers for our dual working-parent family, neatly scheduled with day-long summer camps, slow down for us. It's the school year that kicks my butt with homework, PTA, school volunteering, work, etc etc.

So here we are at back-to-school time but our school hasn't yet sent the class supplies list and I am getting nervous. We bought Sandro a new backpack for second grade but he's been using the same Superman soft-sided lunch box (replete with a mini cape, so cute) since kindergarten so we had been talking about an upgrade there, too.

So when a new lunchbox dropped in my lap yesterday I was intrigued... and more than a little relieved. But this was not  just any ordinary lunchbox, mind you. It was a very eco-Seattle lunchbox.

The Goodbyn, developed by a Erin Franczyk, a Kirkland mother of three, is a BPA and Phthalate-free recyclable plastic lunchbox with five individual compartments and one lid that seals over each compartment so your sandwich doesn't taste like a banana and such--thus elminating the need for individual bags, containers. (As any parent can tell you, all those plastic bags, wax paper bags, reusable plastic containers--whatever you use day after day is enough to drive mommy to drink.) The promotional materials show one of the containers filled with yogurt--spooned right into one of the lunchbox compartments. Imagine!

The lunch box comes with a water bottle and is shaped a bit like a teddy bear (or is it a monster?) and also comes with hundreds of stickers so kids can decorate their own box. It retails for $29.95 and is available locally at Tottini in South Lake Union or for $34.95 online at goodbyn.com.

With three more weeks of summer camp for which Sandro needs to bring his own lunch, I decided to bring it home and give it a road test. The sample we were sent is green, Sandro's favorite color of the moment, and he was thrilled about that. He loved the stickers and wanted to decorate it immediately. Younger brother whined about why he didn't get one. We realized his first and last name has too many "s"s  than were provided on the sheets of stickers, so we improvised with a dollar sign sticker. After decorating, he got excited about packing his lunch for the next day...Hmmmm... I am liking this thing more and more.

Let's see if that lasts through the week.




We sealed it up (something you sort of have to work at to make sure very little compartment is sealed off) and off he went.

Stay tuned for the follow up!