I got another one: Stopped at Safeway grocery store. I should have gone to the one downtown when I was there but I like this other one better. Usually. Until the school kids from the high school across the street showed up in droves. My anxiety went way up. They were everywhere. I wasn't the only one looking irritated BTW. However what they buy is ridiculous. This is not the first time I made the mistake of going to this store at the wrong time and need to be more diligent. One kid bought a big thing of cup cakes. Another of some other pastry. I saw another girl with an ice cream container. Generally it was all junk food I'm like WTF. I know this isn't every kid in the school but where do they get this money? Do the parents just give it to them instead of worrying about a lunch from home. Maybe some of them do work so they have a little extra cash. There is also a fast food place on the corner, a yogurt and hot dog place. I see them there too. I don't know. It just seems weird. I'll bet the store employees don't enjoy the invasion either.
Exactly the same thing happens here... i avoid the supermarket at school going home time... they come in, in their droves, and are screaming and carrying on and generally creating mayhem in the biscuit/cookie...and sweets Aisles..
When I was in High School I saved my lunch money and after school ate a late lunch with my friends at the A&W Rootbeer stand. I think most teenagers prefer "junk food" to healthy stuff Kitty. Hopefully, their moms... like my mom cooked enough healthy stuff that I ate at home to balance things.
Some schools have closed campuses, while others are open. In an open campus, students can leave during during the noon break. When I was in high school, I ate in the cafeteria once. Every other day, if I ate lunch at all it was from the restaurant a block away. Given the number of kids buying their dinner there, they would prepare mountains of hamburgers, cheeseburgers and french fries ahead of time, and we'd take it back to school to eat or eat it along the way. They were good, too. I don't know if I've ever had better. They sold hamburgers and french fries to half the student population every week day. There were no other choices unless you were going to sit down and order, but there wouldn't be a lot of time for that, or room. As for feeling uncomfortable when a lot of kids come into a place at one time, I can understand that. Kids can get crazy when they're in a crowd.
The kids here get more time off than they do in school... I'm talking about older kids...not little children in infant school who cause the mayhem, kids aged in their early teens are the ones who cause the problems. Some of the shops have signs up on the doors stating that no more than 3 schoolchildren Unaccompanied by an adult will be permitted in at the same time...
The High Schoolers over here don't get time off like that. They have to sit in classes and have about 5 minutes to get to the next class to sit again and probably 20 minutes now to grab something to eat. They are so ready to break free at the end of the school day that I can easily understand how they are hyper and rowdy after being cooped up for so long.
When I lived in Idaho, I worked at Subway for a while. At noon, we had Aline of kids that went all of the way out the door, waiting to get their sandwich for lunch. Down the street was a Taco Bell, and then the grocery store with its deli, and all of these were packed at lunchtime. I guess that kids just take money for lunch now instead of having a lunch ticket like we had when I was in school. My mom would send money each week, or I could pay by the day, but all of the kids either had a lunchbox or we ate the school lunch.
I never ate in the school cafeteria. The FAMOUS CAFE was right across the street and that's where we ate every day. http://www.famouschili.com/history.htm
These are some good points about kids liking junk food and perhaps wanting to get off of campus. But they make me nervous and irritate me. And I still wonder where they get the money. I never left the school to go eat. Most of mine were not by any place to get food either.
At our school, there was no charge for school lunch at the cafeteria. Obviously, there was a cost but it was borne by all the taxpayers. At least we didn't have some people on free lunch, while others were paying. Given that lunch was free at the cafeteria, my father was not about to give me money to eat in the restaurant, so I had to earn that.
I do not understand why some schools let the roam off ,even during lunch. Are they not still the schools responsibility until they are home ? We had a cafeteria, but in jr. high. you could go to the gym, and buy hamburgers, hot dogs, and etc. . usually took my lunch,but buying at the gym, always made me most happy. Have also wondered where the dickens even elementary kids get the money they spend. My parents could not afford to just give us money. Chores, nope no allowance, you did chores because you lived there and had to. As for teenagers, that is a whole different ball of wax. Most are not bad, just overly expressing their new found freedom. It is difficult, when hiring and working with them sometimes. Many do not have the work ethic our parents instilled in us. Had one beautiful young gal, drove a Mercedes to work- paid for by dad. She was a cashier at the front. Caught her using the same $10 off coupon repeatedly.She was fired. As I told my boss, these kids are here for Chump change, their parents pay for everything else, why should they care about a job?