Heart shaped cucumbers and moffles are not isolated incidents. The industry concerned with making lunches and lunch time preparation more fun is growing to meet the demands of competitive kindergarten moms determined to make sure their child is the most loved on the playground, or at least looks it.
The latest must-have are “chuboos,” a line of products designed for creating “kyara-ben” (character lunchboxes) from Kai Housewares. The series includes cutters for making character shapes (¥1,260), molds for fashioning rice into playful balls (¥840), kitchen craft knifes for sculpting veggies (3 for ¥2,100), and punches for creating emoticon-style faces out of nori seaweed (¥840 each).
A few more chuboo-made lunchboxes:
Now imagine how the kid with the plain rice feels.
well, if the children have to wear uniforms – the mummys are of course looking for another way besides clothes to show all the other
momskids who is the most spoiled.I guess that’s the difference between a pragmatic culture and a competitive one. The former: “Quit whining, it’s not like cute will get you through soccer practice better than what I slaved over this morning.” The latter: “Little Jimmy’s mom recreated the entire cast of High School Musical in polenta?! Oh no she di’n't! Get me my frying pan.”