But an hour lunch is great to have lunch with your kids, something both my parents still did with my and my brother.
My kids' school only switched to a schedule where the kids eat at school two years ago, and I have a job in another city. But it was something quite a few parents managed to do until then.
When the kids don't eat school where do they eat (assuming most kids have two working parents who commute away from where they live every day)?
I saw that system in some old fashioned societies (e.g Switzerland) and while it seemed good for the kids, it seemed to mean a lot of women staid home to feed kids rather than work (if they couldn't afford a nanny that is).
I think school lunches are pretty essential for getting a high workforce participation for both men and women.
First of all, kids in Switzerland typically don't get picked up, they're supposed to go home and to school by themselves from 6y on. At least one parent usually works nearby the home and can take a 1.5 to 2h lunch break, that leaves enough to prepare and have everyone eating at the table at the same time for 30min - traditionally the whole family with both parents. A more modern version of this is to share the task friendly neighbours with same age kids, so a few days of the the week the kids eat at neighbours' houses.
In any case, lunch time is kind of a sanctuary here - deskside lunches are seen as very poor - even if people stay at work they'll go to an affordable restaurant together. I can say that this has lots of advantages, an actual real break from work really does recharge your batteries. Swiss workers are usually measures among the most productive per hour worked, and IMO a full lunch break is necessary to achieve that.
Edit: Btw women in workforce participation is 62% compared to 56% in the US, 54% in Germany and 60% in Sweden.
Yeah deskside lunches is unheard of in Sweden as well, and kids I think are about as expected to walk alone here (It's getting worse than it was when I grew up, but that I believe is pretty universal across europe and elsewhere) but having to switch jobs to work close enough to home sounds almost impossible in big cities. Those with short commutes might have 20-30 minutes, but more typical commutes in cities are 45 minutes. That's 90 minutes there and back. I'd rather just get my workday over with in 40-90 minutes less than go home to have lunch, and I don't want 4 commutes in one day (even two is too much).
Spending two hours or more on lunch would be great, but I also want to eat no later than 6 (kids go to bed 7!) so it's very hard to squeeze in with two full time jobs of 8h.
I think the system is a nice idea in theory when you have great neighbors or walking distance to work - but the probability that this is the case for a whole school class is slim. I think it feels a bit like a remnant of a housewife society and something that adds pressure for parents to stop working - which isn't a bad idea per se but it tends to add more pressure on women to do so.
Swiss cities have a separate public system where your children can go for lunch and even dinner though. Good public transport is another thing, commutes typically are 10-30min even in Zurich, so even city workers can often afford to go home. Anyways, there are ways to solve this without having lunches provided for every schoolchild. The quotes workforce participation quota shows that for a majority this is at least doable.
Well there is a service you can pay for where your kids have lunch at school and are under supervision, but it was opt-in.
Now the class eats with the teacher in half an hour and there is no option to eat at hone anymore. School finishes half an hour earlier so the commuting parents still have to pay for child care.
One of the problems was that there aren't many good people available for the job of child care for one hour at lunch time, people leave when they find something better.
My kids' school only switched to a schedule where the kids eat at school two years ago, and I have a job in another city. But it was something quite a few parents managed to do until then.
(I'm in a city in the Netherlands)