Dad's 900 (and Counting!) Amazing 'Lunch Box Doodles'
Illustrations by Garth Bruner
When illustrator and designer Garth Bruner first started adding homemade sketches to his kids’ school lunch bags in the mornings, he didn’t think much of it. “I just thought it would give me a good reason to draw,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. But five years and more than 900 doodles later, Bruner says the drawings, which only take him about 5 minutes each, have connected him to his three kids in a way he never anticipated.
STORY: Dad Sets World Record With Christmas Lights Display
“It makes me think about their day and listen to them even more deliberately, so I can have ideas of what to draw the next morning,” the Salt Lake City father says. “The doodles are another way to let the kids know I’m thinking about them during the day, and I hope that helps them in some small sense.”
Illustrations by Garth Bruner
Bruner usually wakes up around 5:30 a.m. to start drawing, before making his kids’ lunches and ushering Preston, 16, Lindsay, 13 and Camille, 11, off to school. The sketches, which Bruner calls “Lunchbag Daddy Doodles,” might be of something fun, like a fish or a Muppet, or they might be related to something his kids are working on at school, he says. “If they have a scholastic achievement, I’ll congratulate them on that, or I’ll relate it to something they are interested in, like Minecraft,” he says. “Tonight we are going to see Fiddler on the Roof, so I’m trying to think of something funny to put together.”
STORY: Dad’s Whimsical Photos of His Kids Will Make You Smile
As his kids have changed over the years, so have the doodles. When he started them, Bruner always signed them from “Daddy.” Now that his kids are older, it’s just “Dad.”
Photo by Garth Bruner
“I don’t want to embarrass them,” Bruner says. “I want to draw something they can relate to and really like. With my youngest, especially, I have to avoid drawing anything too childish.”
STORY: Dad Cooks Dinner? Don’t Call Him ‘Mr. Mom’
And while they kids are growing up with the doodles, they aren’t outgrowing them. “They don’t mention them every day and I don’t expect them too, but once in a while they’ll say ‘that was really funny, thank you’ and that’s enough,” Bruner says. “My son is in high school and he still enjoys getting them every day. We’re Mormon, and one day my son will probably go on a mission somewhere and I hope when he’s doing that I can continue to send him these Daddy Doodles and that they’ll buoy him if he’s having a hard time.”
Preston’s thinking even further down the line. “I think I’m gonna miss the quick drawings on lunch bags when I’m finished with high school,” he told the Deseret News. “Maybe I’ll just have to have home lunch when I start working too!”
Bruner says he’s lucky to have been born with artistic talent, but he adds that all dads have talents they can share with their kids. “It doesn’t have to be that much, as long as you’re consistent,” he says. “Dads share their skills in their jobs, but they sometimes forget to do that with their kids. Every father can be creative in the way he expresses affection for his children. I think we should all use our strengths to strengthen our families.”
As long as his kids still enjoy them, the doodles will keep coming, Bruner says. “I hope that they look back on these one day and remember that I cared and that we had a close relationship,” he says. “You forget things as you get older about your relationship with your parents, and I hope these will always be a reminder.”
