It's not uncommon for parents, when they're concerned about their kids missing them at school, to sneak a little note into the kids' backpacks or special treat in their lunchboxes to cheer them up. But Li Ming, a stay-at-home mom in Singapore, has taken that concept to a whole new level with the elaborate bento boxes she makes for her two sons.

Ming says she "started bento-ing" in 2008, when her older son was in nursery school, and graduated to making the more involved, ultra-adorable charabens, or character bentos, when he began primary school in 2011. "He missed me terribly then and had problems adjusting to the longer hours at primary school. I started packing him charabens, along with lunch notes, hoping to cheer him up and let him feel my presence and love through them," she explains on Bento, Monsters, the blog where she documents her bentos and offers recipes, tips and tutorials.

When Ming's younger son began school, she started making them for him as well. Now, every week, she turns out about six charabens — featuring Spider-Man, Hello Kitty, Super Mario and other characters — she recently told the Daily Mail.

Ming says she originally got ideas from bentos others had posted on the Web, but now she gets them from everywhere — posters, stickers, literature, her sons' requests. The ones "that involve more characters or require lots of seaweed cutting" take the longest to complete, she tells FN Dish, but it's worth the time she puts into it.

"I really enjoy bento-ing," she says, adding that the biggest reward is "seeing my boys enjoying their food."

Ming is planning to publish her designs in a book, which she expects to release in the United States next fall.