I really enjoy going out for a
nice meal, with some good company. I’m
at the stage of my life where I would much rather meet friends for a dinner
than to meet in a bar for drinks. Don’t
get me wrong, I still enjoy a glass or two of wine, but when you have special
little people in your life, a Sunday spent with a hangover is a waste of a day!
Even if I’m not meeting friends,
my weekends with my son are precious and I love to go out for dinner as a
family. No cooking, no cleaning up, good
atmosphere and a chance to talk. But the
more I do indulge myself with meals out, the more frustrated I get by this idea
of a “kid’s menu”. Why is it that the restaurant
industry think that just because children don’t require an adult size portion, that
they need to be fed fried food, chips or pasta?
Are we insulting the parents by
assuming that this is what they want to feed their children and that they
wouldn’t know any better, or are we insulting our children, assuming that this
is the only food they want to eat?? I have a policy in my house that my son
eats the same dinner as I do. And I don’t
want to go to a nice restaurant to only have the option of Spaghetti Bolognese or
Chicken Nuggets, so why should he?
I have a difficult journey with
my son in terms of food. When we were
weaning, he ate anything and everything I gave to him (homemade purees though,
I’m not a fan of the prepared food I’m afraid), but it had to be smooth. Any sign of a lump and he would gag. This continued for a long time, but he did
grow out of it, eventually. And then
came the aversion to food. If he decided
he didn’t like the look of certain foods, he did not want to eat them. He refused point blank, and if I did
encourage him to “just try one bite” he would literally gag and make himself
sick! But I refused to give in and feed him pasta every night just because I
knew he would eat it. I got creative and
found different ways of ensuring he had a varied diet, included food he loved with
foods he didn’t, making dinner times more fun, having him help me cook, choose
the food we bought..you get the idea! And eventually it paid off. I now have a five year old who loves everything
from spinach to onion, sushi to salmon – he still has certain foods he doesn’t
like, but who doesn’t!
So, why should my child, or any
other child, only have limited, boring options whenever they go out for dinner?
Should we just scrap the “kid’s menu” altogether and allow them small portions
at a reduced price of any of the adult meal? Or if the most appealing thing
about a McDonald’s “dinner” is that their meals come in a box with a toy, then
how about we give children their food in a box with a toy…but more like a bento
box than a cardboard one?? Restaurants employ chefs for their creativity and
flair with food, so why not allow them to bring this skill for the benefit of
our most important people? Just because they are not paying the bill, doesn’t
mean they shouldn’t be impressed with their dinner too!!
I think this is a sort of a
period of food revolution, so let’s give our children more credit and allow
them to join in, have a say in their own health and wellbeing and eat for nourishment
instead of ease?? Let’s replace the sausages with salmon and the chips with
some roast vegetables. I can’t imagine
it would take too much more effort to put some vegetables and fish in an oven
than it would to throw food in a deep fat fryer.
Until parents start to put
pressure on restauranteurs to implement these changes, they won’t happen. So the next time you are out for a meal with
your family, ask the kitchen to prepare something nutritious for your
child. With their magic ability to make
good food taste amazing, I have no doubt we will end up with a nation of little
foodies! Healthy little foodies that is….
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