Posts Tagged ‘food’

The Shallowness of Parenthood

Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Yes, like just about everyone else these days, it seems, I’m on Facebook.  Most of my Facebook “friends” are either family, parents of my kids’ friends, or fellow writers from the parenting world.  It’s a good way to keep in touch and share ideas, news, and information with them.  Sometimes, however, it becomes a source of revelation and insight as well.  Such was the case last evening as I was catching up on the day’s posts at bedtime.

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Inappropriate Marketing

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

So we had swim class in the morning and the San Francisco Free Folk Festival in the afternoon.  It was a full day, to be sure, but the real challenge was that the two were 40 miles apart.  So while the Junior Partner was practicing his up-faces, I took the older two to a nearby Subway to get sandwiches for a quick lunch on the road.  Unfortunately, when I ordered a kid’s meal for the three-year-old, it came in a bag emblazoned with the Green Lantern character from the recent film.  A film, I will note, that is rated PG-13 by the MPAA and given a 4.7.4 for sex, violence, and profanity by Kids-in-Mind.com.

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The Nuggets Really Are That Good

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

About once a month, we let our kids buy the school lunch.  It’s a welcome break for my wife who normally puts together their midday repast and there are a few menu items they really enjoy.  More so than any other, their favorite meal is the chicken nuggets.  They really look forward to that.  Apparently, they’re not the only ones with a special fondness for school lunch nuggets; two men in Florida really, really like them as well.

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Restaurant Responsibilities

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

How much responsibility does a restaurant have to ensure that healthy options are available for kids and families? At some restaurants, the only healthy item available might be a glass of water and that’s okay, if that’s the sort of establishment they want to be. How about, though, restaurants that try to be “family-friendly” and that offer a “kid’s meal”? Do they have any obligation to make healthy options available, at least as part of the kid’s meals?

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Hooters: Prurient Pleasure or Family Fun?

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

Even if you’ve never been to a Hooters restaurant and know nothing about the chain of eateries, chances are you can guess what draws people to them.  Sure, I’ve heard tell the chicken wings are good, but it’s not wings that people think of when they think “hooters”.  Indeed, the company has been successfully sued by men for not being hired as waitstaff and the employee handbook at one time allegedly required female employees to acknowledge and accept that “the essence of the Hooters concept is entertainment through female sex appeal.”

So would you take your kids there?

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Gingerbread, Disney Style

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

One of the reasons people go back to Disneyland and Disney World over and over again is that they’re always changing.  There is always something new to see, especially around various holidays.  This year, in the Grand Canyon Concourse of Disney World’s Contemporary Resort in Florida there is a 17-foot tall gingerbread tree.  Not a wooden tree that just kinda looks like it’s made of gingerbread but a real, honest-to-yummy-goodness gingerbread tree.

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The Dangers of Working at McDonald’s

Monday, November 1st, 2010

Like a lot of people, I did my time at McDonald’s, working at the Opera House McDonald’s restaurant here in San Francisco the summer before I started college.  I am quite convinced that taking advantage of the free, unlimited access to soda was directly responsible for some serious dental issues I suffered subsequently.  I don’t blame the company, however; it was completely my own fault.  I should have known the damage excessive amounts of soda could do to my teeth and, perhaps more importantly, no one forced me to drink the soda.  One store manager in Brazil, however, faced a different set of circumstances.

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Homemade Egg McMuffins and Other Turbo Breakfasts

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

It’s no secret: Mornings are not my strong suit.  As the family cook, I’m responsible for meals, including breakfast, which means, if it were solely up to me, breakfast would be relegated to special occasions only in favor of a few minutes’ more sleep.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, for the kids), I am not the chief executive and am under orders to provide the kids with a reasonably healthy breakfast each morning before school.  So here are some of the ways I get food into my kids in the morning when we’re in a hurry.

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