Friday Frivolity: Mommy's little burger king

Children's art can be vibrant, charming, and most of all, revealing. On the Huffington Post, Claire McCarthy describes her son's hilariously forthright art show submission and her mixed feelings about it. Her story, When Kids Make Us Look Bad: My McDonald's Moment, has been making its way around the internet, because its just plain funny and probably because we can all laugh in self recognition. Most of us have experienced a similar cringe-worthy moment or two.

Here's the art work in question:

And here's her story: When Kids Make Us Look Bad: My McDonald's Moment

Have a great weekend, and should you find yourself with a hankering for Mc Donald's, please don't blame us. You can take that up with Ms. McCarthy, or rather, her 6 year-old son.

Mommy's feeding her broccoli to the dog. Why can't I?

Children are notoriously picky eaters. So, too, are some parents, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "No Age Limit on Picky Eating." Plain pasta, french fries, pizza, and cookies without nuts - is this the diet of a 5 year-old or a 35 year-old? The best quote from this story may be: "For reasons that aren't clear, almost all adult picky eaters like French fries and often chicken fingers, health experts say." Dear health experts, are the reasons really not clear? Maybe its because those foods are fatty, fried, salty and yes, sometimes, delicious? Don't forget that they're almost universally available in the U.S.

Modern mothers of picky eaters, don't despair! Your gentle authoress is one of the unmentioned majority of childhood picky eaters, having emerged from a childhood eating plain pasta, hotdogs, carrots, and cookies, to become an adult with an approximately normal diet. (Thanks, Mom!) Use this story as motivation to keep trying, fixing asparagus when the chances of your children eating it are almost non-existent, and helping your children stay relaxed and open to the possibility that someday, they may in fact like something new. Once your children are grown, one thing you don't want them to contend with is deflecting dinner invitations because of a fear of frisee.

Children of Pedestrian Tastes

Children are notoriously picky eaters. Perhaps that is why the “kids’ menu” was born. Chicken fingers, pasta, pizza, hot dogs. These pedestrian offerings may initially seem like a blessing since they provide sustenance to finicky children, while allowing their beleaguered parents to simultaneously enjoy a decent restaurant meal. Don’t be fooled. The kids’ menu quickly escalates into a vicious cycle where child claims to like only chicken fingers, pasta, pizza, hot dogs; child is offered only chicken fingers, pasta, pizza, hot dogs; so child subsists on diet limited to, yes, chicken fingers (with fries), hot dogs (with fries), pizza (with fries?) and pasta (with fries???). And we wonder why so many children "prefer" such a limited diet? After the millionth time the well mannered mother watches her child scarf down the hot dog and fries from the kids’ menu, rather than eat the roast chicken and rice he would happily enjoy if there were no kids’ menu, she may just want to rip that photocopied piece of paper to shreds. Or set it on fire. Or take the family to a restaurant that doesn’t offer a kids' menu. What a novel concept! Maybe, just maybe, that is what one well mannered mother will do.