Childrens' Menus!!

[JasonFrishman]

First off, did i put the apostrophe in the correct place in the title of this post...? Shana will tease me if I didn't.

Anyway, here is my rant for the day:
We have a 17 month little boy who is a fairly good eater.  let me brag for a moment and tell you all that one of his most recent favorite meals has been Adam's Three Seed Bread (Adam's Village Bakery), a big hunk of good cheese, a bowl of lacto-fermented kraut and some dilly beans.  I wish I could have handed him some dark thick beer to go with it!!

Anyway, I know that not all kids are as adventurous and, likely due to my bragging in this post, Micah will not stay this adventurous for long.  But I can't understand the children's menus at restaurants.  We've recently gone to Sweetwaters (Shana is not a fan, I've only gotten one thing, which they consistently do very well - the chicken finger wrap; more on that later.)  On the childrens menu, every comes with a side of fries, for one.  Secondly, when we asked if the cheese was real cheese for the mac and cheese, we were told that the waitress thought it was something like Kraft Mac & Cheese.  (!!)

Next we went to the Bluebird Tavern (we all LOVED it and they did make some great child-friendly accommodations).  Micah was crabby, so we thought some comfort familiar food would make for an easier meal, so we chose a grilled cheese from the children's menu (although they had a great pasta dish onthe regular menu that would have been great for him.)  He left most of the grilled cheese, which was simply, but well made, and ate a lot of our olives, cheese, tomatoes and pickles.  The children's menu at Bluebird, although somewhat more sophisticated, was also full of fries, plain pasta with butter and cheese, and plain vegetables (upon request, though, they did season and cook Micah's summer squash quite well and the adults at the table ate most of them.)

So, these and other places where the children's menu is sort of lacking has gotten me thinking. I mean, I think I can figure out why they do this, but really? Why do they do this? Why do parents, cooks, restaurants, and society in general buy into children (in general) eating bland unexciting food?  As a family psychologist interested in promoting the family meal I have thought a lot about this topic.

I'd love to hear others' experiences and thoughts.

-Jason

(By the way, Sweetwaters's chicken finger wrap is phenomenal, with a few changes.  But they make the chicken fingers in house, and bread them with almonds and bread crumbs.  They are consistently moist and well cooked.  I'd suggest the wrap without the bacon (really), adding cheddar, onions and hotsauce. Either way, they are good.)

[Alice Levitt]

I was recently looking at the latest menu at Norma's in Stowe and was impressed at the variety on the kids' menu. There are the usual PB&J choices, but also littler portions of grown-up dishes like Caesar salad and filet mignon.
That said, I can't recall my parents letting me order off a kids' menu anywhere but diners, where the hot turkey was of course, the same, just smaller. I remember being deeply frustrated as a kid with the limited palates of my "peers." Why did they balk at vindaloo? I have read that kids quite simply have more working taste buds than adults. Their palates actually are more sensitive, though that certainly never stopped me.
My brother is a chef who eats as adventurously as I do. One of his two boys has always followed suit. The other has always been a pizza and grilled cheese kid, so clearly it is nature and not nurture. I wouldn't worry about Micah losing his love for kraut and dilly beans.
And yes, the Shirtsleeve is the only good thing at Sweetwater's.

[rperlah]

I agree with everything you say and as a rule dislike children's menus, with one exception: price.  I wish restaurant would offer children's portions of adult offerings, at a lesser price.

[Alice Levitt]

As a whole, it bothers me that restaurants don't let grown-ups order off the kids' menu. Make fun of me all you want, but I love the kids' menu at Friendly's. Some servers have no problem giving me a Cotton Candy soda and Monster Mash sundae, others refuse, even if I offer to pay adult prices.
That's the cool thing about fast food drive-throughs. They don't know I don't have a kid in the car with me.

[Morganna]

I don't usually care for the children's menu, but I have a little card I carry around from my surgeon that states I've had a gastric bypass, and so to please let me order off the children's menu, or allow my husband and I to share a single buffet price (my husband has also had it, we both got rid of our type 2 diabetes, YAY).  If a place wouldn't let me order off the children's menu at all, I probably wouldn't stay.  It's not for them to say how much or which food I should be eating.  If I want a child's portion of something, they should bloody well give it to me.

[Undead Molly]

I found this interesting article on the biological and environmental contributing factors in childhood picky eating.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/10pick.html