With the onset of the summer comes days out, holidays, and ‘kids menus’. Now a firm part of the ‘dining-out-with-the-kids’ experience, kids menus cause me a bit of a dilemma. A dilemma, you say. Why? Well, here’s why.

Throughout my parenting life (and with a six year old and a four year old I reckon that gives me at least ten years combined experience), I have been desperately trying to provide wholesome, nutritious food which ticks all the experts boxes and provides the elusive 5-a-day. “You must eat your vegetables,” I hear myself cry with alarming frequency. “If you’re hungry why not get a piece of fruit,” I ‘fruitlessly’ advise when clearly all my child wants is an ice lolly or a biscuit or a packet of crisps.

And then we go out to eat and all my principles go out the window and I find myself relishing the joy of providing my kids with a plate of convenience food – cooked by someone else! Hurray. But then I feel guilty as someone else orders a healthy bowl of pasta or a platter of fruit for their child (not on the menu, but they had the foresight to ask) and I cringe a little as my kids splatter ketchup all over everything and everyone.

Well, as it happens, help - it seems - is at hand, with a new restaurant initiative announced recently which aims to reduce childhood obesity and offer healthier, varied, child-friendly portions of adult menu options. 'The “Kids Size Me” scheme being rolled out by the Nutrition and Health Foundation and the Restaurants Association of Ireland, which has 6,000 members, will offer children access to healthier food options by making smaller portions of adult meals available as an alternative to the standard children’s menus. They will carry the new “Kids Size Me” symbol.

So, it would seem that the old reliables of nuggets, fishfingers and mini-burgers may soon become a thing of the past and I, for one, am very happy about that fact. My kids may have a different opinion on the matter, but mother knows best, right?!  

Comments