Real menus for children - campaign?

[fuzzpig]

Following this thread it seems parents may like the idea of persuading restaurants to change their children's menus to be more in line with the adult ones.

Some places still seem to offer little more than nuggets/fish fingers etc, which only serves to encourage the idea that children don't want 'real food'.

It would be great if more places were openly willing to do a children's portion of any adult meal for a smaller price (apparently some places do this but I've never seen it advertised), for example. It was mentioned on the above thread and some posters seemed in favour of the idea, so here I am :o

I was thinking about this along the lines of the person who said something like "alongside "we believe you" and "this is my child"? pshaw" (I paraphrase)

I kind of agreed with their point and thought maybe this only makes sense as part of a wider kind of "real food for real people (children)" kind of initiative about not feeding kids crap in general

and then I thought UGH "healthy" eating advice for children / families is moralistic, dangerous, usually wrong. It leads to things like no sugar squash being dished out in schools, and reality TV shows that berate women (always women) for putting chips on the table. no more of that, please.

But - there is such a thing as food deserts - and it's important. Maybe the angle on this - the thing that this could be a part of - is reasonably priced real food available to all (without saying anything at all about health)

I know I'm repeating myself (sorry) but just wanted to reiterate, I really never meant anything as big as we believe you etc, that's what upset me yesterday TBH, because I would NEVER say that this is anywhere on a par with helping victims of abuse (not least because I am one myself), and I hate that some people will have got the idea that I was suggesting it was, and therefore am uncaring/arrogant etc.

I guess because I used the word 'campaign' that's what people thought, so I'll happily accept the blame for the misunderstanding as I should've steered clear of that word - I really just meant a small initiative to maybe get chain restaurants to agree to a pledge or something? And as has since been suggested, something to celebrate places that do brilliant children's menus already.

Didn't MN do that with clothing stores a few years ago, something to do with agreeing to stop selling clothes that would be seen as inappropriate/overly grown up? And of course the let toys be toys thing which started on here, and tries to get shops to agree to stop organising their toys by gender.

I don't know how it could be done, I am like the least assertive person I've ever met so I have no faith in my own ability to change a single thing, but I know some people here are brilliant with this sort of stuff, so if someone has an idea then please share.

"Real food for real children" had gone through my mind earlier too. Great minds, clearly

And thanks Rowan :)

I like this idea. it really bugs me that kids portions are only available in crap food. When we eat out, the kids want to order what they like, not fish fingers etc. This invariably means I put up with a lot of waste or don't order for myself

Oh sorry, fuzzpig, I didn't see you were upset. Sorry if I seemed to be piling on.

S'ok it's really my messed up brain issue IYSWIM but thanks :)

And I totally agree with what you said about a wider target, BTW, it's so important. I have no idea where one would start with that though, seems as impossible as Everest! It certainly does get messed up with dodgy nutrition advice, Change4Life a prime example of course, as you said with the sugar free squash etc :(

fuzzpig There are always one or two posters who will disagree with the subject of any thread. It's best to ignore ignore ignore IMO Don't take it personally you're doing a great job.

I'd be in on this. If big companies are serious about their corporate social responsibility, they should be encouraging healthy eating, not just acquiescing to beige demands.

Now that I have two DCs, though, I no longer bother with children's menus - they just share an adult portion between them.