Fit Friday: Changing the Kid's Menu

I never really paid attention to children's menus until I had children. Prior that that I looked at the kid's menu at fast food places when I wanted a calorie splurge. Getting a child's portion always seemed like a better way to do that. Although now I'm pretty sure the child portion is the size that the normal adult portion used to be.

There seems to be something ingrained in our society that says "children won't eat healthy food." I'm not sure where it came from. I grew up eating and loving vegetables, but when my then 3 year old niece requested a snack of avocados, oranges, and sliced tomato, I was semi shocked. Isn't she supposed to want chips and cookies and prepackaged crap? The simple answer is no. Kids are not born wanting processed, factory manufactured food. But that same food is designed to have addictive properties and if you simply make an assumption that your child won't eat vegetables, they probably won't.

 Hold your horses, I'm not saying that there is no such thing as a really picky eater. I'm also not saying that Landon eats only the perfect foods. I'm just stressing that we are the ones who form our child's earliest food experiences and we should try to make them good ones. One of my friends hates eggs and her daughter also hates eggs. If my friend loved eggs, her daughter would probably love eggs too. In what I have seen so far with Landon (and with a lot of my friends and their children) kids mirror their parent's tastes and behaviors. 

I'm fortunate that Landy is not a picky eater overall, but picky eating is not a family trait. I couldn't tell you one food that she flat out hates, but sometimes when I try to give her a meal she normally would eat all of, she just doesn't want it. The best thing I ever did was to not get discouraged when we were initially introducing her to foods. Even with the puree foods, if she didn't like something I would try it at least 2 or 3 times before I retired it. And at the next stage I would try it again. L hated pureed bananas. She also hated real bananas mashed with breast milk and real bananas mashed with water and real bananas mashed with whole milk. Fast forward to now and the child is a "nana" eating machine.

Monkeys. They also love bananas.

All of the above being said, we eat pretty healthy at home. We splurge when we want to, but our basic meals are grilled or baked or sauteed and we keep our salt intake to an almost bare minimum. I make up for the rest with nutella and wine... in moderation. Rarely do we eat things that come in a box (unless someone needs a childhood mac and cheese fix) or food items that are premade and then frozen. When we go out to eat as a family I am often confronted with a children's menu that I frankly wouldn't eat any of myself. Greasy grilled cheese, mini cheese burgers, chicken fingers that are 50% batter, and a host of other things. Basically if it's on the children's menu it's likely fried or it comes with butter and cheese. While I think there is always a time and a place for a little indulgence, it scares the crap out of me that these are "CHILDREN'S" foods. Especially given the fact that this generation of children is expected to have a younger age at death than their parents. This is not what I want for my daughter.

We need to figure out small steps in our daily lives to keep this from happening.

Initially my solution was to order something for myself that I would simply share with Landon, or order her something I was comfortable with and take the leftovers home for a few more of her meals. As she gets older my thoughts on that solution have changed. Why not reach out to your local restaurants (the ones that cater to families and already have a kid's menu) and request that they include a few healthy items in smaller portions on their kid's menu? Why shouldn't there be grilled chicken breast on a kids menu? Why shouldn't there be a small filet of salmon on a kids menu? Why shouldn't there be salad on a kid's menu? 

I am not the type of person who believes that restaurants should be forced to have healthy items on their children's menu. It is the right of the restaurant to decide what they serve. But if we find a great way to just ask them to add on some healthier items, maybe that could do a lot in the long run. It might open other people's eyes to the fact that other children are eating healthy food items. To be honest, you would be surprised by how many parents are clueless about nutrition. 

As I have started thinking more about this, a few great examples have come up in places where we eat. I noticed last weekend at the Black Walnut Cafe that their children's menu is a wonderful mix of the traditional kid's items and healthier options and sides. They offer the following:

Grilled Cheese  

Chicken Tenders  

Cheeseburger  

AJB’s Mac & Cheese  

Ziti & Tomato Sauce 

Grilled Chicken Breast  

Grilled Chicken Sandwich  

Choice of a house green salad, roasted vegetables, french fries, 

house potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes or steamed broccoli, and 

fountain drink

Sometimes I think restaurants might be headed in the right direction, but could do more. In the case of national chain Panera Bread, their kid's menu allows you to make your child a deli sandwich with their chosen cuts of meat. Okay, that's a start, but given the range of their regular fare, they could easily incorporate some real and substantially healthier options than just PB&J, Mac & Cheese, & Grilled Cheese. 

I think you get the point of where I am going with this. It's not that kid's menus cause obesity, it's that they are a reflection of how society views the food that children eat. And for me, when I think about it in those terms, it's shocking. Everything in moderation allows space for unhealthy treats, but why should healthy options be completely absent? 

So if you feel the same, let's do something about it. You don't need to write congress or spend all of your money, when you eat out with your children and see that the kid's menu doesn't offer a healthier option that you were looking for, just let them know. Tell the manager that you would like to see some items added. Ask for a child's portion (and matching smaller price tag) of a healthier adult entree. 

Try new foods, and work on the way your family eats. A lot of the issues with childhood obesity start at home, but there is still work to be done when your family eats out. Especially in our current eating out and food to go culture. It's part of teaching our children to make good and healthy decisions for their future.

- RT

Strange Fact: Life Causes Death.... now get over it

As Syrio Forel once said, "fear cuts deeper than swords." If you get that reference you are such a nerd. Like me. Congratulations. Unfortunately, a sword can slice your head or arm off, and that's pretty scary as well. I'm not sure when the world decided to make people scared of EVERYTHING but I'm pretty over the nightly news. I'm sure if "the one thing I must know before getting in my car again" was that important, it would be breaking news and not a teaser for the news that comes on in 3 hours. 

The BlackBerry thumb will kill you, followed by iPhone brain. News at 11.

 Here's the thing about living with certain fears... the end result of life, is death. Everyone will eventually die, unless you plan to live in hologram form and go on a concert tour following your personal end. (Good for you weirdo.) 

MJ's hologram reads this blog.

 I have recently come to a sad conclusion while delving into health information and worrying about what L is eating... When it comes to local news and the internet everything "causes" cancer. By "causes" we mean, contains an ingredient, mutation, or hormone that has been shown to be a carcinogen. Lunchmeat causes cancer, soda causes cancer, heated hard plastic causes cancer, water bottles cause cancer, sugar causes cancer, the sun causes cancer, and also breathing, something none of us can seemingly avoid, causes cancer in various ways. These statements are all huge reaches, but for some reason, news media in various forms is trying to scare the crap out of us. Also, this propaganda is causing young people to be fatalistic about cancer. None of that is good.

By the way, this doesn't end by me saying "eat and drink whatever you want, smoke 20 packs a day, and renew your tanning bed membership because you are going to die anyway!" It's just a point where I had a realization that released me from a lot of fear. Instead of trying to do everything in a way to be the best and most healthy, and really stressing myself out, time would be better spent making intelligent choices about what I'm putting into my body, while enjoying life enough so that if the world ended tomorrow I would be satisfied that I had lived and tasted and wined and loved and gotten high on sugar, and sunburns, and wine. This is where I realized that you just try your best, you know your limits, but you still push them when you need to, and enjoy your life. Cancer is awful, death is sometimes a scary thing to think about. Most things we don't know much about are. In the instance of the opening quote, cancer/sickness/death could be the sword. Living your life in fear of death or sickness is basically giving in to that fear of sickness and not living at all. Done preaching, now on to more light hearted fears... like the fear of kitchens and raw meat. 

When appliances attack.

 I get it. Of all the comfy rooms in your house, the kitchen is by far the scariest. It has knives, ovens, stoves, fire, sharp edges, and the air of possible cooking failure hanging in the air like early morning fog. None of that stuff ever scared me. I usually fail at cooking things daily, if not a few times a week. Overcooking eggs, undercoating pans, and most of this is because I often cook without a recipe. It's how I learn best. 

I'm a raw chicken breast, and I'm here to kill you.

When I first started to cook, the things that scared me most were raw foods. The instillation of this fear can be directly attributed to media and pr, as it was not put in me by my mother. The people hacking their antibacterial products like to play commercials with pictures of germs writhing around on your counter tops. I'm not saying you should pick up raw chicken and lick it, I'm just saying Julia Child NEVER washed her hands in the kitchen. She was a cross contaminating machine. If you don't believe me, go watch any of her cooking shows. When this fact came to light, it helped me realize that any time I touched raw chicken, I probably wasn't going to die. (Whew!) Now the only reason my kitchen is evil is because the stove is electric and from the early 90s.

Queen Julia tells salmonella to eff off.

ATTENTION: Full circle moment. Just as you should not let fear rule your life, don't let fear of failure keep you out of the kitchen. Cooking at home is the BEST way to know what you are eating. It is proven time and time again that if you want to weigh less you need to cook MORE and eat out less. Cooking at home isn't the scary sitcom fodder that it used to be. Get a subscription to a great recipe magazine like Cooking Light and follow along. Or use the internet for free recipes and cooking techniques. Spend your time in the grocery store in the produce section, at the butcher, and in dairy for your milks, yogurt & cheese. And your eggs, even though they aren't dairy. That's just where they live. Then GET OUT while you still can... Grocery stores are evil.

The candy section.... MWAHAHAHAHA.

If you want to eat out intelligently and maybe don't have a cook at home option, arm yourself with information and knowledge. If I had only KNOWN that my precious drumsticks had 300 calories a pop, I wouldn't have an extra 3 lbs hanging around that I now have to work and deny wine to get rid of. Knowledge is power. Pick up one of the Eat This not That books. That will fill you in with a lot of information to make healthy decisions when you eat out.

What's the Ramona Pinot calorie count? 666 per glass.

I came up with some wise words all on my own to sum this up: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, y'all. And holograms of dead people.

Let it be,

- RT

Beer in Thailand, Vodka in Poland, all on one Sunday in Houston

Just when you think you are getting too old for a Sunday Funday, one drops right into your lap! Yesterday we had the great fortune to head out on one of Houston's culinary tours. Saveur Magazine put the premise behind these tours in much better (and more simple) terms than I could. "The visitors bureau of Houston, Texas, has hit on a great idea for food tours: round up the most passionate chefs in the city, ask them where they love to eat on their days off, and build an itinerary around that. Then invite the public." I had the pleasure of helping to set the logistics behind these tours in motion a few years ago with my former colleague who now handles all of the logistics with his new company Experience Houston.  It was a pretty fantastic day. 

So we kicked things off in the US. I had Special K for breakfast around 8am and headed to the grocery store. Once upon a time I did two of these tours back to back. The media was in town and it was during Rodeo, so in the morning we did a media tour that ended at the Rodeo Cook Off where we picked up the next media group for the afternoon tour. Eight restaurants in about eight hours. Thankfully I was working so I didn't have time to completely stuff my face. I did learn from watching others, so I tried to mentally prepare for the food marathon before me. We had 4 planned stops between 11am and 4pm. I knew I could do it. 

The tour in question was a version of the Long Point Road tour with Chef Bryan Caswell of Reef (former "Next Iron Chef" contestant) and Chef Chris Shepherd of new media darling, Underbelly. I don't mean for "media darling" to take anything away from Underbelly. We had an amazing experience dining and drinking there with friends a few months back.  And also, their PR team is working overtime. Neither of these chefs are strangers of PR. Caswell's Reef is undeniably some of the best seafood in Houston and he has had multiple James Beard nominations. This pair was also well put together. Both fun loving and ready to get things going. The bus meets up with everyone at Central Market to load up. 

Caswell's H-Town Glamour Shot

You can tell he is a chef because he has a cleaver. And also, he is wearing a chef's coat.

 We crack open some Saint Arnold Beer and head to our first destination. Vieng Thai is located in a strip center near the start of Long Point Road. There is not a functioning website to link to, but foodies are into it, so you can google it and find plenty of info. Before moving back to Houston I knew nothing about Thai Food. Houston has the third largest Vietnamese community in the United States, so spring rolls and Banh Mi abound. I am still just getting to know the true and delicious Thai selections. Vieng Thai is not to be missed. I could have stayed there the entire four hours filling my face. The items we had were as follows: E-sarn Sausage, Som Tum (green papaya salad), Massamum curry (above and beyond amazing), Plaa Pad Ped (Spicy catfish with basil, fantastic), Pat Sar-tor (shrimp with chili paste), Yum Nheam (I was afraid of this one because it was basically raw sausage, but I tried it. Then I tried it again. Then again. Fab), and lastly, the Pad See Ewe (noodle with black bean sauce, egg and pork). Everything we had was fantastic. The beer went with it perfectly. Great spices, great flavors, a few beers in and we were off!

You can tell it's good because there is neon on the outside AND the inside.

We were running ahead of schedule, so we swung by Korean Grocery Store H-Mart. Or as I have come to think of it, Costco for Asians. One of my favorite things about Asian mega grocery stores is the food court. It is always amazing and noodly (new word) and deliciousness. H-Mart did not disappoint. We picked up some ripe cherries for a dollar and some change a pound. We headed for the sake section and got a couple bottles of cold sake to share with our tour friends. Then we headed back to the bus. 

KIMCHI for one and all at H-Mart!

The "second" stop was Korea Garden, further down Long Point and next to a Karaoke joint. You know it's good Asian food when there is Karaoke nearby. We had actually been here before with one of S's friends from grad school who is Korean. No one spoke English at that time. They pretty much still don't. We were brought to the back room where the gas grills on the table were already burning and before they brought water they asked who wanted a beer. Two please, and a few bottles of Soju. The table was already laid out with raw meat and seafood ready to be grilled and seafood pancakes. The barbeque was followed up by bibim Nengmyun (Chilled buckwheat noodles) and Samgye Tang (chicken ginseng soup). The food is amazing and Soju is like sweeter, less alcoholic vodka that makes for great sipping. Additionally you get the fun feeling of grilling your own meat on the grill that lives in the middle of your table. Lots of soju later, we head on. 

We were cooking all on our own, but I found this professional photo by
Julie Sopher from a previous tour and it gives you a better idea of the set up.

Samgye Tang

Hite & Soju. Soju. Soju.

Stop three was Kong Ju Rice Bakery where they apparently make the best Kimchi in town. Even if you haven't been here, if you have eaten Kimchi in Houston, it was likely from Kong Ju Rice Bakery. They put on a great demo of how they make Kimchi and they dressed it up big time for us. They also had fantastic rice treats and amazing rolls with pickled veggies. And I can't tell you about the dumplings. The dumplings. Holy dough and spice and fish cakes and wow. Here are some shots: 

Neon Blue Prada pumps in the kitchen. Just another day at Kong Ju Rice Bakery.

The dumplings with the spices with the fish cakes with the.... YUM.

Pickled veggie rolls. Fantastic.

WHO WANTS DUMPLINGS?!?!?! Then he kicked his leg and posed and I LOVED IT!

Rice Bakery treats.

One large Kimchi

Somehow we ended up in Poland... or actually a block or so off of Long Point on Blalock at Polonia. We walk in and the table is set and spread with a shot of vodka at each setting and platters full of perogies. Polish heaven. Then potato pancakes, polish sausage and sauerkraut and followed up with cheese blintz drizzled in chocolate. Guys.. Oh yeah, we had more vodka. And then they brought out beer steins as big as two Popeye forearms. Then all of the sudden, four bottles of vodka were empty. Don't be too impressed. There were at least 25 people. And some of them were from New Orleans, so they had hollow legs or something. Things were getting messy. We got back on the bus and in true party form we broke out the BOTTLED WATER!!!! Effin' party animals. 

Polish Sausage

Perogies

He had a business meeting to go to...

In the words of S's email to me this morning: "Sunday Funday equals Monday nofunday." It would have been more prophetic had we thought about that yesterday. So then I came back to the US and took care of life at home and sent out happy I LOVE HOUSTON blog vibes to the world and went to bed. 


For more on the Houston Culinary Tours click here. They sell out in minutes and space is limited so if you want to jump on the bus, be quick about it. 


Tomorrow - an easy meatloaf recipe and some ladybug food. Tonight: Newsroom & bed. 


Here's to Sunday Funday (in moderation).


- RT

Houston: A Love Letter

I love Houston. A lot. You meet a lot of people who live here that do. More often than not, people who visit Houston don't get it, and that's fine. Mainly they are here to go to NASA (not in Houston, btw) or see cowboys. I know this because I used to book trips for people coming in from out of town. The number one request was NASA and cowboys. One group wanted to be driven to the nearest oil well. As a tour. Fun people. 

Just some local flair from the Art Car Capital of the World. No big deal.

Living here gives you the chance to really enjoy all that Houston has to offer. Tons of green spaces, amazing events, fresh farmers markets because we are so close to farm land, fresh seafood because we are an hour from the gulf, and patio weather 9 months of the year. Really if you are a true Houstonian, you likely sit on a patio 11 months of the year. August is not joke. It's ok to sit that one out. Here's an actual Houstonian on the heat:  "A true Houstonian doesn't run indoors when the heat comes out to play. A true Houstonian doesn't just tough it out- a true Houston actually enjoys it, welcomes it, and hugs the warmth whilst sitting on the beautiful tree-filled backporch of a cafe. Small refuges are taken from the sun under canopy trees and umbrellas while grasping a cold beverage. He and his beverage adapt to the heat of the outdoors; he glistens with sweat as his cold beer develops the frequent appearance of condensation Houston diners are familiar with."  Sweating is sexy. Just ask my girl Britney. 

Slave 4 U might have been filmed in Houston in August. Maybe.

One of the very best things about Houston is Houstonians. People here are nice. Like, really nice. I went to the grocery store this morning and said "Good Morning" 40 times in the span of an hour. I feel like Scarlett O'hara when she and Rhett take Bonnie Blue out for a walk. You know the scene. And if you don't, they are basically saying "good day" to everyone they pass.  When I am having trouble with the baby or with my car, or with anything, people stop to help. People stop to help everyone. I am not saying there are not assholes in Houston, I'm just saying there are fewer here than most other places.

The arts community in Houston is out of this world. The museums are some of the best in the country. The Museo del Prado is bringing 100 masterworks from their world renowned collection to the United States... and only to Houston. That's pretty kick ass. And there's something to be said for that. If we didn't have such an amazing museum and art scene, they wouldn't have made that decision. 

Fancy art works coming your way!

 Another fun thing about Houston is actually cowboys. The tourists are right. Here is a quote from the fab book HIWI :  "I often feel a pang of annoyance at people who come to visit and inquire if we Texans still ride around on horses. Then I realize, we do. It's the fourth largest city in the Unites States, and I am never surprised to see someone riding a horse through downtown."

Howdy Y'all! Trail Riders make their way through downtown.

 I could go on and on and on and on and on. The point is I love this city. Is it a place that you take your family for a weekend vacation when you don't know anyone here? No. Go to San Antonio for your family fun and see you later. Houston, like most towns, is the most fun when you visit to see friends or for a specific reason like catching a live band or going on a restaurant splurge. Houston has an insane amount of amazing upscale food, and then you get into the ethnic food. Tex Mex and Latin American of course, but also Indian, Pakistani, Korean, Thai, Chinese, Polish, Russian, and on and on and on. Come for a week and you will eat your face off so much that you won't be able to leave. Because you will not have a face. I'll try and fix it for you though, because I'm nice like that. Of course I'm nice, I'm from Houston!

Daenerys Targaryen is the only one who will be eating fresh horse heart.
But if you really wanted some, we could find it in Houston and you too could create the Stallion who mounts the World.

 I'm on a Houston high because we had a great day today on one of the Houston Culinary Tours organized by the visitors bureau. (more on our tour experience tomorrow) How these tours came about is that the CVB's PR director went to the best chefs in Houston and wanted to get a deal together where groups toured their restaurants. These same chefs had no problem with their pr and getting people in, so they wanted to do tours of the places they go in their off time. The ethnic local places that inspire their dishes. So that is what they did. Chefs here are amazingly accessible to people. On one of the original tours, Monica Pope who was on Top Chef Masters brought 21 tour patrons she didn't know to her grandmother's house to show them how she was originally inspired to cook. It's just crazy the things you can do here and the amazing people making national headlines and not having egos about it. People are accessible here. Arts are accessible. Houston is for everyone. The roaches fly, the humidity makes you look younger, the traffic gives you time to enjoy music or morning edition, the mosquitoes bite (but that's your fault for not spraying yourself down), it's very flat,  but that just means you can see things coming. Houston loves you! We're nice like that. 

Please enjoy one last cowboy. 

-RT

Mommy War (Ugh, Good God) What is it good for?

So picture this... you are 5 months preg, just dropped your 2.5 year old off at day school and you are going to take your 15 month old daughter for a late mommy and me breakfast at a local diner. You are having an amazing time (for once it's just the two of you) and she is being an angel. Then all of the sudden a woman walks up to you and says "you're disgusting" and walks away. So you are completely shocked. Because in real life, you are a hot mom who keeps her stuff together and you are side lined by this comment. Then her husband appears and says "I'm sorry, but my wife feels very strongly about children eating off of the table." Then he leaves. This actually happened to a friend of mine who is the complete opposite of disgusting. It made me so angry that on another of many occasions, moms are out there judging each other instead of supporting one another.

Judging is something that is easy to do. As a mom I pretty much constantly feel judged. No one ever looks at the way a child is acting and thinks "wow, that dad sure doesn't know how to parent." I mostly expect (and can easily brush off) judgement from non parents. Before I had kids, I was a parent judging machine. I had an answer for every parenting dilemma, especially when it came to toddlers and tantrums. (Those were always the parent's fault.) But here I am, older and wiser and I know that non parents have NO IDEA and I've been there, so really that doesn't bother me. What gets me is that moms are fighting all of these battles against each other when we are the ones who KNOW how hard it is to be a mom. I go out of my way when I see other moms to tell them their kids are precious, or ask them if they need a hand, or smile as big as a non crazy person can at them. I would love to give them a hug and tell them they are doing a great job, but that would just be creepy. 

This is why I don't own an ironing board.

Moms fight about breastfeeding I think more than anything else. Especially online. Breastfeeding is HARD. That is the truth for most women. I have some friends who took to it very naturally with their babies, I had others who had to work their asses off to make it natural, I have others who only supplemented with breast milk, and still others who knew when they were pregnant that breastfeeding was not something they wanted to do. My cousin still occasionally breast feeds her 2 year old. Guess what? All of our babies are healthy and happy because their moms made the best decision for them. GO MOMS! 

Both of these women are good moms.

 If someone asks me about breastfeeding, I level with them about my experience. One month of direct breastfeeding, and 6 months of exclusive pumping due to a latch issue. Was it tiring and awful and difficult? Yes. Do I regret doing it? No. I wanted to quit lots of times, but I had a three day rule. If I ever wanted to quit three days in a row, on the fourth day I would. I never made it past one day. Then I offer them a support system if they want it, because I think it is nearly impossible to breastfeed when you don't have one. You know what makes it harder to breastfeed? Judgement from other moms who think you aren't trying hard enough or aren't doing a good enough job. I have heard a lot from people who were turned off of breastfeeding in the hospital by an overly critical lactation consultant. In the end, as good as breast milk is for a baby, the most important thing for a baby is a healthy and happy mommy. On a side note, I was a formula baby and without formula, this blog would not be coming to you.

Now that I think about it, probably in a direct tie with breastfeeding is working moms vs stay at home moms. Some moms have to work, some moms choose to work, some moms have to stay at home, some moms choose to stay at home. Why do we have to be so angry with each other about it? As a mom who works part time, I will say that some days I am more than happy to skip off to work and not have to be on toddler watch all day. Other days I am stressed and don't have enough time in the morning to cook breakfast for me and my daughter and get out of the door on time. Then I come home and go right into dinner, bath, bed routine and miss any play time and S and I are both exhausted when it comes to thinking about cooking dinner. Some days I stay home are a dream. L and I are in synch and she is laughing and playing all day. We get chores and errands done, we start dinner early and the house is clean. Then other days she won't let me out of her sight. She doesn't want to eat what she normally eats, she is testing limits all day long and throwing tantrums, and I just want to close her bedroom door and lay on the floor while she plays around me. (that has happened many times.) It's hard to go to work AND it's hard to stay at home because it is hard to be a mom. And wherever you are during the day, you are still a mom and that is tough stuff. 

Back to the start of this post, moms are very judgmental about other children in restaurants. I am constantly nervous when I am eating out with L. We met S for lunch one day and L was making a mess on the floor and a woman was giving her the stink eye. A grown woman was giving a one year old baby side eye. But really, it was side eye at me. When someone figures out how to teach a 12 month old to eat neatly and not spill on the floor, please let me know so I can steal the information and become rich. It's already costing us more cash to eat out with L because I always leave some cash on the high chair for the poor schlub who has to clean the floor. And yes, sometimes your child eats off of the table, because when you put her food on a plate she wants to see what is under the plate, and when you put her food on a napkin, she wants to use the napkin to show you she can wipe her hands. Kids also eat dirt, so I'm pretty sure eating off of the table isn't that bad. 

Here is where there is a shift though. You cannot help your child throwing a fit in a restaurant, and you can't help that they aren't coordinated enough to get the food directly to their mouth and no where else. Where lots of parents get a bad rep is when they are sitting and enjoying their meal while their children are disrupting others. These are the times when you realize you will only have children this age for a little while, you take one for the team, and you pick up your screaming, thrashing child and walk outside so you can calm them down in a less overstimulating area. And if they don't calm down you get your food to go. Been there, done that. Know your kids and how much they can stand. 

Enjoying your meal?

  I've never been more relaxed at a restaurant than on Mother's Day when we had brunch at one of our favorite places Haven. It was a mother's day brunch and every single table had a baby or a toddler. Moms were happy, the champagne was flowing, and if a child cried, we all got it. Life should be like mother's day brunch.

Here's to mother's day! Let's do it once a month.

 As much as you hate to see someone get on the plane with a baby, I'm willing to bet the person with the baby feels worse. They know that everyone is looking at them thinking "please don't sit near me" and then they inevitably sit next to one of the people who was thinking that. Planes are hard. There's pressure and strange sounds and noises and strange people. Moms needs support on planes. I really want to hug moms on planes. I've been there. The first time Landon flew it was just the two of us. Shout out to the fine people at Delta and the makers of the iPad for making that flight a dream. A crying baby on a plane can sometimes just not be helped. It's not like the parent is sitting there pinching their child. What can be helped? Older kids on planes. If a child on a plane is kicking the seat in front of them and the parent is doing nothing, then yes, feel free to judge that parent. Or just be like my friend H and turn around and say "no, no, little boy. Kicking seats is not polite." I like to picture this happening in my head because I wish I was there. 

iPad airplane magic can also be had with the Kindle Fire and a portable DVD player.

Here is the long awaited conclusion... moms need other moms. It's hard to be a parent and you get pressure from everyone to have perfect angel children. But that just isn't life. What we need to realize is that we all take shortcuts so that we can stay sane. Maybe you put your kid on a leash, maybe I bought my baby an iPad so I would feel better about traveling with her. When you see a mom at the store who might be a little too harsh with her child, maybe she is having a horrible day. You never know what someone else is going through. Maybe I'm not going to race across the room when L picks a cheerio up off of the floor and eats it. It's just a cheerio and it's just the floor. 

We are all doing what we need to do and we are all doing the best that we can. We are making the decisions that we have to make for ourselves and our families. So really, next time you see a mom out with her kids, give her some support. Smile, help her out if she needs it, or be extra strange and give her a high five. At the very least, if you can't say anything nice (I'm looking at you the "you're disgusting" lady) just keep it to yourself and don't say anything at all. 

So here's to moms of all shapes and sizes, raising children who are theirs by blood or not, and awesome dads too. Let's all give each other a break and then give each other a hand and then give each other a cocktail.

-RT