At first glance, the kids' menu seems like a lifesaver, quick, simple, and guaranteed to keep your little one fed without drama. But look a little closer and you’ll start to see the problems. The food is often overpriced, bland, and repetitive, with little room for creativity or nutrition. Even worse, it can limit your child’s willingness to try new things and build unhealthy eating habits over time. Before you order that familiar plate of nuggets and fries, here are a few reasons to think twice.
Note: The content of this article does not reflect the Writer's personal beliefs.
Overpriced
Most kid's menus are overpriced. Almost every food served on a kids’ menu is twice the price of the grocery store.
Most kids' menus are just essential foods we can replicate at home, so they offer nothing special. But most eateries hike prices because they cater to a specific cohort, so we’re left with choosing between a happy kid and a pocket full of change.
Limited options
One of the most infuriating things about a kids’ menu is the variety; almost every eatery serves the same thing, so the food isn’t creative.
Whether you’re headed to a McDonald's or a local food chain, the kid's menu will always comprise chicken nuggets, fries, or juice. While we appreciate their efforts to cater to kids, it’s pretty annoying to realize our kids must stick to the same menu whenever they eat out.
Not customizable
Another reason why kids’ menus aren’t a good idea is their fixation on specific trends; we can’t change what they offer, so we’re stuck with monotonous food.
Since almost every eatery’s idea of a kids’ menu is chicken tenders or nuggets with juice, we cannot request any customization. This prompts negative feelings in children with allergies. It’s also annoying how eateries have fixed menus, so we can’t swap the ingredients, even if it’s just a juice exchange.
Low quality
While we’d like to believe most kids' menus are offering healthy foods, it’s sadly not the case. Almost every kids’ menu is a bucket full of unhealthy food.
Kids’ menus offer nuggets, fries, tenders, burgers, milkshakes and juices. While these items look appetizing on paper, they’re often made from stale ingredients or stored in unhygienic places. This means most kids’ menu foods might have poor quality, so they’re not worth your children's.
Portion sizes
A kids’ menu is designed to cater to smaller tummies, so every portion size is tiny. While this suits toddlers, it gets annoying when your child turns 5.
The portion sizes for most kids’ menus are small, so they’re only befitting kids who are on the younger side. Older children often have a greater appetite, but because these foods aren’t customizable, we can’t do anything except get two or let our kids have an ice cream later.
Stereotyping
You might have noticed several kids’ menus come with wonderful toys to attract the children. While this is quite adorable, it can be pretty annoying. Kids will start playing with the toys rather than eating their food. Toys at the table can make many parents very mad.
Picky eating
Kids are pretty picky eaters, but constantly choosing items from the kids’ menu only reinforces their pickiness.
While parents try their best to broaden their children’s culinary horizons, most eateries offer non-customizable foods on the kids' menu, so children pick up on eating the same thing when they go out. This intensifies their unhealthy relationship with food and might even make them picky eaters for life.
Stifles experimentation
It’s not just the reinforcement of picky eating that makes a kids’ menu terrible for kids; it also stifles experimentation.
We’d all like our children to dive into different culinary worlds and learn about the culture worldwide, but because they’re used to eating a specific food when they eat out, they restrict themselves. This prevents kids from broadening their palette, so they might not even try a particular food growing up.
Stifles tolerance
Younger kids can’t typically handle spice, so almost every kids’ menu offers bland and tasteless foods with minimal seasoning.
While this suits younger kids, most begin to increase their tolerance for spicy foods when they get older. This means kids used to eating from a kids’ menu can’t handle spice because they have never been introduced to it. Briefly, foods on a kids’ menu stifle kids' spice tolerance.
Ignoring seasonal produce
Let’s be honest; a kids’ menu is the least creative thing you’ll see in any eatery. They don’t expand their horizon, restricting us customers to tasteless foods.
This means most eateries ignore seasonal produce, which, in turn, makes kids completely unaware of what foods are fresh and when. Most eateries could benefit from seasonal flavors in a kid’s menu, but their lack of creativity stifles any success and promotes blandness.
Inconsistent quality
Kids become accustomed to eating from a kid’s menu, but you might have noticed these foods don’t always taste the same.
This is because most eateries need more consistency in quality. Everything your child likes in one branch of a restaurant might be disgusting in a separate branch. The lack of consistency can be jarring for taste buds and even prevent a child from eating a particular food.
Boring
Kids' menus are almost always the same. They never vary, no matter what type of restaurant you are eating at. Kids will not be excited about the prospect of new food and may even act badly at the restaurant just because they are bored with the food.
Exciting foods live on the main menu, not in the kid's section.
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