As a parent, where do you stand on the whole snacking thing?

Depending on which book you read / what your pediatrician says / what works for your family, you might do square meals or more frequent, smaller meals. One famous pediatrician even recommends leaving out an array of snacks out for a toddler, say, in a muffin tin, so that she can eat on the go all day.

But that wouldn’t work for us. First, we’re rarely inside the house for long periods of time. And I never wanted to be one of those parents whose cars and sofas are full of crushed Cheerios and crackers. (Not that crumbs are that awful. And not that our house and car are clean. But anyway.)

So we’re pretty much a three-meals-and-afternoon-snack kind of family—but it seems we’re going against the trend. A recent study by Business Insights says snacking occasions are forecast to increase 3.6 percent in the United States, compared to overall eating occasions, from 2004 to 2008. Read the rest »

Rumor has it that by the third or fourth kid, you give up worrying about perfectly clean hands. You more experienced parents will have to let me know just how true that is. But now that Baby A is two and a half, I can understand. At some point, safety becomes more about making sure the child hasn’t run out into the parking lot and less about keeping those little fingers sanitized.

No kidding. We recently installed a slide-lock way up high inside our front door because Baby A was opting to go on walks outside by herself. Scary, huh?

For those of us with the luxury of focusing our cleanliness efforts on only one child, chain restaurants can still seem like repositories of ick. From sticky tables to dirty high-chairs, eating out with a young child can feel like a three-legged race in which your race partner is an octopus.

That’s why I thought it was great to hear Chick-fil-A launched a program early this year to put complimentary hand-sanitizer wipes and disposable placemats in Chick-fil-A restaurants. This is a smart move, and I hope more restaurant chains will follow suit. Read the rest »

It’s been almost a year since my fast-food-slash-parenting epiphany. Maybe you’ve had a similar moment.

Here’s how mine played out: After a morning of Christmas shopping, I was worn out and famished. Baby A was cranky, meaning she felt the same way. We were far from home—and just forty minutes away from A’s naptime. I looked for a solution and saw a Chick-fil-A within walking distance.

And then it hit me: It was time for Baby A’s first fast-food meal. Yikes!

So why would I remember the details of this moment?

Watching the fast-food, or quick-serve, restaurant industry had been my job going back to the early 1990s. Early in my publishing career, I was tapped to launch the editorial side of QSR Magazine. It was great fun, and a big success. Still is. Read the rest »