"Family" Passes

I like the Children's Museum in Denver. The main reason is that they understand that a family does not consist of just two adults and two kids. They don't charge us extra for our larger family, and they also don't make our foster children feel like they aren't part of our family by charging extra for them. They just note it in our file that our number and ages of children will change.

They don't do that at the Aquarium or the Art Museum. Both of those places treat you like you are either A.) a freak or B.) a con artist trying to scam them. Are there really so many large families or foster families out there that the place would lose too much money if they actually included the whole family in their "family pass"?

We also used to go to Fazoli's every Tuesday night for Kids' Night because they gave discounted meals for kids with the purchase of an adult meal. Now they've changed it to be like every other restaurant and only allow two kids meals per adult meal. So we don't eat there any more. In America today there is a growing number of people who act like it's bad parenting to feed your kids McDonald's. There are even certain cities that don't allow new fast food places to be built in poor neighborhoods because they supposedly make poor people fat and unhealthy. That seems odd since I keep hearing that schools have to feed kids breakfast and lunch (and in some places dinner and weekend meals) because poor parents won't feed their children.

Anyway, I can't help but think that the reason McDonald's makes so much money is not because their food tastes the best, but because they provide a necessary commodity... cheap food in a family friendly environment. If you offer a dollar menu and a playland I'd eat almost anywhere. I wish that instead of demanding more regulations to stop fast food places from advertising to kids or selling Happy Meal toys or to change their menu, people with the money and imagination would create their own restaurants with play areas for the kids, inexpensive healthy food, and a fun educational toy in every box. We'd practically live there... as long as they don't sell tofu.