Historically, those in favor of “family values”—a euphemism often used to describe an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage position by those on the right—have done little to actually help American families. We’d all be much better off if the energy put into protecting the “traditional” family was put into securing things like paid leave, sick days, and universal child care.
While it’s hardly undergone a political sea change, Chik-fil-A’s recent conversion from a company who spends its profits on fighting gay marriage to one responsible for a number of innovative family-friendly initiatives gives me a little hope that the “family values” movement can be transitioned into a force for some good. This year, the fast-food chain launched two new programs geared at making life easier for families— an effort that, sadly, makes it an outlier among American corporations.
Starting in January, Chik-fil-A began offering something they call Mom’s Valet. Through this service, parents can order at the drive-thru with their children and then go inside where an employee will have a table set-up for them and bring them their food. This allows parents to skip the stress of keeping their kids entertained while they wait in line to order.
Then this month they launched the Cell Phone Coop family challenge. Customers are given a to-go container that is printed with instructions telling them to turn off their phones and place them inside the box during the meal. If they all manage to make it through the meal without reaching for their phones, everyone gets a free ice cream. While I imagine not all parents will be fond of the fast food chain’s unsubtle judgement of any and all cell phone usage, they might appreciate the incentive it provides for older children to put away their phones during the meal.
Some Chik-fil-A locations also deliver a free meal to new parents after they get home from the hospital. It’s called the New Mommy Meal and, according to a woman in Houston, includes “a small nugget tray, fruit tray, a gallon of sweet tea and a gift for baby.” One mom says she received a stuffed animal cow and a branded burp cloth.
None of these will make a huge difference in the lives of their customers, nor are they replacement for serious legislative changes. (Also, why not call it “Parents Valet?” Or “New Parents Meal?”) But in a country where restaurants and other public facilities are, relatively speaking, inhospitable to families, such gestures are very welcome. Outside of McDonald’s “playland” and the regularly distributed packet of crayons and Xeroxed kiddie menus, I can think of few attempts to make life easier for parents when dining out at restaurants not specifically designed for children. This isn’t the case everywhere. Many friends come home from Europe gushing not about the art or the food, but the small play areas they often found in cafes and restaurants. These aren’t kid places, mind you, with bright colors, cloying music and bland food. Just a perfectly nice place for two adults to grab a coffee and a sandwich where the kids have something to do, too.
Writing in the New York Times last year, Reif Larsen (a friend) describes the difference between traveling in Europe, where he lives, and the United States with a young child. He compares the Edinburgh airport with its “three large soft-play areas in the terminals, ample highchairs and dedicated lines for families” and “an entire cushy room devoted solely to nursing mothers” to the Newark airport where “there is no such room” and “approximately one highchair for all of Terminal C.” America, Larsen says, has failed “to acknowledge that children actually exist.”
Perhaps next time he comes home he might want to hit up a Chick-fil-A.
