DadJack.com Blog

Life is unfair… We’ve all heard it, heck we’ve all experienced it.  In the past year and a half I’ve had more disappointment than I care to recount, but you hate to see your kids realize this is how things go.  You don’t want them to be spoiled, but you also don’t want to see their little hearts broken.  So you try and handle the big ones as gently as possible… “Why can’t you and Mommy live together?” “Why did your Grandma in the wheel chair go to heaven?”  And trust me, I’m not perfect, I answered them the best I could.  But it seems lately there have been a wave of tiny disappointments, the type that put a damper on the fun you were looking forward too.  Oddly, they have really surrounded food.  I told you all on the CRN (and Twitter… and Myspace) how Mc Donald’s screwed the kids on the Happy Meals the other night…  The toy is the draw for those otherwise boring meals, so when they leave the kids with a box only containing the crappy food it’s a let down.  Then we went to Denny’s and they changed their kids menu, no more mini-hot dogs (Lucy’s favorite) or grilled cheese (A Bing must have), they were bummed, but I explained that sometimes they need to change the menu.  Then last night, Bob’s Big Boy… The Bob’s that has been Lucy’s favorite place to go since she was old enough to have an opinion, the place she and I would go for a “Daddy and Me” dinner while her Mom worked, the first real place she recognized on sight (Which ended our meals at Mo’s, it’s across the street within eyesight of Bob’s, so Lucy would have no part of being in the hood and not hitting BBB.)  When I asked them where the wanted to go eat last night the vote was 100% Bob’s.  We walked in, Lucy and Bing requested different color balloons and then we were sat by the “Bob” inside.  Two kids menus and one breakfast menu (I like their eggs)…  And no more hot dog on the kids menu.  I know hot dogs are unhealthy and generally full of gross stuff, but it was what Lucy ordered there for the last 4+ years.  She was really bummed, but I think I was more upset… I know things change, we get unmarried, we grow older, we lose things, but why this?  Why ruin the thing my children and I look forward too, an evening of laughs and full tummies at our favorite place.  Lucy was a trooper, after quizzing the server on where the hot dogs were she ordered plain noodles she looked at me and said “at least we can have fudge cake.”

We will have other favorites and menus will continue to change, but on that Monday evening on a warm August day we lost a tiny family tradition.

Rock On, Jack