Youngsters? You Do not Even Must Feed Them!
I saw an ad on Facebook for a food delivery service called ‘LittleSpoons’. Meals for babies, toddlers and children delivered to your door. No cooking. Take that chore of eating “off your plate”, mom (and dad.) I’m getting the stress of today’s world and the need to make life a little bit easier. I understand takeaway or cooked orders. I don’t make fun of Lil Spoons (a lot.) I just thought the “take time off your plate” promotional approach misses the point – the benefit of the food should be for the babies and children, not telling mom they don’t she doesn’t have to feed her children. I’m Italian-American, food is a big deal. Little Spoons’ menu looks pretty darn good.
In the autism community, eating has posed major challenges for parents. And we often used special diets that not only had to cook from scratch, but sometimes had to be chemists too! Who still remembers the production of GF flour mixes? I threw away more gummy baked goods than I can count. We had cookbooks and Yahoo groups where we could learn how to cook for our kids. In my family it was 25 years ago.
When I was a kid, 25 years ago, we called “Little Spoons” Swanson’s TV dinner. They were a rare meal and we thought they were a great treat. Who remembers the brownie dessert? Or scrape the last pieces of mashed potatoes and sauce from the corners of the aluminum foil tray? Aluminum foil! Before we injected aluminum into children.
Many mothers cooked dinner every night. (Many still do.) It wasn’t always gourmet food, either. It wasn’t curated. It wasn’t organic. It wasn’t GFCFSFABCDEF free. And vegetable meant vegetables, not Franconian meat. But we had a balanced meal on the table, often with two options: eat or starve.
Today’s young mothers face stress and anxiety that are unique to their cohort. I was surrounded by mothers whose children had autism. Sometimes you need a “simple button” and Little Spoons could be. Gluten-free gnocchi delivered? Sounds good. I wonder if they offer Salisbury Steak? And can I fold the foil lid into a new hat?
