Rediscovering the Joy of the Kids’ Menu

The last time you had something out of the kids menu?

Adults tend to skip those bright pages with smiling pancakes, mini burgers and chocolate milk. We turn over them like a chapter we have left behind. However, it is not only a kid page, but rather a time machine, willing to take us back to the days when it was possible to laugh and drink syrup in the mornings.

I was taught that lesson on the sweetest of Sundays one morning.

Breakfast and A Side of Nostalgia

My niece and I have visited IHOP, the favorite place on earth. All week long she had been talking about pancakes with faces.

Years had passed since I had eaten there. In my case, breakfast was no longer a magic part but rather a practical one. It was still an adventure to her.

As the server presented her with kids menu and crayons, her face brightened. She made a decision on her decisions, Funny Face Pancakes, Silver Five, and chocolate milk with a bendy straw.

Looking at her caused something inside me to soften. The vivid colors, the ridiculous names and the small drawings reminded me of my childhood time too when I used to hang my legs on the stand and breakfast was about laughing and not hurrying.

A Bite of Memory

Her plate was childhood on a plate; pancakes and whipped cream smiles, chocolate chip eyes, and strawberry lips.

She laughed and gave me a taste. I was hesitant — adults do not order on the children menu, do they? But one taste was all it took.

The pancake was buttery and soft and sweet and I was not an adult now, momentarily. I was six years old, and had syrupy fingers and a full heart.

This is when I understood that the menu of the kids does not only offer food. It serves nostalgia.

A Sweet Surprise

After we had eaten, the waiter smiled and told her, It is IHOP Kids Eat Free night, we will pay her bill.

It was such a trivial matter, but everything. Parents were even smiling more, children applauded, and the restaurant was brighter. It was not saving money, it was the happiness of having a dinner together.

This is what IHOP knows so well family meals are not about food but connection.

The Last Bite

On Sundays, now, it is mini pancake day in my kitchen. My niece refers to it as Home IHOP and she insists on doing the decorating of the pancakes. It is shabby, sticky and just right.

Such mornings make me remember that joy does not need to be large to become a reality. Other times it is nothing but a plate of pancakes and those you love.

Adulthood does not imply abandoning the joy, but it is a recollection of where to turn to get it.

And next time you are at IHOP you should have a second look at the kids menu. Order the smiley pancakes. Sip the chocolate milk. Laugh a little louder.

Since there are times when the most heartwarming aspects in life are accompanied by a free refill of syrup.