By Joseph Hamman, Staff Writer
As a Gen Zer, I believe there are many things in life that I wish Gen Alpha would appreciate as much as I did. One particular thing that comes to mind is restaurant coloring menus. For Gen Z kids like me, restaurant coloring menus were the things that made going out to eat so exciting.
Lately, I have been observing people in restaurants around me and it honestly saddens me that parents of Gen Alpha children don’t quite understand the charm of the coloring menus.
However, with how much I want to pin all the blame on the parents, I really can’t say it’s entirely their fault. A lot of it has to do with the restaurants just not offering them anymore. Let me set the stage with a story.
When I was seventeen, after I would finish practicing driving with my grandfather, he would often ask where I wanted to go to lunch. Several times, we would go to one of my favorite pizza restaurants, Grotto Pizza. One day, I sat down at a booth, looking over at some other customers nearby, and saw this mother who just spent the whole time on her phone and plopped an iPad playing The Secret Life of Pets 2 in front of her toddler. Once the movie ended, the mother started the movie over again, hoping the toddler’s attention would be glued to the screen once more. When I saw that, I shook my head in annoyance.
Now, I understand I am not a caregiver nor a neurologist who works with children, and I do understand that from a scientific standpoint, repetition is good for a kid’s brain, but so too is creativity and making art. And no, I am not saying that as a biased graphic design major; I really do believe with my whole being that art and creativity are integral to a child’s brain development.
Months later, I got a job at that same Grotto Pizza location, and, to my surprise, they DID have coloring sheets in their storage, but they just didn’t give them out. Sometimes, some of my coworkers would start doodling with them during downtime at work and hang them up around the restaurant.
If there are restaurants like Grotto Pizza that don’t give out their coloring menus to children, how are the parents supposed to know that they exist? Understandably, instead of blindly asking for one, they find it more convenient to place an iPad in front of their kids to keep them occupied. If I were a server, I would always make sure we had coloring menus on hand and give them out to any customers with kids.
We’re entering an age where parents take the lazy route in dealing with their kids by figuratively throwing technology at them and hoping they remain occupied. In the case of coloring menus, it’s the motor skills that slowly get lost and the overabundant imbalance of iPad time which takes its place. If more restaurants were to bring back coloring menus for children to enjoy, kids could have more opportunities to express their artistic ability, even if it’s just through a bunch of scribbles. Kids’ brains learn from exposure and experience, and giving them time to color their menu and make it how they want to make it lets that part of the brain grow. Additionally, many coloring menus often come with different games and puzzles for the kids to try out, such as crosswords and word searches, that can also help their brains develop. These little aspects of children’s dining experience can go a long way in how a child’s brain develops.
If there is one criticism that I can see others saying about coloring menus, it’d be how they are horrendous for the environment. Paper comes from chopping down trees, and most of the coloring menus and crayons just get thrown in the trash after use, ending up in landfills. And, I will admit, that is something that is easily overlooked.
Despite that, I am a strong believer that more restaurants should go back to offering coloring menus for children or, heck, anyone. If restaurants were to decide to bring back coloring menus, it would allow younger kids to be exposed to creative possibilities. Drawing and pre-meal restaurant time are what make the dining experience so fun and rewarding for the brain of this age group because it allows individuals like me to feel more carefree and live imaginatively. I hope restaurants go on to consider this in the future, and those who are starting to make them come back, thanks.
Leave a Reply