Forget McDonalds. It's all about Chick-fil-A

Pronounced: Chick Fillet. Wednesday morning, the girls and I went to Chick-fil-A for their weekly toddler time. My first reaction was: this is awesome! Then, I realized that I was definitely a mom if my definition of an awesome morning was time out at Chick-fil-A. Furthermore, I concluded that I was undeniably a child of the 80's by even using the word awesome. Finally, I accepted it all, because it really was TOTALLY AWESOME!!

At first glance, it's a regular fast food joint, schlepping chicken sandwiches instead of burgers. They have a drive through. Plastic signage and the employees wear silly looking uniforms. But it is a different world, at least on Wednesday mornings. They had a woman making balloon animals; there was a toddler play area, perfect for the little ones, clean with no big kids to step on them; the "hospitality" employee was handing out free ice cream coupons; they did a story-time with parachute in the playarea with all the kids. It was chaos, but it was fun. We stayed longer than expected, so ordered lunch as was their cunning plan all along. The food was freshly made and, best of all, you made your order, then they BROUGHT it to the table for you. Inside the kids meal in place of a junky plastic toy was a sticker book and every meal came with an adhesive plastic mat to attach to the table to put the kids meal on and a moist toilette. Mom heaven.

Best of all, all the parents there were so friendly. I had some great conversations ranging from relocation to part-time daycares to popular careers in Indian families.

We shall return maybe even this Saturday for their carnival with inflatables that they're hosting as a fundraiser for a local life skills program or on Monday for family night. I'm glad that they have grilled chicken salads . . .