According to the Wall Street Journal (March 14, 2008) restaurant owners have identified a "worrisome" long-term trend:
"The number of harried working moms isn't growing the way it was."
What?? This is a worrisome trend for marriages and children? I think not! Instead, this is a worrisome trend for businesses built on the virtual dissolution of family bonding and togetherness.Since the percentage of women in the work force has been dropping, the result is less money in the family budget for eating out. Fatty, salt-laden, hyper-caloric, oversized meals will have to go by the wayside for warm, home-cooked meals filling the home with luscious aromas and bringing a family together around their own kitchen table.Ahh....not to worry! Restaurants are coming up with ideas to undermine all that syrupy "homey" stuff: offering children's books, Etch-A-Sketch toys and handheld video games to appeal to children who might drag in their parents; and also coming up with ideas of pre-cooked meals moms can buy at the grocery.There is always hope that the disgusting new television program, "The Secret Life of A Soccer Mom" will simply succeed in seducing moms and wives away from their families to go back into some "dream" job.....
