Chick-fil-A is at it again. This time they’re out to help. Honestly. They’ve rolled out a new service, the Mom’s Valet. Moms can order their food via the drive-thru and then go inside the fast-food restaurant, where a table will be ready, complete with high chairs and booster seats, and then have their food brought to the table by an employee. The program isn’t implemented by their corporate office yet, but has been rolled out in over 100 Chick-fil-A outlets.
But wait…what if you’re a dad? Does this service not apply to you? Must you trudge all the way into the politically incorrect Kwik-E-Mart of chicken purveyors and wait in line to order your Cinnamon Clusters and Chick-n-Strips ® while performing parental judo with your kids?
In 2012, approximately 2 million fathers stayed home with their children. There are many single-father and two-father families with children in this country. Is this service meant to be exclusive to moms who fill the traditional maternal role?
Chick-fil-A’s conservative “values” are well known. In 2012, Dan T. Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A made us all well aware of his stance on “non-traditional” families. Want a refresher? "We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that…” Right, that guy.
While I want to hope a father who wishes to partake of the new Mom’s Valet service would not be turned away, I can just imagine some benevolently ignorant employee saying no. Because, after all, it’s a Mom’s Valet. It’s right there in the name. And you sir, aren’t a mom.
Moms should stay at home. Moms should wrangle the kids. The father’s don’t have time for all this domesticity while they’re making the daily bread. I realize this may be just semantics, but this is a time when semantics can deprive people of rights and cause general misery and inequality. Chick-fil-A was deliberate with what they named their new service. And while they mention parents as being benefactors of the Mom’s Valet, they decided not to name it “Parent’s Valet” for a reason.
Well, some moms are raving. One woman dressed her baby as an “All American Cow” for National Cow Day (Why? Save a cow, eat a chicken?) and brought her into a Chick-fil-A outlet and had just a grand old time being served.
One Pennsylvania father has this to say: As a dad, there are times that my wife is out, busy, and I'm responsible for dinner (or lunch). Why is this directly aimed at moms via the name? Why not ‘Parent's Valet’, or just ‘Chick-Valet’?”
From his bio page on the Chick-fil-A website, their CEO believes “that working in the field provides a clearer understanding of the ever evolving wants and needs of Chick-fil-A customers…”
Clearly.
