Inside the Mommy Brigade
Interviewing parents of small children has been an eye-opening study for me, and I look forward to continue shadowing families as I continue my project. I’m hoping to gain a better understanding of the pain points of good nutrition from families, who are dealing with health barriers on many levels. They face unhealthy cafeterias in their kids schools, they are working moms who have to get dinner on the table in a hurry, and some have kids who won’t touch a vegetable on their plates. This is a problem bigger than simple willpower.
I’m hearing the pain points in the voices of parents who want to feed their children healthy meals:
“Is there a way to track what nutrients are lacking in my kids’ diets?”
“Can we make the school stop giving my kids awful food?”
“I hate when people bow to a kid out of fear of upsetting them. I picked Alaina up from school the other day and she had cheese curl powder all over her face. I’m not saying don’t ever let my kids have these things, but I would appreciate a little control.”
“I wish there were healthier fast food options for busy nights.”
“I have a hard time deciding what to make, that combines kid-friendly, healthy AND easy.”
“I need a personal shopper/chef!”
An interesting problem I’ve observed is in some parents who claim to feed their children healthy meals—while their food diaries reveal a week full of fast foods, processed foods, and very few homemade meals. 
Some questions was raised during my research presentation, should I be focusing on nutrition/fitness awareness or behavior change? I’m going to look a little closer to find out. I’ll be conducting additional research in the following ways:
- More Context! Shadowing families during grocery shopping and in the busy “4th Quarter” part of the evening that encompasses the pre-dinner to bedtime activities.
- Creating a timeline of a mom’s day, to look at where she has time of trouble, concern, technology use, and stress
- Surveys and focus groups to start getting some broader, qualitative information about meals, nutrition, schedules, etc.
