Make ‘family friendly’ normal

Is it just me or does anyone else see the concept of a “family friendly” lane in the grocery stores to be bizarre and indicative of where we are at in Western society? The typical grocery store with 10 check-out lanes will designate one family friendly lane. The rest are filled with moral filth such as soft-porn magazines like Cosmo or SHAPE, and gossip magazines.

Stores will funnel mothers with innocent children and anyone else who finds these magazines bothersome down this lane and make them feel like the odd ones, similar to those in the glass smoking rooms at the airport. Shouldn’t it be the inverse? Shouldn’t the stores have nine family friendly lanes and funnel people who want to look at that garbage down the “filth” lane?

No, instead grocery stores have decided to make traditional family values take a back seat to moral decay. Our 7-year-old son just started reading, so forgive us if we don’t want to answer the question, “Hey dad, what does ‘epic sex’ mean?”

I applaud stores like Trader Joe’s for their family environment. At TJ’s, instead of seeing images of seductive women, children get to find Sassy and get a sucker.

Landen Grant

Mica