Guest Author - Previous BellaOnline Editor

OK, if you've heard about the program "Reel Moms," which offers a child-friendly movie experience for mothers and their babies, you might find yourself thinking, "Oh, just another example of the special treatment parents get in this world."

But take a look closer, and you might change your tune.

If all the kids are going to a special movie during the day – when you are probably at work anyway – then maybe they wont show up next Saturday night, when you and your husband are finally out on a date!

It is easy for us to grumble when we see special opportunities for parents when there is nothing comparable for the child-free. But some of these programs actually benefit everyone, and perhaps should even be expanded.

Imagine a restaurant where all the kids were invited to come from, say 5:00 to 6:00, and then the rest of the time you would be guaranteed a child-free meal, lingering over a glass of wine even at such mainstream restaurants as the Olive Garden or TGI Friday’s.

Or what about a special grocery store hour where all the screaming children and frazzled parents shopped together, leaving you to browse through portabella mushrooms in the peaceful calm of a quiet produce section?

Most of these scenarios are not likely to happen and are not all that enforceable.

But hats off to Loew's for trying to solve a problem for mothers AND the rest of the movie-going public, who would rather not strain to hear the dialogue over a wailing baby.