All McDonald's Restaurants Deserve a Break Today - from Frivolous Lawsuits

After reading the following post on Facebook, I am compelled to share with you, dear readers.

"Are McDonald's Happy  Meal Toys making your child fat?"  At first glance, my response was, "No, not unless my child is EATING the Happy Meal Toys!"

Snarky comments aside, the article complains, "McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's," according to Stephen Gardner, of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest's consumer group.

All right, I'm rolling my eyes here.  {eye roll}

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

This is a fast-food chain.

They cater to people who don't care if they eat healthy meals 3x daily. Or, at least, they cater to people who don't care if they chow down on high-carb, high-fat foods when they're on the road traveling and have no time to stop for a sit-down meal, people who don't mind eating fast-food now and then, etc.

To be fair, McDonald's has tried to upgrade the menu by downgrading the fats and making available the nutrition information for their menu items.

The CSPI group complains that Happy  Meals aren't healthy for kids and the toys are marketed specifically to draw children in, and beg and nag their parents  to take them to McDonald's.   CSPI says "even if those Happy Meals appear in advertisements, kids order the unhealthier meals most of the time."

Get ready: {eye roll} {eye roll}

Who the heck is CSPI to be suing anyone over what toys are put with what fast food meals?  Is Burger King any better?

Dear CSPI,

Instead of filing frivolous lawsuits and wasting the time and money of the court systems and the people who fund them, why don't you try growing a set of gonads and just saying "NO" to your child? 

You can't parent for everyone else in the world, though your efforts are admirable. Certainly we've all felt the urge to parent for those who should have been sterilized at birth (were such a thing possible) due to their lack of judgement and brains.

However, such things being what they are, we can only control ourselves, and to a limited extent, our own brood. 

That being said, if you can say "NO" to your own child, you can be smugly assured that your child, at least, will be eating healthy meals and not playing with cheap plastic toys that are geared toward mass marketing efforts to further encourage your child to force you to take out a loan so you can escort him/her to the movies to view the characters portrayed in these pieces of plastic on the big screen.

It's something we often don't want our children to do, during those golden moments of childhood, but I'm going to say it to you, CSPI: GROW UP. 

YOU are the parent.  YOU have the car keys.  YOU have the checkbook.  YOU have the power to SAY NO.  So start saying it.  Oh, and if you don't like the mass marketing bit, then turn off the damned television.

DUH.

Sincerely,

MomCrusades - (and any other parent or conglomerate who is tired of others insisting that everyone else parent our children and make our decisions)

 
photos: cgi.ebay.com (dolls, cars)
             eatthiscity.com (WTF pic)
             johntracy.com (cheeseburger)
             golf.qwowi.com (golf balls)