Apparently it takes a lot to get me to write anything on the blog these days, and by a lot, I mean a woman in California who has decided to sue McDonald’s for – get this – putting toys in their Happy Meals. Happy Meals, you may remember, are the meals that children get at the home of the big yellow “M,” and children, you may remember, are the little people among us who like to play with toys.
Seems this woman’s kids have gotten a bit too much food lately at McDonald’s because she keeps buying them food from the fast food restaurant that isn’t nutritious, which begs the question: why does she keep buying them food that may be bad for them, and why so much of it? According to the lawsuit, the mother insists that McDonald’s “uses toys as bait to induce her kids to clamor to go to McDonald’s.”
Wow.
“What kids see as a fun toy, I now realize is a sophisticated, high-tech marketing scheme that’s designed to put McDonald’s between me and my daughters,” said Monet Parham, of Sacramento, Calif. “For the sake of other parents and their children, I want McDonald’s to stop interfering with my family.”
Double wow.
I don’t know about you, but don’t most kids “clamor” to do things that they might not need to? Um, have you ever been to the check-out at a grocery store, or the concession stand at a movie theater? Lots of clamoring happens there, too, but I’m not sure suing the theater for offering candy is the solution. Probably having a quick parenting class on how to tell your children “no” might be a much better step toward a solution.
If this lady wants to win a lawsuit that basically says to the world “I don’t know how to raise my children in a healthy way, so I sued a fast food joint that has shiny toys,” So be it. Not me, though. McDonald’s won’t be raising my children, because the last time I checked, I’m still the one handing the money to the fry-giver behind the counter.
Un – freaking – believable.
