Mc Donalds Revisited

I don't think that with or with out the toy my kids would eat any more or less than what they do.

When we go to a fast food MAYBE once a month its a treat for them. I seen someone put they can have the toy with apples and juice... well we have that at home. We don't have fries and they don't get sprite at home.. all goes along with getting the treat. I don't think they are distracted by the toy to eat like they should. We have a 40-45 min drive home... by the time they get home they have eaten what they are going to eat while playing with their toy. If they are still hungry by the time we get home, they come in and finish thier food.. or we throw it away if they are done.

As far as my older kids.. they all stopped asking for a happy meal around 7/8. When they realized that they don't like the toy or they have different sandwiches that they like better on the menu.

You know, I had to think about this one for awhile.

I think for us, it wasn't about the food OR the toy. It was about the EXPERIENCE. The treat. The break from routine. All our local McDonald's had PlayPlaces so it was about the FUN.

Remember FUN?

In fact, I did not even require them to eat BEFORE they could go play. Makes no sense. "Sit down and finish your fat, cholesterol, and sodium, before you go do that healthy fun physical exercise thing, dammit!"

We rarely go anymore, not even through the drivethru. Like you I cook a lot too, they'd rather have my seared tuna than McNuggets now.

However a couple times a year, we get a hankering, so when that happens, we all marvel at how FANTASTIC the garbage food can really be! And FUN!

Anyway, I think they grew out of the TOYS long before they grew out of the standard Happy Meal.

:)

WAIT! I'd also like to say with regards to the obesity issue, King Henry the 3rd certainly did not obtain his tremendous gerth from McDonald's French Fries! (A fave saying of our ped)

I myself do! If i want mcdonalds i get the happy meal so I can give my daughter the toy

My boys haven't really cared about the toys. They like it when it's Transformers. Right now it's Bakugan - and they still like Bakugan but they won't order a Happy Meal for it. IF I feel they have earned a toy - then I will buy it for them...ours here in VA isn't .10cents - we are charged $1.99 for toys...

No, J.. I don't think the lack of the toy will make kids eat more. This is a CHOICE parents and people make. No one is forcing ANYONE to go to McDonald's, Burger King, et al.

The health problems that face our children today - aren't from eating McDonald's - it's from lack of healthy meals prepared at home by parents...
parents taking the easy way out instead of FIXING a meal...parents don't make their kids go outside and play either....parents are too busy trying to be friends instead of parents.

This is government interfering with private lives at it's finest.
McDonald's is a BUSINESS - they worked around it. GOOD FOR THEM!!

Well, in my case it won't have much impact on my kid, because we eat there so rarely and he thinks the Happy Meals and Toys are for babies and toddlers--which they are--which is the POINT.

If parents are at a place in their lives where the presence of a toy is going to impact the overall intake and health of their child(ren) perhaps they have bigger fish to fry?

We go once in a while, mostly when we are traveling. When my daughter wants the toys that they are offering I will take her and just buy the extra toys. They had Strawberry Shortcake this summer and I would go there without her just to get the toy. I have never had someone at McDonalds tell me I couldn't buy just the toys.
Also, my daughter only eats the apples, apple juice and chicken nuggets. (She doesn't always eat the chicken). She does not like burgers and will not eat French fries or ice cream. I figure once in a while is OK, it's not like we are there every night.

It would honestly never occur to me to tell my kids they couldn't order something else if they were hungry. Usually, if my kids are still hungry they begin eating my food. The joke in our family has always been that the parents don't order too much food. They order a little bit, then wait and see if the kids will finish their food or not. If they eat all of theirs and are still hungry or I'm still hungry, we go get more food.

Actually, my understanding of the ban was that toys could still be offered free in happy meals, as long as they were ordered with apples and milk instead of fries and soda.

I don't mind either way, though - my kids don't care much for the toy. It gets played with for maybe the afternoon, and then usually ends up thrown away a little while later. I held off giving them the McDonald's toys as long as possible - let's just say, it wasn't me who introduced them to the concept. Like others have said, fast food isn't about the food or the extras, it's about the experience.

Even if they did eat less food so that they could get the toy, that would be okay. I read somewher that when McDonald's opened, the standard meal that people generally ordered had about the same calories as a Happy Meal does today. A soda twenty years ago was 7 oz; today, a Happy Meal soda is 12. We could probably all stand to get the Happy Meal instead of a Value Meal.

I get a happy meal because the servings are appropriate and it contains the foods that the kids like to eat with no hassles.

Does the toy impact whether we buy it or not??? Not one tiny little bit.

If we want a happy meal we get a happy meal, regardless.

We go occasionally and I ask my kids if they want a grumpy meal.. It is the mini meal deal and they are fine with it. The drink is a little bigger, and there is no toy. It may even cost less. They are perfectly fine with it.