The owners of this site have children. They are trim and healthy. Every couple of weeks, they go to McDonald’s in New York City for a Happy Meal. Once they know they are going there, they get very excited because in their meal will be a small, high quality toy. It makes us, as parents, happy, too, because the kids get to eat something they enjoy and the new toy puts smiles on their faces. All that happiness for about five bucks a child! What’s better than that?
About a week ago, New York City councilman Leroy Comrie, Jr. introduced legislation to ban toys from certain kids’ meals at fast food chains. The toys would be banned from meals that don’t meet the nutritional and calorie requirements outlined in the legislation. A bill similar to, but less strict than the New York City one passed last year in San Francisco.
The rationale behind the NYC bill is that the toys in some instances are rewarding kids for making poor food choices. Do children make food choices? Children make food requests. Adults make choices for the children. Sometimes, parents don’t mind that their child eats a fatty, high calorie kid’s meal at a fast food chain. So this argument for the legislation doesn’t hold much water. Whatever happened to personal responsibility in the United States? What happened to the responsibility of parents for their children? You know, about 8 years ago, a group of obese kids sued McDonald’s on the premise that the restaurant made them fat. At that time, the case was laughed out of court.
What has changed in our country that legislators are introducing bills like this, and that they are actually getting passed? Why are we in a trending toward attacking the provider of the product who is open and honest about what they are selling, not the parents who should be monitoring their children?
What do you think about this? We want to know. Click here, or the comments link to let us know what you think.
Since when are corporations open and honest? However, parents seem content on helping their kids choose bad habits. My observation of families in their 30s and 40s suggests that they don't cook, so fast food is the only option.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWe can't legislate people's health. If a person chooses to give their kids McDonald's or eat it themselves, it's their business. What next? Are we going to go after Nabisco or other companies that make food and snacks that appeal to kids?
ReplyDeleteThe government need to KEEP THE FUCK out of every little thing people do!!
ReplyDelete