Suing McDonalds

[curly_kate]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128010715#commentBlock

I heard this story this morning, and it made me so mad! Not at McDonalds, mind you, but at the food police. Personally, I think McDonalds serves almost-food at best, but it infuriates me that parents aren't expected to say no to their precious little snowflakes every once in a while. When I was a kid, McDonalds was a rare treat, and I NEVER got the Happy Meal (way too expensive, and Mom didn't want us coming home with more worthless plastic crap). She never had a problem saying no. Also, even tho we did see the commercials, etc, we were not conscripted "into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers" because my parents taught us that commercials were B.S., and that we should NOT believe what we saw on TV because things were never really what they seemed. And if we did get sucked in, we had to save up our own allowance (earned from chores, mind you) to buy whatever junk we'd decided we'd wanted.

 

[abifae]

Did you know kids quit nagging if they realize your no means no?

lol

This attitude of parents is why I despise children. They're nasty little poops because their parents don't know how to set limits and then they turn into the adults I most despise, thinking they are entitled to whatever they want, not understanding the world has consequences, and doing stupid poop like suing McDonald's over happy meal toys.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

you have GOT to be kidding me

 

[ksalvagno]

Sounds like someone who is trying to get money for doing nothing. I bet this group doesn't even care about kids. It is about making money off these companies so they don't actually have to work for a living. But, the courts allow this kind of thing and too many people win money who don't deserve it.

 

[SKR8PN]

The LAWYERS are as much to blame as "The Center for Science in the Public Interest ".


What do you call a sinking cruise ship full of lawyers?

A good start.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

What abi said. All except for the part about despising children. I don't feel they can be held responsible for what their parents do. Or don't do. The parents on the other hand Part of raising kids is telling them no and meaning it when they beg for crap they don't need, or stuff that is bad for them.

This is another reason we don't have a TV connection. If you don't let your kids get bombarded by commercials, they won't want as much stuff.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

wow!

"At some point parents get worn down," Jacobson says. "They don't always want to be saying no to their children. We feel like an awful lot of parents would be relieved if this one pressure was removed from them."

just so's ya know.. there were 4 of us kids in my family. we probably wore my parents down...and they still told us no all the time.

i musta been in the back seat of that car with curlykate... we were always told it was too expensive also. and we did not argue with my parents. "because i said so" was a valid reason.

its amazing we survived such rough treatment. wow.

 

[mandieg4]

:/ The world would be a much better place if parents would grow up and be parents instead of sheep.

 

[Wifezilla]

Agreed.

If I told my kids no and they bugged me, there were SERIOUS consequences. Sometimes it was a smack on the butt. Sometimes it was no play time or extra chores. The point is if they know no means no at an early age, they tend not to drive you too nutty when they get older.

The kids who never got that lesson are the ones you see in court once they are teens.

 

[murphysranch]

Tell me about it. I've got two grandchildren here last week and this - 8 and 4.5 years old. I;m not sure my sanity would survive a month with them, but at least I've got them saying Please and thank you, and Please would you, Grammy, do....

My daughter and her husband are pushovers. I was in WalMart with DD last week, meeting half way from San Jose to pick up these beasts....er darling grandchildren. The Baby, at 13 months, screamed at the top of his lungs - not crying but blood curdling screams. My DD said "no baby" about three times and gave up. If it had been during my time, I would have clamped my hand over his mouth, giving him the sternest look and meanest voice. And when he did it again, there would be a crying 13 month old who might never scream again. I was embarrased by my DD behavior and walked ahead of her, pretending I didn't know who they were.

As for being in that station wagon when the word was "NO", I too was one of four. And I swear my parents arms would extend all the way back to the very back seat of the Olds Vistacruiser.