Strollerderby : happy meal

Girl Finds Condom in Her Happy Meal

SunnyChanel — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:30:00 GMT

This story brings a whole different meaning to the term ‘Happy Meal’. A seven-year- old girl in Fribourg, Switzerland made a shocking discovery in her McDonald’s Happy Meal. No it wasn’t a little plastic toy or extra onions on her burger, it was a condom. The prophylactic was buried among the girl’s French fires. The mom promptly called the state police and a investigation is underway to see if there was any health risk by the condom’s presence.

On a level of 1 to 10, how freaked out would you be if you found a condom in your kids' Happy Meal?

Source

Babble Talk: My Daughter Gets Her Happy Ending at McDonald's

JeanneSager — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:30:00 GMT

The first time my daughter started shrieking "happy meal," from the backseat, I didn't know what she was saying. Then I saw the giant billboard. It was Ronald hair red, with a giant golden M in the middle. That's it. "Mommy, it says happy meal!" my daughter yelled again.

Yup, marketing to kids works. So does making your business family friendly. Which is why I recognized our family in Jennifer Blaise Kramer's Bad Parent: Supersize Me. We've stopped fighting the fast food fight, and we're not apologizing.

As a working mom, I have been known to pull into the McDonald's drive through at lunchtime. With more interviews schedule for the afternoon, I can put off my craving for food, but making my daughter starve? That's what I call bad parenting. Unfortunately, I'm not the mom who has a lunchbox full of homemade health food handy when it's time to go in the morning. I'm lucky I remember to take my daughter WITH me some mornings. I keep boxes of raisins and bags of multi-grain snacks in the car to make up for my shortcomings. But when the lunch bell rings, my daughter's tummy starts a rumblin'.

I have a choice. I could stop at a "real restaurant." I could spend an hour or more sitting there while the waitresses glare at the two of us taking up a table with our meager meal, while my daughter decides she'll eat ketchup and only ketchup and I cajole her to try a little bit of chicken salad. They know my tip isn't going to be big because we didn't eat big. I could sit for 30 minutes before they take my order, another 20 before our food arrives while my daughter gets fiestier minute by hungry minute. The crayons in my purse can only keep her quiet so long, and explaining "busy kitchen" to a 3-year-old is as easy as it sounds. What about those raisins? We could, I suppose, but that would mean a full tummy - and I just order a $10 entree that I'd hope she'd eat.

Mickey D's is looking better every second. With its apple slices that one commentor on Kramer's piece protests have been peeled of all their nutritious value. Hmm. Crappy apples or making her wait an extra two hours for lunch. Not a tough decision.

Ironically, I don't eat at McDonald's myself. Not because I'm turning up my nose at the grease, but because I'm a vegetarian. But this vegetarian has found herself turning more and more toward fast food chains since I became a parent. With a dire need for caffeine and a child who likes sleeping in the backseat, I face the choice of leaving her in car care, schlepping a cranky toddler in and out of the carseat or a smooth ride through the drive through. Ronald, the King, Wendy, Dunkin' know just how I like it.

I'm comfortable with the choice because my daughter still shrieks with delight at a McDonald's sign. It's still a treat. It's still new. She still gets excited. And why shouldn't she? They have a playground and boxes of juice Mommy doesn't get to water down. They have colorful boxes for her food with pictures to pop out and mazes to draw in. And you can't forget the toys.

The places we frequent as a family, the Greek restaurant with the to-die-for spinach pie and the creamy hummus, the Chinese place with the veggie lo mein and the pork fried rice, they're the spots where Mommy and Daddy willingly fork over the small amount set aside for a young family dining out in this economy. They're her "nothing special places," like the "nothing special" yogurt she can get any morning or the "nothing special" boxes of raisins in the backseat.

It's when McDonald's fails to excite her that I'll worry about my parenting.

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Nasty Surprise in McDonalds Burger

Brett Singer — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Call it a Not So Happy Meal. Or a Crappy Meal. Or… oh, whatever.

A woman went to the McDonald's drive-thru and ordered a bunch of Happy Meals for her kids. When one of them bit into her cheeseburger, she got a little surprise:

In this picture, you can see the two pieces against a white piece of paper. The little yellowish spot toward the top is the cheese that was on it when my daughter pulled it out of her mouth (yak, yak). This was in her cheeseburger! She could have choked. She could have broke her braces on this. If it had been one of my younger kids, they could have easily choked. How the heck does something like this get ON the cheeseburger? I don't even know what this is. It is smooth on one side and rough on the other.

I haven't eaten at McDonald's since reading "Fast Food Nation." While I agree that the politics of beef and the way that fast food companies do business are often despicable, the most nauseating passages in the book describe how the food is handled. Obviously, something that shouldn't be there could get into any food that you didn't make yourself; I know someone who found a spider in a container of applesauce and received 10 cases of the stuff from the manufacturer. But Mickey D's food is pretty vile, so its probably better to just avoid it altogether (although the fries are really tasty; those I miss a little bit.) As one commenter on the site says, "There are many good reasons to keep away from McDonalds; this is just one of them." So: stay away for the health reasons; stay FAR away for the little "surprises" in your burger.

Image/Source: stepfamilysanctuary.com

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