Opinion: Happy Meal Toy Ban Is Just Plain Sad

It is, to those of us from a previous generation, true that the food choices belong to the parent. Unfortunately, as a quick service restaurant employee, I note that the children are in charge, or so it would appear. Parents do not decide what or where their children eat. The children scream and stomp and demand, and the parents buckle. Pity.

I agree that to get rid of the toys is not the answer, because again the parent is the adult here and it is up to the parent to say yes or no but Mc
Donald's is trying to help with offering better foods, if you want your kid to eat better give him or her a happy meal with the hamburger, apple slices and milk.

That is exactly right....the prize usually cost like $1 or $2 and buy the healthier item on the menu...no one said you had to buy the Happy Meal to get the toy. So to BAN THE TOY because parents are just in need to blame someone instead of themself...come on...lets all be real. My daughter and her friends love salads. If a child is introduced to a certain way of eating....they don't know anything else.

This is only for the people that voted for Obama. They are so stupid they need the government to tell them how to feed and care for their children. Get used to it.

Santa Clara is in Kalifournia. We should ask Ahnold for his adwice.
Grass is Ok, but not a meal ?

I think this decision is sad. Unfortunately some parents do abuse fast food but thankfully I did not. My boys are now 18 and 16 and just on Mother's Day were sharing their fondest memories with me and some of those were cold winter nights when new Disney movies came out, I would have rented the movie and then we went through the McD's or BK drive thru and bought the kids meal that had the toy that represented the new movie and had a picnic on our living room floor. We had lots of fun remembering those and other days.

Having said that, my kids only got kids meals (happy meals) rarely. Otherwise, we ate at home or had healthy picnics. Seriously, even at the nicest, most expensive restaurants that DON"T offer toys, you can eat some of the richest, fatest, unhealthiest foods.

Parents need to control what and how often they treat their kids, not the govt. What's next banning legos because they don't promote exercise??

There are more morons per square mile in CA than anywhere else. So why is anyone surprised? They actually hire lawyers to make SURE all their laws are based on superstition and mis-information because who, after all, is lower than a lawyer?

Exactly! Most McDonald's will sell the toy separately. What's the big deal? Parents that can't control what the kiddies eat?! Start using the word "NO" in your vocabulary. Stop wimping out! Maybe McDonald's should must move out of Santa Clara County instead of being "controlled" by stupid laws?

Its not the toy, its the way that no one can go play outside like when we were kids. Its the way that both parents work (some do it because they are selfish jerks, and some do it because they really need the money), and no one is around to watch the kids.
They do sit in front of video games, that contributes to fatness, that and all the additives in the foods in general. Parents need to learn to cook from scratch again, that will solve a LOT of the fatty issues today. Salt is a major contributor. Next time you buy a 'healthy' frozen mean, look at the sodium content.

Just another smarmy bunch of useless bay area intellectuals making yet another law that proves to the world that they, for all their book smarts, haven't got a lick of sense, common or otherwise. It's also another example of why California and indeed our very own government is in financial trouble because they continue to spend money on non-productive endeavors and people that do absolutely nothing tangible. For the time wasted drafting and discussing this bill all of those people could have been doing something really productive like building something or better yet getting out on the highway picking up litter. DUMBASSES!

How right you are. I volunteer at an elementry school and the lunches are horrible. The only ones that eat most of them are the kids that are overweight. They have a habit of eating everything. I just think we could do a better job with the kids at home. Most of it is that they don't get enough exercise. I have 5 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren, none of them are obese. They don't sit and watch tv or are on the computer all the time they are home. They go outside and do things together. The parents that work hard long hours have a habit of stopping and bringing home pizza, mc donalds, burgerking and other fast food. This way they don't have to cook and have time to do other things. "They usually eat so late, and that doesn't help either.

Yeah, I am tired of it too. I don't think that we need to legislate food choices, its a shame. Although keep in mind that california really IS full of nutbags and crazies, those nazi ideas might move east.
Then again many parents have only themselves to blame for this mess. Maybe its the guilt from ditching the kids for work too often.
Whiny kids that get their way all the time. Then if you spank them you get arrested, however its the parents (libtards) that say spanking is "bad" so parents end up letting their stinky whiny kids get their way.( no no junior, you cannot have that toy. no no junior stop crying. there lets have a 'time out' . ok now we buy meal with toy and extra fries on the side.)


:/

It hasn't helped any when the government no longer requires PE classes and is afraid to let children play like they always have because they may be hurt and the school will be sued. Also, soft drinks and snacks and lunches high in fat are not good either. If people would use their head, it would make things improve.

...I agree...my grandkids don't eat there because they are veg's...but i stop and buy the toys...however...I ate McDonalds many times...I think people over eat and that's what causes the weight gain..and ..our kids are in front of the computer and snacking..My kids are in their 30's, when they were young they were all over our town and riding bikes....you can't let your kids do that now.There are too many evil people ready to grab them.I would put them in more physical activities like track,soccer...

Go girl!! Well put.

Amber Morrisey, of Birth Routes Doula Services