Re: Junk food foes to McDonald's: Retire Ronald!

Posted by CupcakeLady

People will blame everything and anything they can, but in reality it's the responsibility of parents to make sure their children are eating correctly. When I was a kid, fast food was a treat reserved for long road trips (and even then, we'd bring food for day one, and *maybe* stop at McDonalds for dinner one night). We rode bikes, ran around outside. My brother and I were healthy weights. Ronald existed.

My husband's cousin feeds her kids fast food night and day--she has a gorgeous kitchen, but refuses to cook unless it's ramen noodles. The extent of their exercise is moving their thumbs on the Xbox controllers. They're all under 15 and overweight. I'm sure Ronald is to blame.

Re: Junk food foes to McDonald's: Retire Ronald!

Posted by annoyedTTCer

Posted by CupcakeLady

People will blame everything and anything they can, but in reality it's the responsibility of parents to make sure their children are eating correctly. When I was a kid, fast food was a treat reserved for long road trips (and even then, we'd bring food for day one, and *maybe* stop at McDonalds for dinner one night). We rode bikes, ran around outside. My brother and I were healthy weights. Ronald existed.

My husband's cousin feeds her kids fast food night and day--she has a gorgeous kitchen, but refuses to cook unless it's ramen noodles. The extent of their exercise is moving their thumbs on the Xbox controllers. They're all under 15 and overweight. I'm sure Ronald is to blame.

i think your username is to blame

Message edited 5/19/2011 4:09:38 PM.

Re: Junk food foes to McDonald's: Retire Ronald!

Posted by jerseypanda

Growing up, if it was a nice day outside my mom would literally kick me and my brother out of the house! She would tell us it was a beautiful day... go outside and play. And we spent hours running around outside.

I think the thinking that Ronald McDonald as a mascot or the toys in a happy meal being linked to childhood obesity are ridiculous.

I also believe that times are different today that are causing our children to not be outside as much. Growing up we were in a neighborhood where all the neighborhood kids would just run around from one house to the next and our parents were not worried. They knew that all the other parents were watching out for each other's children. I don't think it's the same today. Now you have more parents working, more crazy people out there that have parents scared. Hence, less children running free outside for hours. I also think the increase in technology is not helping... although we had Atari and Nintendo when I was growing up... but our PARENTS monitored how much we were allowed to use it.

I think there are many factors contributing to childhood obesity ... NONE of which are Ronald McDonald and happy meal toys. Parents need to own up and take responsibility for their kids instead of trying to pass the buck. Even if they got rid of Ronald McDonald and the happy meal toys... there is still going to be childhood obesity because nobody has addressed the real problem.