For most conscientious parents in the Western world it is an accomplishment if you successfully shelter your kids from the commercial world. I mean, realistically if they don’t know what McDonalds is by the time they are say 2, you have really gotten away with something! My daughter (4 ) recognizes logos, stores etc. She watches PBS television, we don’t support chain stores or fast food until a recent trip where we truly had no other choice but to get her a Filet of fish and french fries. She still refers to this as the ‘French Fry Store” and we perpetuate the myth by agreeing. I live with guilt and terror at my moment of weakness & my lack of creativity…
My horror and confirmation of the institution that is McDonalds was renewed for life with this one experience. Upon asking for a cup for water I was told McDonalds no longer offers water to it’s customers. To my disbelief I went to the soda machine to check, and it was sadly true. The water tap was gone, no longer could one of the richest & most vulgar fast food institutions offer their “customers” water. Instead, I was told that I could purchase a bottle of water. This magnificent plastic landfill bottle was a pint of Dasani, which is of course a Coca Cola product. So now do they not only charge you for water, it is not in a biodegradable wax cup and I was then told I could order a happy meal & get milk instead. Had I done so, I would have also gotten another plastic landfill toy.
I am by no means a trendy Politically Correct type. I do reason with my child with regards to requests for plastic toys,. When she asks she has been given the explaination and now, when she asks for one I prompt her with “where do the toys go when you are done with them?” she says, “the landfilll” that without failure concludes our conversation and any further requests. The same has now to be applied to requests for the French Fry store. That one experience at the age of 3 was so powerful that she still asks when we are near a McDonalds. The power and draw so great that a year later she remembers. Not only because her mother went on a rant over the lack of water, but what she ate, how it tasted, the whole experience forever etched in her impressionable little brain.
Some of you reading this may think, what’s the big deal? If I create a denial of something, naturally the child will want it more? Every time my child requests I give her a better, more enticing alternative. For example, how about instead we go to the market and you get to choose whatever you like for lunch & we have a car picnic? My point is, there are many alternatives to provide to challenge the “norm”. As I write this rant, I regret we had little choice on our travels that day, thanks to complacency, accepting the norm and not challenging changes we don’t agree with, McDonalds may soon be your only option. I know that my experience was magnified by the whole paying for water thing. I expect to do so in other countries but not in the U.S.A. the land of milk & honey, plenty and GROSS consumerism. I’ll be damned if I have to pay for water! I publicly vow from here on out, I WILL NEVER cross the threshold of a McDonalds again.
I urge you to ponder all of the choices you make. From the food choices, to where and how you buy your children’s clothing, toys etc. and where it goes when you are finished with it? Because despite myself, your children will influence mine and that horrifies me if you are not thinking!!!