Parental responsibility

This morning, my wonderful 2 little boys slept in for me. Well, that isn't entirely true -- R is either teething or going through a growth spurt, so he was up at 12:30 and 5:00, but both R and L were sound asleep from 6:30 when I got up until I left for work at about 7:45. This provided me with ample opportunity to watch the Today show. Do you know that it is exactly one year until the 2008 Olympics? Yeah, I didn't realize that either until this morning.

While I was watching the Today show I caught snippets of this whole McDonald's taste testing thing that I guess was recently released. The story is here, but the basic gist is that kids think that food packaged by McD tastes better. Same fries, different packaging, and the kids preferred the McD packaging.

Also, included in that news report was some woman who started blathering on about McD's responsiblity and how their marketing is actually effecting the taste of foods and how they are "physically altered by the marketing" and that they are making our kids fat. OK -- I am sorry, but WHAT THE HELL are they talking about.

THIS is the crap that annoys me with today's society/parents. Now it is McD's fault that kids like their fries better or that kids want to eat their food instead of mom's "baked" french fries. WHY is this news? Let me tell you something, I ALWAYS thought McD's fries tasted better than my mom's (sorry mom) and probably always will, but I knew from an early age they were a TREAT. If I wanted to eat fries, 9 times outta 10 I was getting Mom's fries and not McD's -- and trust me RARELY did I get something that I WANTED to eat. If I didn't eat mom's fries or whatever food it was that was served for dinner, then I 1) sat there until my plate was clean or 2) didn't get anything else to eat the rest of the night. Period, end of story.

You know what -- guess what little boys are going to be raised the exact same way? Because it WORKS.

Yes, L is well aware of Dunkin Donuts and what their packaging looks like. He FREAKS if he sees it and will whine and complain until he gets a donut, but it is a once a week thing. I don't worry about it since the majority of his diet is made up of fruits and vegetables. His breakfast yesterday -- omelet with fresh tomatoes from our garden, sliced cucumber from our garden and a whole wheat pancake with blueberries (none of which I can really take credit for because The Wife was doing the cooking)-- so one donut on Sunday mornings isn't going to kill the kid. But that is exactly what it is. ONE donut, ONCE a week AT MAX. And I am not going to pretend that it is Dunkin Donuts' fault. It is MY fault. I am his parent and I introduced him to donuts. Ya' know why? Because I like them and I like to get them on Sunday mornings (my hips don't particularly agree, but hey, I am still feeding R, so I need the extra calories).

Needless to say, there, is again another call to have McD's restrict their advertising to kids. Insane, assinine and POINTLESS. Not for nothing, I don't get why people think that a corporation like McD's can mold their kids into fry hungry monsters. So what if they like McD's fries better. I think most people would agree that they ARE better. The problems arise when YOU as parents ALLOW your child to control this. So what if they don't LIKE what you are feeding them -- are they going to starve themselves? No, they aren't, especially at the age of 2, 3, 4, etc. Is it HARDER to raise a child who has good eating habits rather than give into their every whim -- of COURSE it is. But what the hell do you think you signed up for when you had a child. It is rough to raise a good child.

And it sure as hell isn't McD's fault that kids like their fries more than moms.

Not to mention -- these are the same parents who are throwing a fit that NYC is banning free formula because "I am an adult and I can CHOSE how to feed my kid" blah blah blah. So it isn't the formula company's fault when you chose to FF, but it IS McD's fault when you kid only wants to eat their fries???? (*shrugs*). That makes tons of sense.