Take your kids to Maccas with pride

Steve S says:

08:20am | 28/08/09

An excellent article.  Without wishing to be seen as depositing uric acid in your pocket, virtually every item that you write appears to hit a chord with me, provided you don’t allude to a friend’s sms etc.  You don’t neccesarily express politically incorrect views, just pure common sense and thank God you’re back doing so in the Tele every Wednesday. I much prefer you as a columnist as opposed to an editor.

Adam Dennis says:

08:30am | 28/08/09

I too spent most of my days away from the watchful parental eyes, doing mad and often inadvisable things in the semi-bush setting of my metro fringe suburb. A Sydney friend of mine recently expressed his worry about his boy not being able to expend his energy much as you did as a kid. The concern is about too many hours on the computer. My observation was that as they live in a third-floor apartment in a very urbanised area, the lad has limited opportunities for going out and raising hell without getting into serious trouble. Most kids don’t have a national park to ride through, so ... what’s the solution?

I agree with your premise but I worry that the weekly macattack easily becomes bi-weekly and more ... and the family doesn’t have the time to spend the day at the park with a kite or footy. There’s a huge challenge here, and it deserves a bit solution; but not a government-imposed one. Whole suburbs of adults and kids need to get together and brainstorm answers, work out how the kids can have the freedoms they need to exercise and develop healthily without necessarily being supervised all the time. Crack this problem and the concerns about junk food with dissolve like ten grams of sugar in the bloodstream of an active eight year old.

Rudy B says:

08:49am | 28/08/09

Having just returned from the states, and seeing a documentary on what went into “Mickey-D’s”  (months of) testing and perfecting the new Angus line of burgers, I wholeheartedly degree. I dont think Jamie, NIgella and Gordon combined could have spent so long and so much on getting a burger “just right”. Theres something weird about as much research going into a burger as going into a cure for cancer. Give me a cheeseburger any day.

On another note, I cant wait for Hungry Jacks/Burger King to bring out their latest offering in the states here - Apple Fries!!  Apples sliced to look like regular fries and served in the familiar fries cup (there is not actual frying involved). Caramel dipping sauce included, of course. Where will it end?

Ron says:

09:24am | 28/08/09

Notice how it’s invariably McDonalds that are exclusively in the firing line? Even after the release of salads, deli choice, apple slices, that the knockers want to keep knocking. They could offer McSouffle or McSushi, but it has nothing to do with the health content of the food. It is the same tired old anti-capitalist (S11 and G20 in Melbourne - what were the first outlets that were targeted with egg pelting and staff intimidation?), elitist, snobbery that lumps junk food together with all the new-age ‘guilty pleasures’ such as turning on a light bulb or watering a plant.

jonathan says:

09:32am | 28/08/09

good article penbo.
the “obesity epidemic” has two very simple solutions: eat less, move more.
too many fat kids doing nothing, too many fat parents doing nothing with their kids.  too many fat people buying gym memberships they never use while they drive the 2kms to the shop to buy their fat fast food.  too many fatties buying 24 packs of coke for their fat kids to wash down their cheezels with.
Obesity isn’t a disease: it’s laziness pure and simple.

Peter says:

09:39am | 28/08/09

Pembo, as usual, hits the mark nicely.

Now on to the next vendetta.  Get rid of that BS “we make it fresh for you” - which is really code for: “you’ll have to wait in line longer than you would at Hungry Jacks to get your meal because we want to reduce our costs in relation to surplus inventory”.

Once, I could go in, they’d pick the pre-made burger off the shelf and I’d be out of there in 60 seconds.  Now, it’s wait, wait, wait, while a queue of Maccas staff forms waiting for ‘their’ burgers’ to come through.

Mick Hogan says:

10:14am | 28/08/09

Spot on. I live in the Blue Mountains and I am a parent. Thanks to the one percenters and the anti democracy we live in, my kids katooomba footy team is sponsored by the Macdonalds 40 kilometers away. The mung bean ferals and the slow food “anti`s”, sponsor nothing for kids. No sport, no culture and absolutely no entry to their shops or “restaurants” Where is the “Mung Bean House”, for families members to sta while loved ones recieve treatment? Where is the feral “holiday retreat” for patients and families of terminally ill kids?

DG says:

11:27am | 28/08/09

Kids are no longer allowed to do anything for fear of breaking an arm or leg, getting a scratch or, god forbid, dirt under their nails. The stuff I managed to survive as a kid would have my parents turned over the Police for prosecution - push-bikes off the end of a jetty at a lake, push-bikes off the end of anything that was followed by a drop of less than 2m (there was one exception from a rock overhang into a river that would have been a good 5m drop, but hey it was fun), swimming, riding all over the place, climbing trees etc and this is from about the age of 10.

Now the riding a bike off the jetty is too dangerous, as is the good ol’ bike jump (a bit of old floor board propped up by a few bricks under one end) - climbing trees is also prohibited and Council parks have nothing more adventurous than a flat grass area (for fear of being sued).

But it’s not just activity that’s being curtailed - I recently saw an advertisement for an alcohol hand was that was suitable for kids. WHAT THE? As a kid I figured I’d washed my hands if it given them a good rub on my shorts (which in all likelihood were just as dirty as my hands).

Perhaps we need a new political party on the front line: The “Let kids be kids” party. With the following policies:
(1) no child under 13 shall do any homework unless they have gone out and had a good kick around with the footy/bike ride etc,
(2) the kicking of a football should be assessable at primary school - as should throwing a netball/basketball, running a lap of the footy field, riding a bike with no hands and backyard cricket,
(3) subsidising local sports clubs for kids (so that they can actually afford to play team sports),
(4) calisthenics every morning before classes start,
(5) kids may only buy junk food from the canteen if they have a note from their teacher confirming that they have participated in the weekly challenge (i.e running 5 laps of the oval, played football for the whole lunch hour)  - the brilliance of this is that the lazy kids can see the good stuff but buy nothing more exciting than celery sticks and slices of apple,
(6) no parent shall prevent a child from stupid behaviour (i.e climbing trees) unless that behaviour is almost certain to be fatal (i.e no taking the radio into the pool) - kids learn from their mistakes, let them make a few.

TDMJ of Canberra says:

04:27pm | 28/08/09

Thank you David.  THANK YOU!  Your post hits the same note as my increasing frustration with the banning of so-called junk food at tuckshops. 

Like DGs childhhood outlined above - back in my day our weekly lunch order from the school tuckshop was a great treat.  Usually on Fridays, you’d happily scrawl a request for a hot dog or sausage roll and a choccie milk all over the front of a brown paper bag, then drop a few coins inside.  Marvellous fun! 

And of course we weren’t obese.  Because we only did this once a week.  Because we didn’t have lazy guilt-ridden parents making up for the lack of time spent with us by throwing us bucket loads to spend on junk every day.  And because we didn’t sit around on our @rses playing computer games and watching (one of only two channels on) the telly. 

Instead we ran amuck until the street lights came on and our parents called us home. Yes, seriously.

Now some brainiac thinks banning such treats at the tuckshop is the way to tackle childhood obesity.  Come ON!  Our kids are getting fatter so it’s obviously not working.  Gee whiz, I can’t wait til my children can trot along to the tuckshop on a Friday to grab their lunch order of a salad wrap, water and portion controlled mini-bag of fruit and nut mix.  Hurrah.

Andy says:

05:42pm | 28/08/09

That Mighty Angus burger is bloody delicious best maccas burger ive ever eaten, get out there and give it a go! but better have a run afterwards.

Julie Coker-Godson says:

06:18pm | 28/08/09

I wrote this blog in response to another article on The Punch but it seems to be quite appropriate for this one.  “I said it at the time and I’ll say it again, that once the wowsers have defeated the smokers, they’ll run out of things to winge about and they’ll start on something else.  We now have the School Lunchbox Police, The School Canteen Police, The Fresh and Healthy Food Police (getting a head of steam up here with food vouchers! Watch out!), the Exercise or Die/be labelled a Sloth Police.  Tell me, how do you exercise while reading a book? Oh!....we are not supposed to undertake sedentary activities…please forgive me…I must go and puff myself out until I’m puce in the face….good girl! Away you go!
I’m sick to death of all these obsessed people trying to dictate to others how to live their lives by using the oldest trick in the book - the guilt complex.  Those who don’t kowtow are a drain on the health system that the healthy do gooders have to pay for.  I resent that line of argument as I believe it is palpably false!  No two researchers can come up with the same results in a report on these issues whether the report comes from USA, the UK, Australia, Canada or anywhere else for that matter.  So my advice to these people is to GIVE IT A BLOODY REST!!!!  PS:  The saying: “Never disturb a sleeping dog” is an excellent one and should be adhered to by these fanatics.

Julian Thomas says:

12:40am | 29/08/09

had the more expensive angus burger today, but in a value meal so paid the same price as the grand
was yummy, but 2360KJ, 50% daily fat content, high in salt too

Jeremy says:

12:10pm | 09/03/12

For snacks my kids love fruit. I think they get it from their dad. They love all kinds and are ylwaas willing to try something new. If we don’t have any fruit they have granola or yogurt. I am much worse at eating sweets for snacks. My 6 year old ylwaas wants to know if something is healthy.For breakfast they usually have cereal and milk or pancakesfor lunch usually banquet tv dinners or leftoversdinner is ylwaas different but a favorite in my house is sausage,eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns and juice.bacon74(at)1stopmom.com