Toying with the Rules

I remember taking my kids to McDonald’s and buying them Happy Meals. Does that make me a bad mother? Apparently it does in San Francisco.

The city has proposed an ordinance that would ban toys with unhealthy meals. And according to their tastes…Happy Meals are Unhealthy with a capital “U.”

“They” say that the toy is used to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health and “it is a creepy and predatory practice that warrants injunction.” Whoa. I would hardly consider a Happy Meal creepy. A toy with a burger is far less creepy than...Ronald McDonald himself.

I remember when Big C was 18 months old…she had enough language skills to tell me to remove the clown statue from the shelf in her room. When I took a good look at it…I agreed. What was I thinking? The large plastered smile of the clown looked so sinister. She was afraid of the clown…and apparently so are a lot people.

They even have a name for it…Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns…which is one of the top ten phobias…right after fear of giving a speech in your underwear.

Clowning around...by intentionally inflicting pain…while maintaining a painted smile...is frightening. So why stop there? Why not pull the red nose off of Ronald himself?

Anywhooooooooooo…….

The proposed ordinance would allow toys to be sold with children’s meals only if they had: fewer than 600 calories, fewer than 640 milligrams of sodium, less than 35 percent of calories from fat, and less than 10 percent saturated fat. That leaves out even their most nutritious Happy Meal: chicken nuggets, apple slice, and milk…37 percent of its calories come from fat.

Maybe San Fran should stop their clowning around and stop toying with all the rules.

Just in….New to the McDonalds Menu:
The Obama Value Meal
"Order anything you want…and have the guy in line behind you…pay for it."