transformers 2
I presently live in a country that does not have any McDonald’s outlets. I had to check online to find out the current theme for the 1/4 pound of plastic that kids get with their cholestafest.
Happy Meal Toys are bad. I’m not going to mince words the way they mince cow body parts. Giving kids a toy with their meal seems like a recipe for an eating disorder. Paying people in Asia a pittance to design and produce a toy that has some fleeting pop culture significance but that will last for a thousand years is absurd. Sometimes they don’t even do a very good job.
The worst thing about happy meal toys is that they teach small children that acquiring plastic crap is a good thing. It’s not a good thing and the young children that are getting these toys today are eventually going to have to deal with plastic waste along with a host of other negative environmental impacts of human activity. The dad who wrote the blog post in the above link said that his kid played with her toy for 30 seconds before she got tired of it. 30 seconds of entertainment? A single use plastic shopping bag could entertain a kid that long (BUT THEY ARE NOT TOYS)
I seem to remember these toys being optional and I certainly hope that McDonald’s employees ask before putting them in the box. Just say no to plastic toys at fast food restaurants.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Well said. One of the hardest things about our trash-free month (see the blog), has been trying to wean the kids off of the plastic toys. It seems that almost every “goody-bag” at a birthday party is filled with tiny plastic crap that is created to be used for 5 minutes and then discarded.
Keep up the good work!
July 7th, 2009 at 5:47 am
Toys four Toys, United Way, Salvation Army the Empty stocking fund are some I have heard about. If you get Medicaid go to DFACS and see if they have any resources. But last year we did not get hyped up about the gifts, we baked and did a whole bunch of Christmas activities (which included a Spider-man tree) Go to (Familyfun.com, Playhousedisney.com and do a basic search on fun crafts and Christmas ideas). Go to the lightings and check your chamber of commerce or GoCityKids.com for free activities and the library normally has really cool story times based on Christmas with free crafts.The mall has free pics with Santa.The schools have free plays and so do the performing Arts Centers and thee kids absorb such things.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
The fast food employees do not ask if we want the toys, but we make sure to tell them to keep it.
I find it unbelievable that the fast food employees, as well as my own mother, act like I am crazy for not wanting the toys that, as I say, are used for a day and then end up in the landfill.