I just realised where I've been going wrong

[Lilka]

All these years. The real reason my children had settling in difficulties, have attachment difficulties and frankly appalling table manners...

...is that I chose/choose McDonalds as my fast food chain of choice:

Bollocks. Why was I kept in the dark? Someone should have told me. Like PAS. They have a reponsibility to us.

If only I'd known all DD2 needed to learn to share food was to be presented with a massive family sized bucket of delicious chicken. Smiles all round as I eat it in front of her!

Thank you Lilka, I am going out tomorrow to buy the biggest bucket so we can all learn to share and get on in this house. BOY do we need it right now!

God I saw this advert last night. I didn't know where to start. I still don't.
But you're right - you should totally put in a formal complaint to PAS for not telling you about the power of the bargain bucket.

Do you think it's too late for us to benefit from the amazing power of learning to share, not to mention creating instant familial harmony? LO cried all the way home from nursery today because another girl started reading the book she'd been reading twenty minutes earlier and had abandoned If only I hadn't given her pasta for supper, but had turned to fried chicken, think of the happy pollyanna evening we could have spent. Is there a bad mother emoticon?

I lolled mightily at this advert. "Give him time" the sw suggests. No, the adoptive parents know what it takes: KFC. Poof, magic: model son.

Fantastic ad, and god bless KFC. I just wish the chickens were treated better.

Wow, err, umm, what was that?

KFC and adoption/ fostering - natural bedfellows, obviously!

Erm. What?? That's the bizarre.
The handshake, the bargain bucket, the suitcase. I'm speechless!

I wonder if the parents at the school gates and the know it all PE teacher will tell me to start feeding the kids KFC to make it work.

I do also love the idea of fostering that nice calm slightly shy bioy arrives aged around 8. Has a KFC and goes to the beach and hey presto - stays with foster carers for the next 10 years without being moved and comes back for Sunday lunch with his pregnant wife with a shiney halo around her blonde hair.

It's all soooo lovely

But I don't like KFC (its too salty for me) and neither does DS.

We're doomed.

What the?????

All I want for my boys is they end up happy and stable, able to form lasting relationships, content in themselves. And obviously that they still want to hang around with their old mum occasionally.

TO THE BARGAIN BUCKET.

Some of the anti-forced adoption crowd have turned up to shout at KFC, so all sides got more than they bargained for in their bargain bucket

My favourite fast food memory was when DD2 had very recently moved in, and DD1 walked back into the house mid afternoon. She hadn't had lunch so she'd grabbed a McDonalds takeaway. She was taking her coat off and her attention was off the bag of burger and fries. This figure appeared peeking round the lounge door, then moved slowly into the hall, then stopped, staring at the bag intently...and then wham! She charged, grabbed the bag off DD1 and lunged off into the kitchen corner, stuffing her prize into her mouth with gusto. It happened so quick, DD1 sort of shrieked with shock. I remember DD2 looking up to make sure we were keeping our distance, her whole face was bulging with fries which were sticking out of her mouth. Poor hungry DD1!

And that's why our trips out for food were limited to drive thru's for a long time

Trying to imagine the whole scene repeated with a family sized chicken bucket instead of just the one portion of food. I wonder how many chicken pieces she could fit in her mouth at the same time?

You should pitch that to an advertising agency lilka! Maybe burger king could do the alternative adoption advert!

Oh my fucking Christ, just think how many attachment problems will be solved now we all know that fried chicken is the answer.....

I know it's a bit simplistic and twee but I thought it was quite nice to see a foster/ adopted family on an advert rather than the usual Mum/Dad/ 2perfect birth kids type. Its also made me crave a Zinger once the (adopted) kids go to bed!

Putting adopted children and then "(or pets)" in the same sentence makes my blood boil! Why put the 2 together - looking after a rescue cat or dog isn't the same as an adopted child! I've only just convinced some friends of this - I could do without matelan reinforcing the message!

I liked the ad, I thought it was sweet. All advert families are snapshot at best and unrealistic at worst. I thought it picked up on the difference that long-term stability can make to a looked after child. I find I get caught up in the day to day challenges and I rarely ever think about my DC being (hopefully) independent adults.

Oh I loved that ad, it has made me cry!

It is not saying KFC solves everything it is saying this is family too.... and eat our chicken.

(and I love it, and yes, please pass the bucket I will have some chicken!)

I couldn't bare it. It made my toes curl at the shmaltzyness of it.
Any family in an advert could have adopted children though couldn't they? Unless they have a tattoo on their head saying adopted how would we know the difference?

Of course any family in any ad could have children who joined a family by adoption or were fostered. But the advert showed a tiny part of the process, in fact it really did seem like a foster family.

Of course these types of ads are very shmaltzy (great word) but I still feel that it is helpful for this kind of family to be seen as any one of the types of family there are out there in the world.