Mumsnet and McDonalds

[tattychicken]

DH popped into a Mcdonalds yesterday to (ahem) use the facilities. Did his usual trick of taking his iPhone with him, and later let me know that when he was connecting to the Internet, the free wifi for McDonalds users popped up 'in conjunction with Mumsnet'!!! The blurb on mumsnet still says they don't allow advertising from mcdonalds, but when we googled it, it turns out this ban was lifted last May, and 'Mumsnet is proud to be associated with the family friendly restaurant'. .

WTF? You might be, MNHQ, but I'm not.

lol dog-eared, they're good, aren't they?

Meh as long as its an infrequent thing its fine. And yummeh.

I wish they'd go back to the 80s style toys, with the McDonalds characters on them.

I had a pen on a string to go round your neck. It was the purple ghost. I have never since seen anything made in quite such a beautiful shade of purple.
There was a Ronald McDonald one too, and a baddie dressed as a cowboy. But the purple one was the best.

Do Greggs sponsor us? They should I HEART Greggs!

Sponsored sausage scoffathon, now that's an Olympic event I could really get behind!

Obi I liked the little cars, my mum found a load one in her loft recently. DS loves them.

Its just fucking food you unholy snobs.

I love McDonalds hamburgers, apparently they should be reclassified as a dessert because of the amount of sugar in them, but that hasn't put me off them, I'll indulge in one from time to time and the chicken burger is fine with me too, not keen on the rest of their stuff except their ice creams. We don't have a KFC near us, I used to love them growing up, heard tragic news about a girl in Australia in a coma after having a KFC wrap and developing salmonella, that's put me off a bit.

Sorry not a coma, brain damaged..

well, it's not, really. it is crap, full of sugar and fat etc.
just food is what they get in the house. junk food is what they get when they are out of the house and their parents are feeling too skint to take them somewhere nice.

Our McDonald's is staffed by people who have worked there for years and are lovely. The cleaner there is a godsend, every time I seek refuge in there, with wailing toddlers, dripping wet from latest deluge, she opens the doors for us, talks to the boys whilst I order, fetches a high chair and brings the food over when it's ready. I luff her a lot.

And they do Big Macs, what more do you want from them?

this thread has made me hungry.

I'm going to go on my way back from voting. I am going to have a Texas bbq with the funny waffle fries

Am not judging people who eat in McDonalds. But let's face it, the food is shit. A very occasional treat maybe. Obesity in this country, partic childhood obesity is on the rise and Mumsnet is a high profile company, 'the parent, for the parent' actively promoting high fat high salt food while still maintaining it doesnt accept advertising from them as they dont feel it would sit well with their principles ( or some such, can't cut and paste on iPhone) is pretty poor in my book.

The crapping whilst using the iPhone is a whole different topic...

By the parent... Soz ..

EnjoyResponsibly I'd forgotten about the cars! I'm going to hit ebay now - I may be some time..

I think I'll seek out a McDonalds at the weekend too. Ours is miles away, the nearest one takes about 40 minutes to get to.

They do gluten-free chips. Which makes them a good emergency food provider in my book (coeliac children....)

Can't see the 'high fat high salt' myself. The beef is pretty lean and they have stopped salting the fries so unless you add the salt to your child's meal yourself, it isn't that bad.

Still can't cut and paste, but from an iPhone you go into the 'more' icon on bottom right, then 'about us' and the bit re maccy d's is in there.

Another one here who is way more shocked that your dh takes his iphone into the toilet with him. And a public one at that, so not even in the comfort of his own home. Ewww.

I wouldn't use that phone.

I would be scared of microbes of poo smear.

Bet he doesn't wash his hand between wiping and picking his phone back up.

McDonalds is not the worst place to bring a child, once its only once in a while.
Don't know why people get so uptight about it - bet these are people who dont think twice about giving their children sausages and waffles!

Macdonalds is not something I would ever choose to eat - as well documented in a thread about getting food in a sick child that won't eat anything else

This worries me - from their site, about what's in their buns: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

High fructose corn syrup is the stuff of the devil - really bad for us. The theory as to why their food doesn't decompose is to do with the massively high sodium content. There's way too much stuff in there, even if you are not bothered about bleached flour or gluten.

Having said all that - it's up to Mumsnet who they choose to have as their sponsor. I am more disappointed that one of the shouting points about the Olympic Village is that it holds the worlds largest Macdonalds. It just seems so at odds with the entire spirit and nature of, you know, being healthy, sport, competing, etc.

I noticed it yesterday too when I logged on as I sat with my coffee and porridge.

I actually think its ok and I would say that the local McDonald's to me was very helpful for a friend whose daughter was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and wanted to go to a party in the McDonald's along with all her school friends. They consulted on the menu with the parents, worked out all the sugar/carb content and then gave up the managers room on the day so my friends daughter could inject in privacy. They also hen ran a charity event raising money for a local diabetes charity and got a local premier league footballer involved to raise the profile.

It's not somewhere I go every day nor do my kids but everything in moderation and they do have to to be commended for being the first uk restaurant chain to publish all the dietary info as part of their meal.

At the end of the day we are all parents and live in a free society where we have free choice. If you don't like it don't go there.

Agree tatty but it's not meant to be fine cuisine is it. I've just had my food delivered by Santa from Tesco (DS swears he is Santa as he has a white beard and looks old! ) and it's all organic fruit, veg organic lentil weaving hessian sack stuff.

I think, as mumsnetters, we have seen the Greggs sausage roll, fruit shoot, Pom bear threads and we are fully aware that too much of these (naice) foods can lead to flabby belly syndrome.
However, I think the occasional McDonalds is fine and at least they do try to be a bit healthier unlike other fast food joints. So if I want to stuff my face and know that my Bigmac is helping Mumsnet be a happier place, I'm happy to be of service.

the beef might be lean in the first instance, ginger, but the way that they cook and keep the patties warm is to sit them in a bath of oil, pretty much. that was the big idea with the BK flame-grilling, to set them apart from the mcdonalds offering. and the bun and ketchup are very sugary. not sure about salt, i'm pretty confident they still salt them round our way. [old habits die hard]

Meh so what you are trying to say is get rid of all fast food shops, whilst we are at it lets get the supermarkets to stop selling all their crap as well. Job done

Jokes aside, don't you think it should be everyone's individual choice whether they choose to use these places. Also if that's what MN choose to do that's up to them, i think it's totally fine like the others

I could do with a Mc d's breakfast now all you did was make us hungry, we know where the majority of mnetters will be today