to not understand why people consider McDonalds to be a "treat"

[TalkinPeace]

if I want a family "treat" meal I go somewhere with fresh, favoursome food made especially for us.

Why do people take their kids somewhere that sells the lowest common denominator of food and call it a "treat" ?

We eat packet meals and Pizza as well btw. But packet meals are often much more expensive than the cheap own brand ingredients, so not that often

I remember reading a HILARIOUS article, apologies if any of you on this thread wrote it but it went on about how to stop your children liking MacDonalds by the cunning application of pyschology.

You were supposed to take them into Maccy Ds, sit down and then woefully look at one of your chips, hold it up and go 'o dear! is it meant to be this greasy? O dear I bet it doesn't taste very nice does it?'

After five mins of this the author assured me that your children would be clinging to your ankles and crying for some quinoa.

My daughter would be looking at me blankly and would ask me if she could have my chips then if I wasn't eating them.

Why not just say, as I do, as most sane and reasonable people do, yes we can go to these places now and then. We won't eat every meal there because that isn't healthy but once a week or so isn't going to hurt much. And as another poster mentioned earlier, it is a 'treat' for me not really for the quality of the food but because I don't have to cook and I don't have to wash up. That is a bloody big treat.

And if you can't understand that you either love cooking and washing up to an unhealthy degree or you have 'staff'.

Because 99% of the time our children get fresh flavoursome food at home, so anything different is a treat?

My family has fresh, flavoursome food made especially for them by me approximately 340 days of the year.

I can cook fresh, wholesome, flavourful food myself.

Because my children got fresh, flavoursome food at every meal at home and often elsewhere

they love the whole experience because it is so unlike how we normally eat. At home everything is "fresh and flavoursome"

We eat fresh wholesome food almost every day so that isn't an occasional treat.

All the above are from the first few pages of the thread to be fair Spero so you could easily have missed them. These are the kind of people who I struggle to believe can see McDonalds as a treat.

I'd say half the curries I see are more oily and greasy than a Maccy's easily

Oh, I agree with you there, I'm a hysterical curry hater too!

Not had the time to trawl through 21 pages of posts, but OP am definitely with you. Why anybody would consider eating total and utter processed shite a treat is a total mystery to me too.

Ignoring the fact that Maccas fare is processed shite. It tastes revolting - I can't get my head around treating myself to something that tastes awful, or why anybody else would want to.

Sigh

Because it doesn't taste awful to us?

Does anyone genuinely think that those of us who enjoy going to McDonalds, dislike the food?? How bizarre

I wouldn't treat myself to certain organic fresh gourmet foods, because to me they taste revolting. As does most cheese. Olives. Anchovies. I hate them all. But I can very easily get my head around the idea that some people like them, it's not difficult

I love it for its filth factor- Big mac, Fries and Chocolate Milkshake, with a bag of haribo fizzy cherries for pudding (haribo cheeries need to be sourced separately unfortunately). Mmmmmm. Me and DH get a takeout once every couple of months on a Sunday night once the kids are in bed. We like to watch masterchef US whilst we're eating it.

BMI of 22 so doubt it's going to massively impact my life expectancy.

Well it certainly shouldn't be an everyday thing.

Although I did argue this with the neighbour who said she couldn't afford fresh fruit (if I had a melon her kids were round mine in seconds) but took her kids for Maccy's every week, the day she got her benefits.

Not so much the treat, each to their own, bu the fact she had to walk the kids past a green grocer's to get to the nearest maccy's.

If you are a child and eat healthy meals cooked from scratch each night then of course it is a treat.
When I was a child my mother baked every week and we had delicious homemade cakes but it was a huge treat for me to have a shop bought one, even though they were not half as nice!
As an adult your tastes change.
I can't see why you bring up food snobs - it is all very well appreciating a wide range of foods and good cooking but it shouldn't include being rude. I have only has KFC once and found it too greasy but I didn't spit it out and refuse to eat it when bought by someone else!

Omg quarter pounder with cheese

Heaven in a bum

heaven in a bum?

I love McDonald's and my dd is 3 months so its the treat for me not her. I'm not poor or fat either so not a fair comment. I love good quality food like everyone else and a massive health freak most of the time, but sometimes a McDonald's is just what you fancy.

Your being massively U if you can't see that some people just do like it, and just because you don't doesn't mean we don't have to.

I also hate olives and anchovies. I get that some people like them. I certainly wouldn't make moral judgments about people with different taste buds to me.

All of this is tied up with snobbery and insecurity and not wanting to be seen as one of the ignorant 'masses'.

I feel the same bafflement as to why people would consider going to the opera a 'treat'. I would find it intensely dull, the only opera I went to, I walked out of.

But I am able to get my head around the concept that different people find different things enjoyable.

And I agree, any 8 year old who spits food out that someone else has is not merely being a 'food snob'. I don't think he should have to eat something he doesn't like. But to express your disgust with food someone else has provided in such an extreme way is very ill mannered.

Bun! Lol

my kids aren't that bothered about McDonald's, they never specifically ask to go to it, but on the odd occasion that we have taken them, maybe four or five times in total, they've enjoyed it. They like the novelty of the burger in a little box, they like the eating with their hands, they even like the taste. I even enjoy it myself, even though I do normally cook 'fresh flavoursome food' most of the time. It is true that the burgers are limp though, although I can't say I find them particularly greasy in comparison to any other fast food.

But it's just preference isn't it? There are loads of treats that don't appeal to me, but that huge numbers of people love. eg the idea of a sun sea and sand holiday sounds like hell to me, yet loads of people look forward all year to their week in the sun. But it's no big deal, I just don't go on that sort of holiday, I don't agonise over why other people do, and I don't feel that deep down it can't be a treat for them because it wouldn't be a treat for me.

Actually speaking on bums in France andouiette is a real treat - that's basically a sausage made out of bum no joke

I can't get my head around treating myself to something that tastes awful, or why anybody else would want to.

I know, it's up there with the meaning of life in terms of unfathomable conundrums, right?

Really, really tricky to get your head around the concept of it all.

Turns out ... not everyone likes the same thing. Who knew....?

Because it tastes nice. Rather that than pretending to enjoy the creations of Heston etc.

I agree with a previous poster about this place being a parody Sometimes.
I fail to believe that there is such a big stick up your arse

Mmmmmmmmmmmm quarter pounder, fries, large with coke.

It is no big deal. My children went sometimes, as adults they don't. Had I been all 'snobby' or 'self righteous' about it, then it becomes highly desirable.

They wouldn't be so successful if people didn't like it.

My local one was full of people having breakfast and changing into their skiing gear. They were en route to Glenshee.
None of them looked like they were poor souls having a once a month treat. The children with them (who no doubt were skipping school) looked healthy and well fed.

All of this is tied up with snobbery and insecurity and not wanting to be seen as one of the ignorant 'masses'

Agreed, most of the people I've met who hate McDonalds and don't want to let their kids go there EVER, seemed very snobbish to me....and also hypocritical because they let their kids eat cheap food from shops and supermarket cafe's like IKEA, where the meat could have come from anywhere and the food be stuffed with additives and yuck. For those people, I don't think it's the food they hate, however much they claim to..it's the brand and the connotations they've built around it in their head.

And yes I know not everyone likes the food and that's fine, I'm talking about people who squick at the very idea of letting their child set foot in a Maccy's and start making comments about the kind of people who would eat such revolting food etc etc

I grew up in an area that was bursting with natural produce - a huge orchard, fruit-growing and wine region, uncles who were farmers and plied us with produce and a Mother who cooked yummy, nutritious meals every night.

Fish and chips were a massive treat.

It's just the way it is

And I come from a family of tall, slim people. Probably because we ate so well growing up, and continue to do so now. I am a foody, DH is too. I enjoy cooking (I also love nights off!), I love eating out - if we have a night to ourselves, we'll try a new restaurant. We live in a city with amazing restaurants.

But by all means, if it helps people to assume that those who like McDonalds every now and then are all unevolved heathens, then keep on thinking it. It's not true of course, but yeah, keep thinking it if it helps you to feel better about yourself.