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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

712 replies

TalkinPeace · 13/03/2014 15:22

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" ?

OP posts:
georgesdino · 14/03/2014 08:24

I love mcdonalds Had parties there as a child, collected all the toys when they used to do 4 a week in a month and the excitement of collecting the special ones like the disney ones. You used to get the box and turn in to a fold out scene. I have been to one in loads of countries around the world, including the gold one in venice.

Marylou62 · 14/03/2014 08:30

I am neither fat or poor but about once every 6-8 weeks , shopping in the city I really fancy a Big Mac. (or a whopper!!) My DCs are not fat either and they had occasional treat (Treat is just a word for 'cant be bothered to cook today, lets go to the cinema and have a Maccie D after'!) I will not be sitting in my favourite seat by the window now!!! I will be hiding in the back where I cant be seen! I really can't for the life of me understand how so many people can even be interested in what other people eat!! Before MN we were so ignorant. I really think some of you need to GET A LIFE!

TamerB · 14/03/2014 08:31

I was similar to JapaneseMargaret when growing up. My family are slim, my DCs were brought up in a similar way and are slim. McDonalds was a treat because it was different. It is unimportant- I don't understand why people get so upset or controlling or righteous about it.

Marylou62 · 14/03/2014 08:35

Oh and my DS worked in Burger King for 2 years and when he joined the Navy as a Chef, they were very impressed by his cleaning skills! (Navy being the best training in the world!) He learnt it all in Burger King and still likes to clean my kitchen to that standard!!

JammieCodger · 14/03/2014 08:36

Guilty of only reading half the thread, I'm afraid, but IKEA?! I (literally) couldn't eat that shit. I had a chicken salad there once, and spat out the chicken after the first bite. It was spongy and tasteless and I dread to think how it had been reared. My children had the fish and chips and that was equally revolting. Dry grey fish, flabby palid chips. Never again. Although the cakes are ok. Contrast that with McDs where when I've stolen bites of my children's nuggets or fish fingers, the meat/fish is tasty and appears to be of a far higher quality.

I wouldn't class McDs as a 'family' treat, although I love their fries, but my children regard it as the best thing ever, so it's their treat. We go maybe 3 or 4 times a year, and go for family treats to 'real' restaurants far more often, because I am a snob. And much as I like the fries, a real treat for me is more likely to be slow cooked pork belly or something sous-vide.

JapaneseMargaret · 14/03/2014 08:43

Well, exactly.

And agree. Ikea food is grim. However, I'm not going to be so deeply disengenuous as to not understand that other people might actually like it.

This isn't actual rocket science, after all.

YoureAShoe · 14/03/2014 08:44

Cor I shouldn't have stepped away from the thread last night!
When I worked at mcdonalds, my BMI went from 26 to 24, I losta lot of weight running around taking orders and stuff and even though I did eat ALOT of mcd's, it obviously wasn't a Big Mac everyday! After that I went to work at m&s cafe, my BMI rocketed to 31.
I don't go in m&s cafe now unless I don't have a choice!

Spero · 14/03/2014 08:50

I like Ikea meatballs.

My friends husband refused to let us eat in an upmarket chain restaurant because he's a food snob. So instead of just sitting at the nice available table and having some perfectly nice steak frites and a chat we had to traipse around until we found something 'authentic' and all the joy and point of the evening had been rubbed away.

It wasn't supposed to be about demonstrating how cultured we were and how amazingly sophisticated our palates - I wanted to sit down and have some conversation with some tasty food. If he was so insistent on something different he should have bothered to find it and book it before hand.

I really get fed up with that kind of attitude.

MamaPain · 14/03/2014 08:51

But I've been to The Fat Duck and would rather have a McDonalds any day.

JapaneseMargaret · 14/03/2014 08:56

The Fat Duck is The Fat Duck and McDonalds is McDonalds.

They're not in each other's league, and I don't think anyone reasonable is trying to claim that.

It's possible - nay, OK - to like both. Some people just need to unclench.

TheRealAmandaClarke · 14/03/2014 09:08

How tiresome op.
Do you really not understand why some ppl might like something you do not? Really?
Yawn.

ikeaismylocal · 14/03/2014 09:13

We go to IKEA at least once a week, it's healthy enough food but I wouldn't say it's a treat. We go for the play area and free refills of coffee/tea. The food reminds me a little of school dinners.

We occasionally eat at mc donalds, if we are on a long car journey or if dp is working late. We haven't given it to toddler ds yet but mostly because he's obsessed by vegetables and not fond of meat/potatoes so I don't think there is much he'd like at the moment.

Our plan as ds ( and our unborn baby) get older is to go out to eat once a week excluding the IKEA trips, it's cheaper to eat at IKEA than cook food at home we will take it in turns to choose where we eat. Me and dp will likely choose an Italian/Indian/Japanese resteraunt and if the kids choose mc donalds then thats fine.

JapaneseMargaret · 14/03/2014 09:22

I think the OP is a weight-loss evangelist, so it's kind of understandable.

Nobody is trying to claim McDs is healthy. Or even that everyone should like it.

More just trying to get people to grasp the seemingly difficult concept that not everyone likes exactly the same things, and that's OK.

georgesdino · 14/03/2014 09:34

Mcdonalds doesnt have to make you fat. I bet Im slimmer than the op and I eat them regularly. Its how much exercise you do that makes the real difference.

TamerB · 14/03/2014 09:38

If you go to a motor way service station it is a lot cheaper than a drink and a sandwich.

mijas99 · 14/03/2014 10:02

Personally I can't understand why people like McDs

Like I can't understand why people like the Spice Girls (or whatever the modern equivalent is) or Eastenders

Are people's lives really so crap?

Lots of popular things are rubbish. I guess it is about convenience and accessibility in a world where people feel that they are too busy

ShatnersBassoon · 14/03/2014 10:09

You don't have to understand, mijas. Just be sensible enough to know that people's preferences vary greatly. Don't attempt to make people feel like failures because their preferences don't tally with yours. You're coming across as disingenuous at best.

Have you never enjoyed something that the majority enjoy but that many others couldn't countenance? Beer? Wine? Chocolate?

Fullpleatherjacket · 14/03/2014 10:10

Casting my mind back my lot and I got a MaccyD on high days and holidays. It was a treat simply because it wasn't an everyday occurrence and they loved it. But then again we are peasants Grin

Spero · 14/03/2014 10:11

Please, can you just stop with condemning everyone's life as 'crap' when they like things you don't?

The fact that you can only identify the Spice Girls as representative of modern popular music just underscores the dangers of snobbery and how culturally impoverished this can make one.

There is any amount of music out there which some enjoy and some don't. Doesn't make any of it 'crap'. I would take the Spice Girls over Die Rosenkavalier any day.

It doesn't actually make you a better person to be so woefully ignorant and condemnatory about stuff other people like.

MrsCakesPremonition · 14/03/2014 10:18

We grabbed a meal from McDs last night for the first time this year, we were out at after school activities and were meeting people to go to the cinema with a very short turnaround time.
The DCs thought it was a treat, for me it was cheap, fast and convenient. I got meals for 2 DCs, 1 adult and coffees for 3 adults for £10. And we didn't have to pay extra for parking. A sandwich and coffee for 1 person would cost almost that at most local cafes - and I'm not sure it would be dramatically healthier.

InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream · 14/03/2014 10:20

How can going to ikea for 'salad' be a treat!!!?? Salad is not a fucking treat! And ikea is about as enjoyable as walking over hot coals. Total snob.

TamerB · 14/03/2014 10:25

I don't know why people expect, or want, to understand why people like something. I hate football, TV soaps, ironing, night clubs and any manner of things-I can see why others like them, and even if I have no imagination I can accept they do.

EatShitDerek · 14/03/2014 10:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Spero · 14/03/2014 10:28

Absolutely. People who watch cricket and pretend to like it? They must be utterly and entirely stupid. What a boring waste of time.

Or maybe I could just crack open some more smarties, pop on a Buffy season 6 and chill the fuck out about the fact that other people are different.

fideline · 14/03/2014 10:30

People faking interest in cricket? Is that a well known phenomenon?

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