AIBU to think letting your kids eat McDonald's with you at least 4 times a week is disgusting?

[FourEyedFreak13]

Just that basically. I've recently noticed since lockdown has been lifted a neighbour heading out almost every night (sometimes afternoon) with their kids and coming back a short time later with McDonald's. It's been at least 4 times this week that I've. Noticed, I only noticed cause our dog is always sitting on the back of the sofa looking out the window and barks when the neighbours leave/come back. The kids are in and around the age of 7/8 (or there abouts) they did this pre-lockdown too, though.

I will add I am under no circumstances a Saint or healthy eater, I do eat takeaways, McDonald's etc. And feel bad judging but I feel like this is an awful way to feed your young kids especially at 9pm at night. So yeah AIBU? Happy to be called a judgmental bitch here.

Pablos what I kinda meant was Mumsnet never seems to think wine several times a week is terrible (I read on here of people always having wine with their evening meal) yet a McDonalds several times a week is evil.
McDonalds sell loads of different foods. Four times a week can mean 4 completely different meals. Yet wine everyday is fine. Apparently.

Hey neighbour, I'll see you later out the back 😂 meanwhile you could log my two autistic kids' food habits with 101. (Have recently experienced neighbours gossiping when they didn't think I could hear)

My daughter has just asked if we can have chip shop fish n chips for tea. I am thinking "I REALLY want a Quarter Pounder with Cheese after reading this thread"

I always thought I was a fairly lax mother where food is concerned...but I live in a very diverse part of London and realise I'm judging myself by achingly middle class standards.

I had a friend's child round once for food and I fed them roast chicken...the primary aged child had never eaten chicken that wasn't covered in breadcrumbs and the fresh chicken I cooked was the first time they'd had it. A child in my dcs class gets a chocolate bar every morning before school starts from the sweet shop.

I know a mum in her forties who has never cooked a roast dinner.

Huge swathes of the population live on frozen processed food and take aways

Its pretty shit but they're fed, I can't get too worked up. I often pop to the drive thru when I'm knackered and can't be bothered to cook

Alright aquaticduchess calm down no ones perfect

Not every family who have a very limited variety of food- be it Fast food or whatever, is because their children have autism.

Yes there are mitigating circumstances and if my child had autism and that’s the only food they would eat I would feed it to them. But I’m sure that lots of people aren’t making these choices because their children have autism but because it’s quick and easy.

I also know lots of children with autism who eat a well varied diet... or a very limited diet but the limited food they eat isn’t fast food and fried!

I know a mum in her forties who has never cooked a roast dinner.

To be fair not everyone likes roast dinners and if you live in a diverse area it's highly likely they will ever feature even in the healthiest diets of many families.

Pablos what I kinda meant was Mumsnet never seems to think wine several times a week is terrible (I read on here of people always having wine with their evening meal) yet a McDonalds several times a week is evil.
McDonalds sell loads of different foods. Four times a week can mean 4 completely different meals. Yet wine everyday is fine. Apparently.*

I find mumsnet more the opposite. Any more than a thimble of alcohol at Christmas and you're definitely a functioning alcoholic. I drink wine and feed my dc McDonalds so at least I'm not contradicting myself. (They also love avocado and salmon though)

In the 'olden days' a lot of working class families never ate anything as fancy as roast chicken !! A lot of bread or potatoes and vegetables. Meat would probably be a meat pie bought from the market - ie takeaway food 1920s style.

I had my first mcchicken sandwich since February last night

It was delicious

@bookmum08

My daughter has just asked if we can have chip shop fish n chips for tea. I am thinking "I REALLY want a Quarter Pounder with Cheese after reading this thread"

Oo chippy tea.. big pile of greasy chips, cooked in boiling bath if fat. With a big greasy sausage covered in fatty batter..

McDonald's is probably better for you.😂

OP I’d judge them for sure.
I judge myself when I eat McDonald’s. It is possible to have a life and be aware of what your neighbours are doing. I watch my neighbours all the time, they are drug dealers that the police know about. You see them scurrying in and out looking sheepish. It’s entertaining.

Never been a McDonald's fan but after watching the Morgan Spurlock documentary, even less so!!

YANBU. These threads always bring out the bleeding hearts (most of whom would never feed their own DCs McDonalds but think we shouldn't expect much of the lower classes), but for every one who's grieving, has an autistic kid who won't eat anything else (interesting how you never hear of an autistic kid who only wants to eat vegetables, yeah I know, texture blah blah), is too depressed to feed their kids properly etc etc, there are 100 lazy feckless parents who just can't be arsed. Sounds like your neighbour is one of them.

its maccas
not crack

In all fairness Super Size Me was released in 2004 and was referring to the US branches which offered super size meals that were about 3 times bigger than UK ones, in which Spurlock walked 5000 steps a day as an equivalent to the average American.

Eating McDonald's every day now could be having grilled chicken wraps all the time. It's a bit disingenuous to dismiss McDonald's now based on a 16 year old American documentary.

There are lots of nice things at McDonalds that aren't particularly unhealthy. I fancy one now actually, thanks to this thread!

I have an elderly friend who goes to McDonalds every morning for breakfast - not during lockdown of course but it has started up again and so has she.

We shouldn't be studying what our neighbours do, that is unhealthy and, frankly, unkind when we go on to discuss them. I honestly couldn't live in a road where that sort of gossip went on, it would break me.

I love these posts. I'm playing spot the following:

1. Poor children are being abused. Call 101/SS
2. Maybe they have ASD
3. I eat McDonalds once every twenty years and even then I only order salad and water
4. What happened to Be Kind????
5. OP clearly has mental health issues/an eating disorder/no friends

Any other bingo squares I can fill?

MonkeyToes we had fish and chips the other day from a chippie that isn't our usual. The chips were swimming in grease. They weren't that nice. To quote my daughter "well that was a bit of a disappointment".
Fish was good though.

@bookmum08

MonkeyToes we had fish and chips the other day from a chippie that isn't our usual. The chips were swimming in grease. They weren't that nice. To quote my daughter "well that was a bit of a disappointment". Fish was good though.

I think one of the reasons McDonald's is popular is that, for the most part, you always get what you expect.

It not unusual to have a takeaway from a chippy, or pizza shop or even Chinese and it be a bit crap.

But, on he theme of chippy.. imagine doing a 'super size me' and having a battered sausage and chips for breakfast, kebab for lunch and battered fish and chips for tea every day for a month. I think it'd be far worse than results of maccys. 😂

@SideEyeing

I love these posts. I'm playing spot the following: 1) Poor children are being abused. Call 101/SS 2) Maybe they have ASD 3) I eat McDonalds once every twenty years and even then I only order salad and water 4) What happened to Be Kind???? 5) OP clearly has mental health issues/an eating disorder/no friends

Any other bingo squares I can fill?

You need to control your dog

MonkeyToes chip shops also give you a ridiculous amount of chips too. The one portion of fish and chips I bought - the fish we had half each. The chips ended up being shared with my sister too and we still had a few we couldn't quite manage. At least a medium fries is probably only about one big potato worth of chips.

I worked part time at McDonalds during my nursing degree, they could do a lot worse. Everything is as pure as it can come, 100% chicken breast, burgers are just beef and salt, and yes it's fried but there are some pretty good food standards going on, and compared to a kebab or a pizza I think McDonalds isn't that bad. They treat their staff well too and pay a fair wage.

MYOB!

So many mumsnetters are so damn nosey! Another one the other day started complaining about a feral cat and ended up saying she saw a social worker going into the neighbours house three time's a week!

Jesus get something better to do with your time, than spying on your neighbours.

It's not disgusting either, not feeding your children 3/4 times a week would be disgusting.

It's not advised and not a good idea, but it's not your choice to make for them.

I will add I am under no circumstances a Saint or healthy eater, I do eat takeaways, McDonald's etc. And feel bad judging but I feel like this is an awful way to feed your young kids especially at 9pm at night. So yeah AIBU? Happy to be called a judgmental bitch here.

In answer to this question yeah you're a judgemental bitch.

Out of interest does eating McDonald's at 4pm make it a healthier choice.......

What's it got to do with you the time the family eat?

What time do they have breakfast, is that in line with your expectations, in the timeframe you find acceptable?

You and the rest of the neighborhood are being very unreasonable. Not only are you posting about the children on a public forum but you and others in the neighborhood have been gossiping about them to one another also (you mentioned several times that you’ve been told they have regular McDonalds customers since before COVID-19) so it’s not just that you “happened to notice” because it’s hot, you have your curtains open and your dog barks and any other excuse you’ve thrown into the mix. You’ve also been making mental notes of what the children ate at street parties at least 6 months ago (because no one has had a street party where you are close enough to one another to see what the neighbor’s children were eating for at least 6 months - I can’t even remember what I had to eat at a party 6 months ago, let alone someone else’s children). Do you not think you’ve got an unhealthy obsession in the lives of your neighbors?

Maybe they know someone who works at McDonald’s who gives them the stuff that would be thrown out that day if they come in the evenings to get it - salads, fruit bags, etc on their “use by” date. Or maybe gives them some of the happy meal toys when the boss has gone home.

Maybe their oven is broken or the gas is off and this is what the parents have decided to do to feed them. Maybe they are having work done on the kitchen (although you probably “know for a fact” that there has been no builder or plumber going in or out of their house all week...)

And if they are going to McDonald’s several times a week, so what? It’s no different nutritionally than some of the crap people take out of their ovens for their children - potato faces, fish fingers, some form of shaped chicken in breadcrumbs, tinned spaghetti, cheap burgers and sausages with questionable meat content.