Happy meals should be plain

[yukkamumma]

AIBU to think happy meals should not come with onions, mustard and pickle as standard? Whose kid is eating these? I've taken many a kid to mcd's and they always ask for it plain, sometimes with ketchup. I can't fathom why they don't make them plain with the option to add the extras. AIBU to think kids meals should be plain to avoid mistakes and waste when I have to take it back EVERY. FUCKING. TIME.

(Light hearted of course but I don't get it)

Ooh I don’t know? Either way not many options really! But then it is a burger joint at heart so I can’t exactly complain 😂

Yes, of course there is a veggi happy meal option.

I pretty sure there is. There wasn’t until a few years ago - way back they used to do a quorn burger (maybe 2002?) and there was a period of about 15 years when we got a salad, chips, or the odd “extra” thing like cheese dippers, spring rolls etc. - then they brought in the veggie wrap which tastes like something a seagull might regurgitate into its offspring’s mouth. The veggie stick things are okay. The mcplant was my pregnancy craving but I’ve not had one in nearly a year.

Plain option
Veggie option

Could they make it any more simple? Honestly 🙄

Only in the last year or so. Before it was fish fingers, burger, or chicken nuggets.

The veggie option is really recent - only when they brought the red pesto and rice sticks out. Prior to this, there was nothing.

It was four years ago, That;s not really recent

Really? My kids would only eat things with the additions. A plain burger they would have found boring. You know you can request it without things ?

Start them young lol. I'm not proud of how little DS was when he has his first McDonald's but we had a policy with him that anything we had that he wanted to taste other than caffeinated drinks or alcohol he could have. He's two and will sip decaf and eat basic sushi and 80% dark chocolate plus all the gross things kids like- custard, jelly etc.

If a place continues to get your order wrong vote with your feet and stop using them.

They wouldn't be very happy, then, would they?

Way way way back when, my school took all the Y6 kids to McDonalds near the end of the year, and collected all the orders on a signup sheet in the classroom. There were only a small handful out of the entire class who asked for a plain burger. I can't imagine kids have changed that much.

They're all as bad as each other. I've come to see fast food orders as mostly being pot luck.

I used to always order a Happy Meal as a student, because it was cheaper, so it’s not just children eating the hamburgers.

Children are all fussy in different ways, both mine always liked gherkins and the mild McDonald’s mustard in the burgers. And enjoyed dipping their nuggets in sweet and sour sauce. They hated the fries though, would never touch them! (All the more for me.)

But if you take your onion/gherkin/mustard etc out a McDonald’s burger tastes of absolutely nothing. I would suggest that, if your kids don’t like food with the teeniest bit of taste or McDonald’s ignore your requests to keep it plain then you stay home and let your kids gnaw on a used toilet or similar.

@MyMilkshakeScaresAllTheBoys We had a policy with him that anything we had that he wanted to taste other than caffeinated drinks or alcohol he could have. He's two and will sip decaf and eat basic sushi and 80% dark chocolate plus all the gross things kids like- custard, jelly etc

I wouldn’t congratulate yourselves yet. Two year olds eat anything. As if you’re the first parents to let their kids try anything you have!!! Wait a year or so and see how happy with yourselves you are.

Also custard isn’t gross it’s delicious.

They should be forced to call them Unhappy Meals and there should be no toys given away with the food.

@Thatshipsailed Did I ever imply I was the only parent who let my kid try things?

I was just saying we let him try things, including McDonalds, very young. Much younger than I would have thought I would.

We have an adventurous eater and I wanted to take advantage because I was a picky eater until adulthood and his father had limited exposure to things.

You come across as a bit mean and goady.

My nippers fave bit.....we fight over the gherkins in my OH big mac when he gets one lol

Doesn't it depend on the child? DS loved strong flavours as a young child (still does), yet didn't like potato until recently, he'd even pick at chips.

Mine like it all except the gherkins. It's far easier to say plain or no pickles than add all the extras individually and tbf when younger if they actually knew what it was they'd probably say they didn't like it - kids automatically think they don't like onions 😆 They put a note on the top of the burger packaging too when it's customised so you don't even need to open it up to check. I've had missing items but never a wrongly customised (and we eat quite a lot of McDonald's )

Haha yes, dd9 adds cucumber and lettuce to everything 😆

Ours has 2 separate options in the screen for plan hamburger and regular hamburger happy meals. My kid likes it plain then adds ketchup himself. He even likes pickles just not on a burger. Kids don't have to just eat plain food by the way. Keep introducing other foods slowly as they get older with no pressure or they'll be like me ordering plain until they're 20 when they get brave enough to try themselves.

She does have a point though, at 2 my son would wolf down a curry, stir fries, casseroles, all veg especially new ones... It gradually does seem to diminish for most kids I know and they hit super fussy phases. My almost 2 yr old will try anything on my plate and eat whole portions of everything, however I now know not to be smug 😂

I agree, they should just contain a piece and dry, black bread, a slab of tofu, a slice of raw turnip, a handful of rice and carton of gruel with a paper straw that is very short,

and when you open the lid, it should have printed inside the box, in big letters,
'HAPPY NOW?'
👿

My DD does this 😂 mummy I know you don’t like those… shall I eat them? I always feel like saying I DO like them DD! That’s why I bloody pick them out and leave them for last!!

Weird that we presume so much about what kids will like. You know, custard and jelly are ‘the gross things kids like.’ They couldn’t possibly want vegetables or anything tasty. It made me think how I read that in China they had to change an animated film that shows characters reacting negatively to broccoli and saying yuck, because Chinese children wouldn’t get it because broccoli is considered tasty. Plus in Japan fruit is a big treat since it’s so expensive, and apparently most kids would choose fruit over most things. I wonder if part of the issue is parents acting like kids should like x and dislike y, so then they do.