To think letting kids eat McDonald’s weekly is borderline neglect?

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It’s not “a treat” if it’s regular.

I don’t think it’s neglect. It’s not ideal - probably not ideal to have it at all, or more than once in a blue moon - but I suspect once a week won’t do too much harm.

We don’t have it often as DD doesn’t like it, and it’s not very exciting for the two of us (DD and me) who are vegetarian. But DS would have it once a week if he had the chance! He just got taken for his friend’s birthday and thought it was amazing, so the upside of not having it often is that it seemed like a massive treat!

This.

It all depends what the diet is like the rest of the time, surely, and how much exercise they get. My dds (21 & 16) love McDonald's and other fast foods and Wetherspoons but they're also.pretty active day to day so they're a very healthy weight too, just like me & OH

Oh no, we've already been told that any parents who feed their kids McDonald's won't be feeding them nutritious food the rest of the time.

It's not even beginning to be neglect. Retired SW here. I've seen things you could not even imagine.

No I don’t think 1 a week is neglect, we have a McDonald’s 5 minutes away from our house which is 2 minutes away from the local school, every Friday Dd1 (11) & Ds2 (9), go to McDonald’s with there friends from school after school, this has went on for as long as they were old enough, it’s ideal as a Friday is my day off and I get organised for the hectic weekend ahead, they also both have football on a Friday night so it’s good as a quick early dinner before hand, we as a family eat extremely healthy outwith this though, meal prep, nutritional packed lunches, we also don’t have chocolate, sweets or crisps in the house and are very active. However I do think it depends on circumstances around each individual child’s health/diet as a whole like others have said.

This is very OTT. And not sure why McDonalds gets picked on, their milk is organic, the burgers have 0 additives and they sell fruit bags as part of a Happy Meal. There are way worse places to get fast food from.

Most people have a takeaway once a week as a treat, I 100% don't see it as neglect if someone gave it to their kids once a week.

What do you think they'll be doing once they're old enough to go out with friends?

It's not a one off beach memory.

Every Friday. For a long time. Weekly junk food.

So was that bad parenting/neglect? Or is my smile worthy pony-and-chips nostalgia ok because it's vair naice, not like these oiks who eat the same chips, in a fast food joint, sans pony?...

Is that you Daily Fail reporter 🥱

Yep. My dd2 (16) went bowling with her friend at the weekend. They were going to 'get food' first. McDonald's, as it's near the bowling place. Last week went to see the Minecraft movie. Got the Minecraft meal at McDonald's first as part of the experience! She'll also go in town shopping about once a month & part of it is going to McDonald's. I rarely go as I'd rather just have lunch at home but I'm in no way against it every week or so as she has a balanced diet at home. Even my 21 y/o dd at uni goes about once a month and goes to Wetherspoons at least once a week for their meal deal which includes cocktails

Once a week?! ‘Borderline neglect’ 😂😂😂 ring child line I’m sure it’ll be added to top priority, what with all the children in the Uk living in poverty, and families using food banks, borderline neglect. This is rage bait I’m sure, and it’s worked.

This is too goady to be true

Oh dear OP, I come bearing news.
I’m on shitty chemo, feel dreadful. Every Friday, DP and I go up to macdonalds for our tea. Not the most healthy, but I’ve lost my tastebuds. I can taste a Mcrispy!

Unhealthy? Yes
Neglect? No
Regularly ( more than once a week)? Expensive and probably lazy.

Wow. I've never considered myself to have had a neglected or harmful childhood, but we had a chippy tea every Friday (no McDonald's when I was growing up), so maybe I did 🤔 . Yet somehow I've managed to become a healthy adult who cooks from scratch (most of the time) and buys fresh fruit and veg - amazing.

I was reflecting on this in my own childhood, and strangely enough my parents were the worst of both worlds. We had a weekly takeout (usually fish and chips) AND they were ridiculously strict around food for the rest of the week, which was a bigger problem later. It took me a few years in my early 20’s to be able to moderate my eating around unhealthy food. Whereas I know my own children don’t have as healthy a diet as I had growing up, although they admittedly do far more sport. However, I do notice that they don’t have a drive to binge whenever there is junk food about. I think ultimately their mindset around food is much healthier, even if my nutritional intake was superior.

I got taken to McDonalds once a year, on my birthday. It was basically my Shangri-La.

Once I got my own money, I went McDonalds mad as a young adult. I'm not sure I'd have done that if it had been more normalised when I was a child.

Personally I think allowing food anxiety and complexes to rub off on your kids, increasing the chances of them having a one way ticket to an eating disorder, is far more neglectful.

I ate organic, extremely healthy home cooked food during my childhood.

My friends had treats and weekly takeaways as a family.

They now all slim and eat in moderation and aren't obsessive about food.

I've been obese and struggled with binging my whole adult life.

Once a week isn't the end of the world. It certainly isn't neglect, not even borderline.

Really interested in OP’s honest thoughts on this as I pointed out the same thing but she didn’t respond to it. It does massively feel like the class marker of a pony being involved changed her whole response. Which indicates a clear layer of snobbery to her issue.

And FWIW weekly chips on the beach sounds bloody lovely, extra salt and vinegar for me, I’m sure to OP’s horror as I don’t have a pony!

My ex only gives our children takeaways when he has them; mostly McDonalds or other fast food. One of our kids is overweight and yes, I think it is neglect. I don’t want them eating nothing but shite twice a week but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s shit lazy parenting.

I am a NHS doctor so know full well the benefits of eating healthily throughout your lifetime. However, I also enjoy treating my son to a weekly Maccies - especially as he’s autistic and is very fussy about food. It really is in no way neglectful and if you think it is then you obviously haven’t seen true neglect and I envy you.

This is a really pathetic, judgy and goady post. Of course it's not neglect. Totally ludicrous to suggest it is. Middle-class mumsnet hand-wringing at its finest.

This is really no different to Friday fish and chips. I don’t see the issue.

Do you even know what it means to be neglected as a child? I mean this is absolutely outrageous, it shows you have no idea. Being neglected means you don’t eat, not that you get taken to McDonald’s once a week. This post has really annoyed me.