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

[BeAlertBeaker]

It’s not “a treat” if it’s regular.

Totally 😂

Well said.

Feeding a child poorly the entire time may constitute neglect. Unchecked obesity in children is sometimes a form of neglect IMO. (Poverty, MH and a lack of education make it hard for some families to cook healthy meals)

Weekly burger and fries - ridiculous.

I'd worry more about a child who gets to adulthood never having had fast food.

Get a fkg grip.

Hahaha I love Mumsnet, where one Mcds and bedsheets only washed once a fortnight is considered worthy of social services intervention.

I agree that unhealthy food exists across all price brackets. Pizza Express, Leon, even some “nicer” restaurants can serve up meals that aren’t particularly balanced.

But my point isn’t about branding, it’s about routine. When any type of nutritionally poor food becomes a weekly default for kids, that’s worth examining, no matter where it’s from.

McDonald’s just happens to be one of the most common and aggressively marketed examples, especially towards children. That’s why it’s the focus, not because it’s “less posh.” If kids were being taken to Leon every week, I’d still question whether that’s a good long-term habit.

Corse you would hun

You absolutely wouldn't. Admit you're a snob and move the fuck on

Neglect 😂 it's fast food. One meal a week isn't going to harm anyone within a balanced diet. What's more damaging is a parent having such mental opinions on food. I can assure you a social worker would laugh you right out the door if you called and reported someone for neglect as they let their children have McDonald's once a week.

Agreed, neglect is not the presence of something, it's the absence.

'3 Mcdonalds fish fingers - 237Kcal3 Birds Eye fish fingers - 174kcal Mcdonalds happy meal size French fries - 230kcalBirds Eye express French fries portion - 257kcal'

I don't think anyone is suggesting MacD's chips are worse than Birdeyes chips? Rather that to have it as weekly 'treat' makes it a reward so kids seek it out and want it more. Occasional fine, but try to feed them healthily so they develop an interest in decent food and it may prevent more obesity .

OK let's talk about habits.

A kid developing a habit of having a comparatively unhealthy meal once a week is not developing bad eating habits. They are developing perfectly healthy and normal eating habits.

Fair enough. I don't disagree it's not healthy really. But I grew up eating McDonald's. As soon as I had my own cash I ate it whenever I could get my hands on it! I don't think it made me have an unhealthy diet as an adult. And I certainly wasn't neglected!

Borderline neglect?!
Get a grip 🙄
It's not ideal having once a week, everything in moderation and all that.
Hardly neglect though fgs.

Are you joking? It’s not even in the same universe as neglect. Food relationships are importantly, this implies you have a bad one.

The reasons why many people eat more processed food are much more complex than people being lazy and taking their kids for a McDonald's. I grew up with a parent who mostly cooked meat and two veg every day. It was just a reflection of what was available and cheap and the fact that she wasn't rushing around trying to work full time.

I on the other hand am very time poor so buy more processed food. I buy fresh fruit but lots of fresh stuff is more expensive. I dont have time or energy for batch cooking or the other things some people like to talk about doing. People do their best in their circumstances with the cash they have.

I think you should spend less time worrying about the kids with their weekly McDonald's and more worrying about those that are actually hungry and cold. The ones who don't have clean warm clothes and any money to get food.

It is also interesting how you dismiss the poster talking about her weekly fish and chips after a pony ride as having an occasional treat as OK but not the weekly McDonald's. Is it the inclusion of the beach and the pony that makes this unhealthy meal weekly as OK?

Nonsense.

My children get a McDonalds once a week after swimming. We eat well for every other meal, they are very active slim children who do extra curricular sports activities several times a week but logistics on a Thursday night mean fast food works for us that night.

Neglect is not changing your toddlers nappy for 3 days. Or leaving them in a cot for a week chucking them the occassional bottle of ribena and a packet of rusks. Or making your four year old walk the streets all day because your new boyfriend doesn't like them in the house. Or any manner of the really horrible stuff people subject children to that most people are thankfully so sheltered from they think a weekly mcdonalds is tantamount to neglect.

You're wrong.

Neglect is not sending your child to school with avocado and quinoa in their bento box.

That's batshit! Once a week is a treat. If it was once a day or every 2 days like some families, then you'd have a case. But growing up on Fridays we either had fish and chips, or McDonalds, or KFC. If that's too 'borderline neglect', you sound unhinged.

Neglect? Come and have a visit to the children’s wards I work on if you want to see neglect. The parents that never visit, the children that don’t have clothes or nappies. The kids with bruises or are under weight. I’d buy them all a bloody McDonald’s.

I have a McDonalds once a week, and I’m a healthy adult with a lower end of normal BMI.

Why would it be neglect if I treated my kids in the same way, provided they’re otherwise healthy?

Fred West eh … if only he had not fed his kids fast food…

I used to work about 7 min walk from a McDs. There was always a mum and two DS (they are probably 3 and 6) comes in most days I was in and the boys were always eating McDs fries plus the mum had a McDs cup in the pushchair cup holder.

They are all grossly obese.

Feeding your children is not neglectful

I take GC every other week. I don't think its neglectful. Not feeding them might be classed as neglectful. I do go for the healthier option, they sometimes have the fruit bag and they have milk as their drink

They have a good diet otherwise at home, I can never have enough fruit in the bowl or yogurts in the fridge.

I least I know what i'm going to get for my lunch now, I was undecided before but could just go a mcchicken sandwich with cheesey bites 😋