Unhappy Meal
Some weeks ago, I shared some thoughts about the issue of wimpy parents who were complaining about how Happy Meals at McDonald's were undermining their parental authority by serving tasty and bad-for-you food and including a little toy. My opinions don't change: if you can't tell your kids "no" every once in a while send them off to someone who can do the job. Parents need to be parents to their kids, not friends, and that doesn't change when the kid is asking for a Happy Meal, a candy bar, a piercing/tattoo, or a car.
I come bearing the story of Monet Parham, a concerned mom who is suing McDonald's over the inclusion of the toy in the Happy Meal. In order to drive home the point, Monet enlists her six year old daughter Maya to give soundbites like seen in this Youtube clip at 35 seconds in.
What that story doesn't say is that Monet is an advocate for a California state agency that's trying to get people to eat more vegetables. And if you're eating at McDonald's, you aren't visiting your local farmers market and loading a bushel with various leafy greens. And since the State of California, in the personage of Monet Parham, knows better than you, she wants to get her way and tell you lazy slobs in California to put down the McRib and pick up an aubergine. The class action tort is one thing. I realize that there are some people out there who are so completely impotent as parents that they must give away autonomy of their lives to lawsuits and government. But this gal has ulterior motives that she isn't disclosing. And to use her own daughter to advance the cause: that sails way over sleazy and lands squarely in sociopathy.
If this was just one buzzkill who was standing out in front of a restaurant waving signs and getting airtime on the local 11 o'clock news, that'd be one thing. But she's suing a company in a class-action lawsuit, and those aren't handled for free. Even if a judge does the completely sensical thing and throws it out early, McDonald's still has to engage lawyers and pay them. And if the suit actually goes far, they have to pay more. Even if McDonald's eventually wins, they're out all that money. And they aren't able to recover damages from one whack-job person who decides she's going to sue a company for kicks. I'm angry that Monet isn't up front about that part of her life, and it takes people having to unearth that particular fact for it to come out.
I don't like being told what to do by people who have no standing to do so. If I decide that I'm going to enjoy a McRib for the two months that they're available, and pass on a toss salad or a cucumber, that's my deal. It bothers me orders of magnitude more when someone tries to tell me what to do by government proxy. A state agency can advocate all they want, but I'm not going to change my habits because someone on the kingcounty.gov website says so. Saddest of all is that the underlying connection isn't being reported. The story is being represented as a single warrior trying to take down a Goliath, and that just isn't so. Fie on the news organizations that didn't bring up her job, or deliberately buried that away from the story, and shame on Monet for using her daughter to advance her agenda.
I come bearing the story of Monet Parham, a concerned mom who is suing McDonald's over the inclusion of the toy in the Happy Meal. In order to drive home the point, Monet enlists her six year old daughter Maya to give soundbites like seen in this Youtube clip at 35 seconds in.
What that story doesn't say is that Monet is an advocate for a California state agency that's trying to get people to eat more vegetables. And if you're eating at McDonald's, you aren't visiting your local farmers market and loading a bushel with various leafy greens. And since the State of California, in the personage of Monet Parham, knows better than you, she wants to get her way and tell you lazy slobs in California to put down the McRib and pick up an aubergine. The class action tort is one thing. I realize that there are some people out there who are so completely impotent as parents that they must give away autonomy of their lives to lawsuits and government. But this gal has ulterior motives that she isn't disclosing. And to use her own daughter to advance the cause: that sails way over sleazy and lands squarely in sociopathy.
If this was just one buzzkill who was standing out in front of a restaurant waving signs and getting airtime on the local 11 o'clock news, that'd be one thing. But she's suing a company in a class-action lawsuit, and those aren't handled for free. Even if a judge does the completely sensical thing and throws it out early, McDonald's still has to engage lawyers and pay them. And if the suit actually goes far, they have to pay more. Even if McDonald's eventually wins, they're out all that money. And they aren't able to recover damages from one whack-job person who decides she's going to sue a company for kicks. I'm angry that Monet isn't up front about that part of her life, and it takes people having to unearth that particular fact for it to come out.
I don't like being told what to do by people who have no standing to do so. If I decide that I'm going to enjoy a McRib for the two months that they're available, and pass on a toss salad or a cucumber, that's my deal. It bothers me orders of magnitude more when someone tries to tell me what to do by government proxy. A state agency can advocate all they want, but I'm not going to change my habits because someone on the kingcounty.gov website says so. Saddest of all is that the underlying connection isn't being reported. The story is being represented as a single warrior trying to take down a Goliath, and that just isn't so. Fie on the news organizations that didn't bring up her job, or deliberately buried that away from the story, and shame on Monet for using her daughter to advance her agenda.