I almost didn’t do this video.
I honestly thought it would be too wacky and out of the box for some readers to handle.
My change of heart occurred when one of my children said, “Mom, you HAVE to do that video”.
Out of the mouths of babes.
So here I am posting a video about the best trick I know for teaching your kids about the dangers of fast food and hopefully keeping them far far away from it forever – even once they are out of the house and making their own decisions.
While this trick won’t work for older children, if your kids are still quite young, it should work well.  My three kids want absolutely nothing to do with fast food and that includes my teenager who has more freedom away from his parents and has the opportunity to indulge if he chose to.
So here it is.   What do you think? Too wacky or totally on target?
Mom Versus Fast Food (Mom Wins)
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Totally over the top. All you have to do is talk to your children and educate them about it. Not create more waste in the landfill. That was disappointing.
Totally over the top. All you have to do is talk to your children and educate them about it. Not create more waste in the landfill. That was disappointing.
I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. Why not just tell your kids the food is unhealthy to eat. It’s what you said in the video. Why did you have to go to the actual place to say the same thing you could have told them at home, without spending any money? They want the toy? Tell them the toy is cheap, too and a waste of money. Then you are teaching them TWO lessons at the same time: fast food is unhealthy, and cheap toys are a waste of hard earned money. To buy something and then throw it away right afterward, seems to teach a child how to be wasteful. At least that’s the feeling I got when I watched your video.
are you kidding me?????? “here’s your toy, lets throw away/waste this food”! I saw her throw away a small bottle of MILK, along with that unhealthy mixed fruit that now comes in happy meals…this was insulting and trite……
It’s not over the top at all. I would have done this 30 years ago with my first child if I hadn’t been a clueless teenager at the time. McDonald’s was a frequent destination for Happy Meals and playtime. My daughter suffered from frequent ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, yeast infections, and as she got older it developed into chronic asthma and gluten intolerance. No one really thought too much about the connection between diet and chronic disease then. My father died when he was only 46 of pancreatic cancer. This stunned me into learning more about diet and its effects, and I live 180 degrees differently now. I grow my own organic vegetables and eat only whole organic foods, mostly plant based. My daughter does too. I wish we had all had this knowledge 30 years ago.
It’s not over the top at all. I would have done this 30 years ago with my first child if I hadn’t been a clueless teenager at the time. McDonald’s was a frequent destination for Happy Meals and playtime. My daughter suffered from frequent ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, yeast infections, and as she got older it developed into chronic asthma and gluten intolerance. No one really thought too much about the connection between diet and chronic disease then. My father died when he was only 46 of pancreatic cancer. This stunned me into learning more about diet and its effects, and I live 180 degrees differently now. I grow my own organic vegetables and eat only whole organic foods, mostly plant based. My daughter does too. I wish we had all had this knowledge 30 years ago.
I don’t really understand why u go at all?? My kids don’t even know that they exist. Do u do this as a lesson so they reject them in the future or did you go because your child wanted it?
I don’t think this is over the top at all! I do it with candy all the time. But I think as effective is a frequent open discussion about it. I’ve never thought to throw away a meal in front if them, but I’ve gotten the same effect just talking about it. However, we don’t have cable and they are homeschooled, so they don’t interact with much advertising either. If I had to compete with all that, and the message wasn’t getting through, I would do this in a heartbeat. Thanks Sarah!
Awesome! I don’t think it is wasteful at all. You said you did this maybe three times when they are young? It is an investment into their future health and the purchase of a small toy for them to play with. What is wasteful is teaching them to eat this food again, and again, throwing the leftover contents of those fast food bags and the wrappers themselves into the trash can for decades out of their lives. Teaching them to eat real food at home is the most non-wasteful thing anyone can do.
And for travel with small children? We have gone on some very long road trips with ours and coolers of real food come in very handy.
I didn’t teach mine to hate it but I make it very clear what’s in it and making that choice means they have to make better choices later to counter that one.