Kids & Toys & Food

An organization called the Center for Science in the Public Interest is trying to get McDonald's and other fast-food companies to stop putting toys in their kid's meals and marketing to youngsters, saying that this is leading to the obesity epidemic in children.

I'm busy, so I'll skip the contrived impudence and cut to the chase.

A much more reasonable argument could be made that government farm subsidies and poorly designed federal nutrition standards are far more culpable for any obesity epidemic, in youths or adults.

Further, the kids can't buy the stuff themselves. If it were up to my older daughter, she'd get a happy meal every night. If she's well-behaved she may get one once a month. It is a treat.

Also, you can buy the toys alone, usually for about two bucks. If I see a toy I think she might like, I'll swing by the restaurant and get one for her. And hold onto it until she earns it through doing well in school, not beating her sister, helping around the house, that kind of thing. She gets the toy, which is what she really wants, and none of us that garbage.