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McDonalds is the only restaurant I enjoy eating at with my 2 and 3 year olds. Every other restaurant is a slog to get through the meal. Honestly I'd eat there m

McDonalds is the only restaurant I enjoy eating at with my 2 and 3 year olds. Every other restaurant is a slog to get through the meal. Honestly I'd eat there more often if it weren't for the social stigma of it. (I live in Berkeley). I am pretty sure the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk are not much worse, and probably better, than the typical fare on a slapped together kids meal. When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the local McDonalds to do math, several times a week. They'd let us sit there ordering nothing but sodas in a comfy booth for hours. These are some of my fondest childhood memories. There are some issues with McDonalds, but it is a pleasant user experience.

sotojuan 10y ago
Yeah it's definitely not bad or gross any more, at least in some parts. Their coffee is the best at that price point as well.
- tonyedgecombe 10y ago
  A friend of mine services kitchen equipment for a living (in the UK), he regularly tells me McDonald's are the cleanest establishments he visits.
  - swang 10y ago
    imo mcdonald's coca-cola taste is the best because they're the only ones that clean their fountainheads regularly.
    - a2tech 10y ago
      I can vouch for that. Our McDonalds cleaned them every night-thoroughly. Our restaurant was also really quite clean. Even the 'icky' bits got a thorough cleaning at least once a week-our maintenance guy would break down the fryers and grill area and polish them to a shine.
      - DrScump 10y ago
        Be glad you don't know what a horrible task that is -- "cleaning the vats". Especially the one used for Filet-o-Fish all week. And the cleaning agent remains in the oil for subsequent frying. (Or that was the practice 30 years ago, anyway.)
  - DrScump 10y ago
    It's easy to keep clean nowadays now that, for most hours of the day, nothing but fries are actually cooked in real time -- just reheated and assembled. It's not like the old days, where you could get any sandwich fresh as a custom order, and otherwise a maximum of 10 minutes post-wrap hold time. Oddly, several Jack-in-the-Boxes here are the most clean, with Carl's Jr. being worst -- a complete inversion from 20 years ago.
ZeroFries 10y ago
Take your kids to McDonalds if it makes sense to you. If you base your decisions on how to raise kids based on social norms/stigmas, you're going to make sub-par decisions.
- stcredzero 10y ago
  If you base your decisions on how to raise kids based on social norms/stigmas, you're going to make sub-par decisions. Just like most of the parents in all of history. People all throughout our history have made "sub-par" decisions. You could say it's the "human condition."
DamnYuppie 10y ago
If they have them available in your area Chic-fil-a's are also great for kids. Their service is top notch and their stores are almost always spotless. Also they seem to have really great kids areas, every time I see one I am so jealous of the crap kids areas I had available as a child..
- mjevans 10y ago
  I've heard that many people like the store and the food, but I've also heard that the owner (and main profit taker) has some distressingly reprehensible views about taking freedoms and liberty from others so I've never eaten there and actively refrain from doing so.
  - teddyc 10y ago
    I 2nd that for Chick-fil-a being good for kids. They give out a quality kids book with the meal and the book can be turned in for an ice cream cone. Chick-fil-a has playplaces, too, but they are not quite as big as the ones at McD. The founder of CfA had controversial conservative views, but he is dead now, so you don't have to let that stop you anymore. Personally I wish they had stay out of politics altogether.
    - Larrikin 10y ago
      I was hoping this was true. The original owner died, but his son, the current owner, was the one in the news and that actively supports the controversial groups https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriage_controversy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriag...
      - frankacter 10y ago
        Not stating support one way or the other, just an alternative perspective to this situation. While they may not be in support of aspects of certain lifestyles, they do seem to be in support of the individuals and community around it: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/06/14/chick-fil-a-opens-on-sunday-to-feed-orlando-blood-donors/85868494/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/06/14/chick-fil-a-o...
_RPM 10y ago
It sounds like you had a great childhood. My parents weren't really active with my academics, so that carried over with until it was time for college. Luckily I'll be a first generation college graduate in December.
- spectralwarp 10y ago
  Congratulations, that is a great achievement!
  - _RPM 10y ago
    Thanks. I've been told that before. It kind of feels like I just woke up one day and knew how to program and was about to graduate from a 4 year University majoring in CS (state school). If I have kids, I want them to have many options when it comes to college time. edit: spelling
- rhizome 10y ago
  Congratulations! Please do more with that accomplishment than my Dad did, which was apparently to think, "I did it on my own, so you should be able to, too." Please try to pass your college-graduation skills to the next generation and your peers. :)
tetromino_ 10y ago
Your kids are your kids and it's your choice how to raise them given your financial and time constraints, but teaching a 3-year-old to associate comfort and happiness with unhealthy food doesn't strike me as the wisest decision. When they are old enough and responsible enough for their bodies, they might decide on their own that they enjoy nicotine, corn syrup, salt, starch, and fry oil - but why bias them towards suboptimal choices so early on?
- jonknee 10y ago
  > the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk You could do much worse.
  - tetromino_ 10y ago
    Certainly you could do worse. But you could also do better. Teaching young kids to avoid the high-sugar, high-salt, brightly-colored food trap is hard, but I have seen first-hand families that have done it.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - tobltobs 10y ago
    > You could do much worse. How?
    - jonknee 10y ago
      Larger portions, fried foods, soda, etc. You are being purposefully difficult if you can't figure this out on your own.
      - tobltobs 10y ago
        Fried food? Seriously? Do you believe McDonalds has a backroom in their shops where they have a bakery for their apple slices, and in their backyard they are growing apple trees and some lucky cows are wandering between the trees, so they have fresh milk for their chocolate milk? You are purposely believing all this complete marketing BS so you don't have to feel like a junky if you eat this industrial trashfood. And I can really not figure out for myself what could be more trashy than McDonalds food. Maybe living solely on peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate, but maybe even that would be better, as they are not full of flavor enhancer. And actually I am not a McDonalds hater, I love to eat their hamburger. But it's like drinking beer, it's a drug, not food.
notliketherest 10y ago
Social stigma? Why do you care what other people think?
- zem 10y ago
  why do you not? it's a very strongly ingrained part of human nature, and a lot of civilisation depends on it. in particular, the whole notion of a social contract would likely collapse if no one cared what other people thought; neither empathy nor game-theory-style rationality are strong enough as universal motivating factors.
  - blastrat 10y ago
    and to add to that, the headline on the article that we are discussing contains the phrase "McDonald's: you can sneer, but..."
  - waterphone 10y ago
    I care about things that matter. I don't give a shit if someone else dislikes McDonald's or Walmart, I'll eat or shop there if I myself choose to. If they care, that's their problem, and if they bother me about it, they're meddling in things that are none of their business and I wouldn't associate with them anymore.
  - treehau5 10y ago
    Anyone who has ever said out-loud, "I don't care what anyone thinks," by virtue of their public pronouncement, is hoping that someone cares that they don't care what anyone thinks. A: "I don't care what people think. People suck, and are so judgmental!" B: "I too don't care what people think!" A: "Let's be friends!"
    - avar 10y ago
      I've said something to that effect to people I'm with because their actions in caring overly much what people think directly inconvenience me. So suggesting that they don't care so much about something that doesn't matter hopefully makes them think about whether caring what people think is worth the effort.
bryanlarsen 10y ago
That'll stop when your kids taste the French fries. After that you'll have a battle to get them to accept the apple slices.
stcredzero 10y ago
People finding community of some form is not just a good thing, it's an essential thing to human life. It should always be lauded. However, there is a lot of socioeconomic and sub-cultural in-group/out-group judgement in US society, all of which feels absolutely justified by those doing the judging. http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberali... In reality, it's all exactly the same sort of crap that was portrayed on Mad Men. Such prejudice is the same, whether it is enacted by tweed jacket wearing Ivy Leaguers, rural low-brow native americans, "poor white trash," urban black people, affluent Koreans, undergraduate students, "Social Justice Warriors," or Bay Area programmers. I should know, because I've been on the receiving end of it from all of the above, while also being a member of about half those groups. (Often having diametrically opposed things projected onto me!) When it comes down to it, people should be given a chance as individuals, not summarily judged as units of a group. (Martin Luther King Jr. put it best...) I swear, when I hear some fellow "liberals" talking about their own rural underclass or Republicans or Christians, the kind of disdain that comes across seems like something that should no longer exist in the 21st century, outside of movies about the Jim Crow south.
- DanielBMarkham 10y ago
  I agree. I have noticed a strange flip-flop over the last 30 years or so. While the most prominent in and out groups have changed, the folks who used to talk the most trash about outsiders are now much more reticent. Now many of the folks who used to complain about getting put down are now the ones (mostly in private, but many times in public) with all the trash talk, i.e., acting like they always thought all the other guys did. (This was never actually the case, though.) I hear friends talking about their neighbors and community in terms I know for a fact are not reciprocated -- and it goes far beyond just condescending. It's a bitter, desolate, and spiteful thing. You'd think they were marooned living in a cave with Stone Age man, waiting for the next human sacrifice to occur. Very strange. I wonder if they know how they sound to others? We need a name for these guys. "Redneck Liberals" comes to mind. Perhaps "Faux Progressives"
  - DarkLinkXXXX 10y ago
tompetry 10y ago
> When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the local McDonalds to do math, several times a week. They'd let us sit there ordering nothing but sodas in a comfy booth for hours. These are some of my fondest childhood memories. This made me smile, as my dad and I did the exact same thing. He would get coffee and I would get eggs and hashbrowns before we set out on the days errands, and I remember doing long division problems with crayons for fun. I hadn't thought of those days in a very long time, thank you :)
blastrat 10y ago
In terms of dining with small children, do you mean fast food or do you specifically mean McDonalds, compared to Burger King, etc.? just curious.
- smokey_the_bear 10y ago
  I'm not sure we've eaten at any other fast food restaurants with them! McDonald's tends to be very convenient on road trips. In general, though they're adventurous eaters at home, they don't eat well in restaurants because they prefer that we are all eating the same thing. And booths are much easier to contain them in than tables.
brianwawok 10y ago
> I am pretty sure the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk are not much worse, and probably better, than the typical fare on a slapped together kids meal. Sounds like a false dichotomy. Why not prepare actual healthy food, and not 'slapped together kids meal' ?
- cm2012 10y ago
  McDonald's has some healthy options, wraps, salads, etc. They are a lot less popular though.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    Have you looked at the ingredient labels? They are still crap. Salad is Iceberg lettuce, may as well eat cardboard. Salad dressings are high sugar highly processed fat free crap. Wraps are made with HFCS and a bunch of preservatives. (Not saying most fast food is better, but McDonalds is about a 10/10 on the crap-o-meter).
    - ececconi 10y ago
      You're wrong. The salad is a mixture of kale, romaine lettuce, and other ingredients. Looks like you haven't looked at the ingredient labels. Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad: Ingredients: Romaine Lettuce, Baby Spinach, Carrots, Baby Kale, Lollo Rossa Lettuce, Red Leaf Lettuce, Red Oak Lettuce, Red Tango Lettuce, Red Romaine Lettuce, Red Butter Lettuce. Ingredients May Vary. Source: http://www.mcdonalds.com/content/us/en/food/full_menu/salads.html http://www.mcdonalds.com/content/us/en/food/full_menu/salads...
      - DrScump 10y ago
        Ingredients May Vary I should hope so. Chicken is not listed there, in any form! Speaking of which, a general note: never, ever buy anything with Mechanically Processed poultry or pork... or at least read about exactly what that means first.
inDigiNeous 10y ago
Probably better than a real meal made at an restaraunt ? Are you trolling ? Do you know how much preservatives and sugar goes into the food at McDonalds ? See this video for an idea how long the food at McDonalds takes to rot because of these artificial ingredients: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uHxRwQqWFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uHxRwQqWFo Also have fun time knowing that each time you visit McDonalds, you are supporting the slavery and killing of intelligent animals just to slap together a cheap as possible meal.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  The actual explanation for that video is moisture content, not preservatives / artificial ingredients. http://www.snopes.com/six-year-old-happy-meal-doesnt-rot/ http://www.snopes.com/six-year-old-happy-meal-doesnt-rot/
- yardie 10y ago
  That hamburger was turned into jerky. You could do that to any meat. Preservatives or not
- blakeyrat 10y ago
  I love this tired old trope. It doesn't rot because there's no bacteria in it. There's no bacteria in it because it was cooked thoroughly. Any well-done burger from any restaurant will last a similar amount of time. Try it. BTW, what animal do they serve is "intelligent"? That one has me curious. The smartest thing on their menu I suppose would be the pork?
jernfrost 10y ago
Hey I like going to McDonalds with the kids now and then too. But if this is the only nice place to go where you live I find that truly sad. I love taking my kids out eating but my favorite places are different Italian restaurants. Some area really good at making thin Italian pizza and other are really good with the pasta.
- cm2012 10y ago
  You can hang out at McDonalds for a while and have room to stretch, not true at sit-down establishments.
- smokey_the_bear 10y ago
  I think it is just because my kids are so young. I am hoping eating out will get more pleasant as they get older.
Pxtl 10y ago
Yup. If there were more eateries that made as much effort to be kid-friendly as McDonald's (and I'm not talking about the food, I'm talking about the toys and the playplace) I'd get out more. It's actually quite frustrating because my kids and I are vegetarians and while the wrap suits me just fine, my kids get stuck with their mediocre grilled cheese sandwiches (vegetarian children are still children - they think the wrap is weird). It's not that I need every place to go to the lengths the clown does. I don't expect Pita Pit or my local felafel place to build playgrounds. I just wish there was a second chain providing this kind of product.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  Isn't the whole thing with fastfood that you can take it anywhere - so grab some and go to the community playground?
  - Pxtl 10y ago
    I mostly take the kids to McDonalds when the weather's bad, personally. The play place is a good way to get out of the house and do something energetic despite the rain or snow.
    - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
      Interesting I don't think any McDo have play areas in the UK - sometimes there's a little corner with a TV and some colouring stuff, or I used to see them at least. Some of the larger chain pubs have play areas but they're usually outside. Do the restaurants charge for the play area, are their age limits?
      - Pxtl 10y ago
        They don't charge, but there are age limits. The play areas here are this dense structure of interconnecting cubic sections they climb up inside, with a couple of slides, bubble-windows, and inlaid rotating kaleidoscope things to play with.
- 10y ago
treehau5 10y ago
> There are some issues with McDonalds, but it is a pleasant user experience. That's interesting, given that McDonalds purposefully designs it's restaurants to get customers in and out as quick as possible. The chairs are hard, uncomfortable plastic, the music is annoying, and the dining room is always set to some arctic temperature.
- ryanmonroe 10y ago
  Depends on the location. Many McDonald's have quite comfortable seating, like this http://www.giotile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/McDonalds-interior-3.jpg?ccb6e8 http://www.giotile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/McDonalds-... .
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    What area/country is that in?
- city41 10y ago
  They don't really do that anymore. McDonald's isn't really competing with Burger King and Wendy's so much these days as Chipotle, Five Guys, etc. Most modern McDonald's have quite nice decorum, and many even have wifi.
- blakeyrat 10y ago
  They just remodeled the one in my town to be pretty comfortable. (Not quite as nice as that one in the photo someone else replied with-- no carpet for one-- but it's quite nice and much nicer than the other fast food places in town.) I think your information is out of date.
  - treehau5 10y ago
    Yes I realize McDonalds is attempting to go upmarket with their interior redesign, but so far this is only implemented in major cities, which I think the sample of HN readers live in large cities, especially SF and NY area, where the vast majority of McDonalds are not located. I used to drive up and down 85 from FL to NY a couple years back. Most McDonalds are as I describe. It doesn't surprise me that the few in the larger cities are nicer and have amenities. I stopped by the one in Charlotte one time and it even had a fireplace and a piano. Those are few and far in-between. Changing? I don't doubt it, they have to try something, they are losing relevancy quickly. Of course, instead of focusing on interior gimmicks and tried to actually make their food good it would do miles more for them than stylistic upgrades. Take In-n-Out burger as the canonical example. Interior is horrible, but most are packed out because the burgers and fries are simply good. I might also add I worked for McDonalds.
nsxwolf 10y ago
Another one you might want to try: Buffalo Wild Wings. We have 3 little kids and it's so loud in there that when they act up, nobody notices. Kids meals are probably no worse than McDonalds. Oh, and free Android tablets! You can really bask in the judgement of others :)
- teddyc 10y ago
  In our town, it is the local Chili's that is full of loud kids. It is quite relaxing to take your own kids someplace where you don't have to worry too much about their behavior b/c nobody will really notice.
Yhippa 10y ago
I don't know if this is sad or not but I remember several birthdays when I was very young at McDonalds and Burger King. They had playgrounds and some fun simple games for us to play. I don't believe they charged us for it other than the food we purchased. I too had some fond memories of those parties.
- pjlegato 10y ago
  What's sad is that this culture shames people into questioning whether they ought to depreciate their own precious happy childhood memories, simply because they took place at a now-stigmatized restaurant. You were a kid then, you had no role in choosing the venue, and you certainly don't bear some kind of moral responsibility for the putative evils of McDonald's as an institution just because you ate a hamburger there when you were six. Be happy that you got to have fun on a playground with your friends! It is not tainted.
aluhut 10y ago
Why do you go to McDonalds at all? Are there no healthier alternatives? Is it a price issue?
- aluhut 10y ago
  Voting becomes slightly even more reddit like then in the years before here. Why am I being downvoted? Without comments.
drewrv 10y ago
Living in Seattle, with kids about the same age as yours, I love that my local mcdonalds has an indoor play area. Great for rainy days where the playgrounds are too wet and cold. There are a couple other places in town to grab a meal and let the kids run around and play indoors, but often they're often more crowded, more expensive, and the food isn't any healthier.

sotojuan 10y ago

Yeah it's definitely not bad or gross any more, at least in some parts. Their coffee is the best at that price point as well.

tonyedgecombe 10y ago
A friend of mine services kitchen equipment for a living (in the UK), he regularly tells me McDonald's are the cleanest establishments he visits.
- swang 10y ago
  imo mcdonald's coca-cola taste is the best because they're the only ones that clean their fountainheads regularly.
  - a2tech 10y ago
    I can vouch for that. Our McDonalds cleaned them every night-thoroughly. Our restaurant was also really quite clean. Even the 'icky' bits got a thorough cleaning at least once a week-our maintenance guy would break down the fryers and grill area and polish them to a shine.
    - DrScump 10y ago
      Be glad you don't know what a horrible task that is -- "cleaning the vats". Especially the one used for Filet-o-Fish all week. And the cleaning agent remains in the oil for subsequent frying. (Or that was the practice 30 years ago, anyway.)
- DrScump 10y ago
  It's easy to keep clean nowadays now that, for most hours of the day, nothing but fries are actually cooked in real time -- just reheated and assembled. It's not like the old days, where you could get any sandwich fresh as a custom order, and otherwise a maximum of 10 minutes post-wrap hold time. Oddly, several Jack-in-the-Boxes here are the most clean, with Carl's Jr. being worst -- a complete inversion from 20 years ago.

ZeroFries 10y ago

Take your kids to McDonalds if it makes sense to you. If you base your decisions on how to raise kids based on social norms/stigmas, you're going to make sub-par decisions.

stcredzero 10y ago
If you base your decisions on how to raise kids based on social norms/stigmas, you're going to make sub-par decisions. Just like most of the parents in all of history. People all throughout our history have made "sub-par" decisions. You could say it's the "human condition."

DamnYuppie 10y ago

If they have them available in your area Chic-fil-a's are also great for kids. Their service is top notch and their stores are almost always spotless. Also they seem to have really great kids areas, every time I see one I am so jealous of the crap kids areas I had available as a child..

mjevans 10y ago
I've heard that many people like the store and the food, but I've also heard that the owner (and main profit taker) has some distressingly reprehensible views about taking freedoms and liberty from others so I've never eaten there and actively refrain from doing so.
- teddyc 10y ago
  I 2nd that for Chick-fil-a being good for kids. They give out a quality kids book with the meal and the book can be turned in for an ice cream cone. Chick-fil-a has playplaces, too, but they are not quite as big as the ones at McD. The founder of CfA had controversial conservative views, but he is dead now, so you don't have to let that stop you anymore. Personally I wish they had stay out of politics altogether.
  - Larrikin 10y ago
    I was hoping this was true. The original owner died, but his son, the current owner, was the one in the news and that actively supports the controversial groups https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriage_controversy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriag...
    - frankacter 10y ago
      Not stating support one way or the other, just an alternative perspective to this situation. While they may not be in support of aspects of certain lifestyles, they do seem to be in support of the individuals and community around it: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/06/14/chick-fil-a-opens-on-sunday-to-feed-orlando-blood-donors/85868494/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/06/14/chick-fil-a-o...

_RPM 10y ago

It sounds like you had a great childhood. My parents weren't really active with my academics, so that carried over with until it was time for college. Luckily I'll be a first generation college graduate in December.

spectralwarp 10y ago
Congratulations, that is a great achievement!
- _RPM 10y ago
  Thanks. I've been told that before. It kind of feels like I just woke up one day and knew how to program and was about to graduate from a 4 year University majoring in CS (state school). If I have kids, I want them to have many options when it comes to college time. edit: spelling
rhizome 10y ago
Congratulations! Please do more with that accomplishment than my Dad did, which was apparently to think, "I did it on my own, so you should be able to, too." Please try to pass your college-graduation skills to the next generation and your peers. :)

tetromino_ 10y ago

Your kids are your kids and it's your choice how to raise them given your financial and time constraints, but teaching a 3-year-old to associate comfort and happiness with unhealthy food doesn't strike me as the wisest decision. When they are old enough and responsible enough for their bodies, they might decide on their own that they enjoy nicotine, corn syrup, salt, starch, and fry oil - but why bias them towards suboptimal choices so early on?

jonknee 10y ago
> the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk You could do much worse.
- tetromino_ 10y ago
  Certainly you could do worse. But you could also do better. Teaching young kids to avoid the high-sugar, high-salt, brightly-colored food trap is hard, but I have seen first-hand families that have done it.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- tobltobs 10y ago
  > You could do much worse. How?
  - jonknee 10y ago
    Larger portions, fried foods, soda, etc. You are being purposefully difficult if you can't figure this out on your own.
    - tobltobs 10y ago
      Fried food? Seriously? Do you believe McDonalds has a backroom in their shops where they have a bakery for their apple slices, and in their backyard they are growing apple trees and some lucky cows are wandering between the trees, so they have fresh milk for their chocolate milk? You are purposely believing all this complete marketing BS so you don't have to feel like a junky if you eat this industrial trashfood. And I can really not figure out for myself what could be more trashy than McDonalds food. Maybe living solely on peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate, but maybe even that would be better, as they are not full of flavor enhancer. And actually I am not a McDonalds hater, I love to eat their hamburger. But it's like drinking beer, it's a drug, not food.

notliketherest 10y ago

Social stigma? Why do you care what other people think?

zem 10y ago
why do you not? it's a very strongly ingrained part of human nature, and a lot of civilisation depends on it. in particular, the whole notion of a social contract would likely collapse if no one cared what other people thought; neither empathy nor game-theory-style rationality are strong enough as universal motivating factors.
- blastrat 10y ago
  and to add to that, the headline on the article that we are discussing contains the phrase "McDonald's: you can sneer, but..."
- waterphone 10y ago
  I care about things that matter. I don't give a shit if someone else dislikes McDonald's or Walmart, I'll eat or shop there if I myself choose to. If they care, that's their problem, and if they bother me about it, they're meddling in things that are none of their business and I wouldn't associate with them anymore.
- treehau5 10y ago
  Anyone who has ever said out-loud, "I don't care what anyone thinks," by virtue of their public pronouncement, is hoping that someone cares that they don't care what anyone thinks. A: "I don't care what people think. People suck, and are so judgmental!" B: "I too don't care what people think!" A: "Let's be friends!"
  - avar 10y ago
    I've said something to that effect to people I'm with because their actions in caring overly much what people think directly inconvenience me. So suggesting that they don't care so much about something that doesn't matter hopefully makes them think about whether caring what people think is worth the effort.

bryanlarsen 10y ago

That'll stop when your kids taste the French fries. After that you'll have a battle to get them to accept the apple slices.

stcredzero 10y ago

People finding community of some form is not just a good thing, it's an essential thing to human life. It should always be lauded. However, there is a lot of socioeconomic and sub-cultural in-group/out-group judgement in US society, all of which feels absolutely justified by those doing the judging. http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberali... In reality, it's all exactly the same sort of crap that was portrayed on Mad Men. Such prejudice is the same, whether it is enacted by tweed jacket wearing Ivy Leaguers, rural low-brow native americans, "poor white trash," urban black people, affluent Koreans, undergraduate students, "Social Justice Warriors," or Bay Area programmers. I should know, because I've been on the receiving end of it from all of the above, while also being a member of about half those groups. (Often having diametrically opposed things projected onto me!) When it comes down to it, people should be given a chance as individuals, not summarily judged as units of a group. (Martin Luther King Jr. put it best...) I swear, when I hear some fellow "liberals" talking about their own rural underclass or Republicans or Christians, the kind of disdain that comes across seems like something that should no longer exist in the 21st century, outside of movies about the Jim Crow south.

DanielBMarkham 10y ago
I agree. I have noticed a strange flip-flop over the last 30 years or so. While the most prominent in and out groups have changed, the folks who used to talk the most trash about outsiders are now much more reticent. Now many of the folks who used to complain about getting put down are now the ones (mostly in private, but many times in public) with all the trash talk, i.e., acting like they always thought all the other guys did. (This was never actually the case, though.) I hear friends talking about their neighbors and community in terms I know for a fact are not reciprocated -- and it goes far beyond just condescending. It's a bitter, desolate, and spiteful thing. You'd think they were marooned living in a cave with Stone Age man, waiting for the next human sacrifice to occur. Very strange. I wonder if they know how they sound to others? We need a name for these guys. "Redneck Liberals" comes to mind. Perhaps "Faux Progressives"
- DarkLinkXXXX 10y ago

tompetry 10y ago

> When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the local McDonalds to do math, several times a week. They'd let us sit there ordering nothing but sodas in a comfy booth for hours. These are some of my fondest childhood memories. This made me smile, as my dad and I did the exact same thing. He would get coffee and I would get eggs and hashbrowns before we set out on the days errands, and I remember doing long division problems with crayons for fun. I hadn't thought of those days in a very long time, thank you :)

blastrat 10y ago

In terms of dining with small children, do you mean fast food or do you specifically mean McDonalds, compared to Burger King, etc.? just curious.

smokey_the_bear 10y ago
I'm not sure we've eaten at any other fast food restaurants with them! McDonald's tends to be very convenient on road trips. In general, though they're adventurous eaters at home, they don't eat well in restaurants because they prefer that we are all eating the same thing. And booths are much easier to contain them in than tables.

brianwawok 10y ago

> I am pretty sure the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk are not much worse, and probably better, than the typical fare on a slapped together kids meal. Sounds like a false dichotomy. Why not prepare actual healthy food, and not 'slapped together kids meal' ?

cm2012 10y ago
McDonald's has some healthy options, wraps, salads, etc. They are a lot less popular though.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Have you looked at the ingredient labels? They are still crap. Salad is Iceberg lettuce, may as well eat cardboard. Salad dressings are high sugar highly processed fat free crap. Wraps are made with HFCS and a bunch of preservatives. (Not saying most fast food is better, but McDonalds is about a 10/10 on the crap-o-meter).
  - ececconi 10y ago
    You're wrong. The salad is a mixture of kale, romaine lettuce, and other ingredients. Looks like you haven't looked at the ingredient labels. Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad: Ingredients: Romaine Lettuce, Baby Spinach, Carrots, Baby Kale, Lollo Rossa Lettuce, Red Leaf Lettuce, Red Oak Lettuce, Red Tango Lettuce, Red Romaine Lettuce, Red Butter Lettuce. Ingredients May Vary. Source: http://www.mcdonalds.com/content/us/en/food/full_menu/salads.html http://www.mcdonalds.com/content/us/en/food/full_menu/salads...
    - DrScump 10y ago
      Ingredients May Vary I should hope so. Chicken is not listed there, in any form! Speaking of which, a general note: never, ever buy anything with Mechanically Processed poultry or pork... or at least read about exactly what that means first.

inDigiNeous 10y ago

Probably better than a real meal made at an restaraunt ? Are you trolling ? Do you know how much preservatives and sugar goes into the food at McDonalds ? See this video for an idea how long the food at McDonalds takes to rot because of these artificial ingredients: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uHxRwQqWFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uHxRwQqWFo Also have fun time knowing that each time you visit McDonalds, you are supporting the slavery and killing of intelligent animals just to slap together a cheap as possible meal.

ceejayoz 10y ago
The actual explanation for that video is moisture content, not preservatives / artificial ingredients. http://www.snopes.com/six-year-old-happy-meal-doesnt-rot/ http://www.snopes.com/six-year-old-happy-meal-doesnt-rot/
yardie 10y ago
That hamburger was turned into jerky. You could do that to any meat. Preservatives or not
blakeyrat 10y ago
I love this tired old trope. It doesn't rot because there's no bacteria in it. There's no bacteria in it because it was cooked thoroughly. Any well-done burger from any restaurant will last a similar amount of time. Try it. BTW, what animal do they serve is "intelligent"? That one has me curious. The smartest thing on their menu I suppose would be the pork?

jernfrost 10y ago

Hey I like going to McDonalds with the kids now and then too. But if this is the only nice place to go where you live I find that truly sad. I love taking my kids out eating but my favorite places are different Italian restaurants. Some area really good at making thin Italian pizza and other are really good with the pasta.

cm2012 10y ago
You can hang out at McDonalds for a while and have room to stretch, not true at sit-down establishments.
smokey_the_bear 10y ago
I think it is just because my kids are so young. I am hoping eating out will get more pleasant as they get older.

Pxtl 10y ago

Yup. If there were more eateries that made as much effort to be kid-friendly as McDonald's (and I'm not talking about the food, I'm talking about the toys and the playplace) I'd get out more. It's actually quite frustrating because my kids and I are vegetarians and while the wrap suits me just fine, my kids get stuck with their mediocre grilled cheese sandwiches (vegetarian children are still children - they think the wrap is weird). It's not that I need every place to go to the lengths the clown does. I don't expect Pita Pit or my local felafel place to build playgrounds. I just wish there was a second chain providing this kind of product.

pbhjpbhj 10y ago
Isn't the whole thing with fastfood that you can take it anywhere - so grab some and go to the community playground?
- Pxtl 10y ago
  I mostly take the kids to McDonalds when the weather's bad, personally. The play place is a good way to get out of the house and do something energetic despite the rain or snow.
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    Interesting I don't think any McDo have play areas in the UK - sometimes there's a little corner with a TV and some colouring stuff, or I used to see them at least. Some of the larger chain pubs have play areas but they're usually outside. Do the restaurants charge for the play area, are their age limits?
    - Pxtl 10y ago
      They don't charge, but there are age limits. The play areas here are this dense structure of interconnecting cubic sections they climb up inside, with a couple of slides, bubble-windows, and inlaid rotating kaleidoscope things to play with.
10y ago

treehau5 10y ago

> There are some issues with McDonalds, but it is a pleasant user experience. That's interesting, given that McDonalds purposefully designs it's restaurants to get customers in and out as quick as possible. The chairs are hard, uncomfortable plastic, the music is annoying, and the dining room is always set to some arctic temperature.

ryanmonroe 10y ago
Depends on the location. Many McDonald's have quite comfortable seating, like this http://www.giotile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/McDonalds-interior-3.jpg?ccb6e8 http://www.giotile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/McDonalds-... .
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  What area/country is that in?
city41 10y ago
They don't really do that anymore. McDonald's isn't really competing with Burger King and Wendy's so much these days as Chipotle, Five Guys, etc. Most modern McDonald's have quite nice decorum, and many even have wifi.
blakeyrat 10y ago
They just remodeled the one in my town to be pretty comfortable. (Not quite as nice as that one in the photo someone else replied with-- no carpet for one-- but it's quite nice and much nicer than the other fast food places in town.) I think your information is out of date.
- treehau5 10y ago
  Yes I realize McDonalds is attempting to go upmarket with their interior redesign, but so far this is only implemented in major cities, which I think the sample of HN readers live in large cities, especially SF and NY area, where the vast majority of McDonalds are not located. I used to drive up and down 85 from FL to NY a couple years back. Most McDonalds are as I describe. It doesn't surprise me that the few in the larger cities are nicer and have amenities. I stopped by the one in Charlotte one time and it even had a fireplace and a piano. Those are few and far in-between. Changing? I don't doubt it, they have to try something, they are losing relevancy quickly. Of course, instead of focusing on interior gimmicks and tried to actually make their food good it would do miles more for them than stylistic upgrades. Take In-n-Out burger as the canonical example. Interior is horrible, but most are packed out because the burgers and fries are simply good. I might also add I worked for McDonalds.

nsxwolf 10y ago

Another one you might want to try: Buffalo Wild Wings. We have 3 little kids and it's so loud in there that when they act up, nobody notices. Kids meals are probably no worse than McDonalds. Oh, and free Android tablets! You can really bask in the judgement of others :)

teddyc 10y ago
In our town, it is the local Chili's that is full of loud kids. It is quite relaxing to take your own kids someplace where you don't have to worry too much about their behavior b/c nobody will really notice.

Yhippa 10y ago

I don't know if this is sad or not but I remember several birthdays when I was very young at McDonalds and Burger King. They had playgrounds and some fun simple games for us to play. I don't believe they charged us for it other than the food we purchased. I too had some fond memories of those parties.

pjlegato 10y ago
What's sad is that this culture shames people into questioning whether they ought to depreciate their own precious happy childhood memories, simply because they took place at a now-stigmatized restaurant. You were a kid then, you had no role in choosing the venue, and you certainly don't bear some kind of moral responsibility for the putative evils of McDonald's as an institution just because you ate a hamburger there when you were six. Be happy that you got to have fun on a playground with your friends! It is not tainted.

aluhut 10y ago

Why do you go to McDonalds at all? Are there no healthier alternatives? Is it a price issue?

aluhut 10y ago
Voting becomes slightly even more reddit like then in the years before here. Why am I being downvoted? Without comments.

drewrv 10y ago

Living in Seattle, with kids about the same age as yours, I love that my local mcdonalds has an indoor play area. Great for rainy days where the playgrounds are too wet and cold. There are a couple other places in town to grab a meal and let the kids run around and play indoors, but often they're often more crowded, more expensive, and the food isn't any healthier.