exactly

my kids scarf down homemade burgers faster then fast food ones. The only time we go out is when we're out of town which is rare. Its true most of the the toys are crappy anyways. My kids could care less about the toys being displayed.
Seriously I dislike that the focus is on the restaurants, it should be on the parents. The restaurants can only do so much. Sure they can offer healthier choices but if those aren't being offered at home, do you seriously think kids will go for it at some restaurant? heck no!

Lol...the toy is the healthiest thing in the meal....and they are taking out the toy? Funny stuff.

I find this disturbing. It is the parents' responsibilities to make educated decisions about what is right for their children. If this sets a precedent for an even larger government entity to make decisions for you and your kids, what's stopping them from regulating exactly how all businesses market their products? Who decides what's healthy and what isn't? Should General Mills and Kellogg's be barred from using cartoon characters on cereal boxes? Bright colors? Catchy slogans? It's a slippery slope that will do nothing but drive businesses and consumers away.

its funny. when i was little, i'd spend hours playing with the toy. i wasn't nearly as interested in the food. i didn't like fries and would eat only half of my burger until i was like 12. now, toddlers will slam down a large fry and whopper and expect a dessert.

Removing the toy has absolutely nothing to do with the health of the meal. i think its the fact that its called a kids meal is one of the big problems. parents think that its an appropriate meal. in fact a good number of childrens menus are filled with junk food. a side of apples does not make the meal healthy. i work at whole foods and even with all of the healthy options and choices (we have the 5th or 6th largest store), one would be shocked by how often parents will bring in a happy meal for their kids, or just buy them a large piece of pizza. its rare to see kids in the store eating vegetables or something (not pizza) with vegetables in it, and we have over 100 things to choose from.

I look at it as preventing the restaurants from marketing to kids - the same as "Joe Camel" was used to market cigarettes to kids. The kids meals are just as bad for their health as cigarettes. If there is no toy, my kids would never ask for a kid's meal. Hopefully, this will keep some kids from developing an unhealthy habit that follows them into adulthood.

I'll admit, junk food is bad... especially for kids, but I think the choice is up to the parents, not the government...

of course kids are going to be unhappy with the decision, but it's a small step towards taking back some of the power that fast food chains have over small children. Kids are being indoctrinated by media advertisement as early as 3 yrs to ask for fast food- it is just that start of an unhealthy relationship with crappy food. And now that this reward system -subtle manipulation if you ask me- has been removed in the county, I'm sure there will be a decrease in increasingly younger kids asking for unhealthy food.


so what if the kid throws a tantrum, they throw tantrums over where to sit in the car. if people don't want that pressure, don't have kids.

I agree, I myself miss seeing ads aimed at young children encouraging cigarette smoking. Damn gov'ment.

I'll go out on a limb and say I think this is fantastic.

I collected happy meal toys, and STILL -LOVE- fast food chicken nuggets.

And I STILL pick my cereal based partly on the box.


... So there. Way to go county in California!

Reminds me of date night last friday...after dinner Angie and I went to the produce market....while she was looking for her vitamins I looked at the wine...saw a really cool bottle of merlot...through it in the cart. When she noticed it she asked "why?" that choice...I just say "I think the label is cool "...

Picked my merlot by a pretty and cool label....

guess I pick my wine like I pick my women

It was really good!

I agree 100%.

And like I said before- taking away the toy won't make the parents stop going to these places- so the kids will still eat the food regardless of if there is a toy or not. My friend's neice doesn't even get happy meals! She's three and eats a 10 piece chicken nugget meal!

My uncle is 2 yrs older then me. When we were younger (7-9) my grandmother would reward bad behavior by getting him 3 whoppers, he would eat it all and would throw a fit if my grandmother asked him to share one with me so she would buy one for me. Anyways he was thin at the time or had a pretty high metabolism. But once he hit his teens all those bad eating habits caught up to him....he became obese. Since he wanted a girlfriend it forced him to make some hard choices. He had to cut back on his eating and start exercising like he hadn't before. He slimmed down very nicely but he resented his mom for instilling those bad habits just to satisfy his bratty self. LOL
Now he's fit and is instilling very healthy habits to his children. Now that we're in our late 30's we look back on those days and laugh at how many whoppers (sometimes 6 at a time) he could wolf down in one sitting. Boy, it makes us nauseous just thinking about it. LOL
Even though parents think they're doing something nice for their kids.....they really aren't. When your kid is throwing a major tantrum because you won't get them a HM you gotta step back and think "Am I really doing the right thing?"
When my kid throws a tantrum all it means to me is "You're definitely not getting XYZ."

Exactly how I feel. The child may see the toy as the best part of getting a particular meal, but the point of it is to create brand loyalty and associate fun times with McDonald's (or whatever "restaurant"). It's designed to keep that child coming back to McDonald's regularly as an adult. Fruits and vegetables don't come with toys or a playground and characters like Ronald McDonald. The deck is stacked.

ETA: With all due respect to the OP, no one was "FORCED" to move. It's ridiculous that an adult would consider moving so that their children are able to get a toy with their fast food. I'd use it as a handy excuse NOT to go to McDonald's! You know, say to the kids: "Well, they don't have the toys anymore...how about we make a picnic and go to the playground instead?"

hey, that's right. We used to get toys in our cereal all the time. My brother and I would fight over who got the toy. And you know for the life of me I don't remembe what any of those things were now.

It didn't stop us from buying and eating sugar in a box cereal. So I don't think taking the toy out of the happy meal is really going to change anything. Unless it forces the fast food industry to make healthier options for kids.

Well...it could happen