The title says it all really. This week on his return to preschool, Little B was invited to a birthday party at local fast food restaurant and I have to say that this threw up a bit of a conundrum for me. Little B wouldnt have a clue what McD's is (no brand recognition here)...he's never been to one so it's never really been an issue for us. First and foremost, McD's food is full of rubbish so we dont contemplate it as a food source, but more importantly it is also chock full of soy (or contaminated with soy by cooking process). So it's never going to be high on our list of places to visit.
Secondly we've just finished participating in our local communities fight to stop said fast food restaurant being built in our local area. We live in an area known for its national parks and gardens and many of us objected to this application.
Anyways back to the problem at hand. How to handle the birthday invite? In the past my first inclination would have been to politely decline and skip the event all together. But nowadays Mr B and I really dont want to impinge on Little B's social life by prohibiting certain places or lifestyles. After all everyone's different and lives life differently...and if we hadnt lived with multiple food allergies for the last 5 years, who knows where we would be now?? (Mind you after seeing Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock in 2004 I can pretty much assure you it wouldnt be at Maccas).
Mainly I really dont want his life to be defined or confined shall we say by his allergies. More importantly it's the first birthday party he's been invited to through preschool and outside our family group of friends. We really feel that so much of his life is confined by his food choices and even more recently defined by his dcd (we now know that his shyness has been a result of his dcd). So what to do??
To cut a long story short, I spoke to the McD's franchise in question who assured me that there is nothing Little B can eat. And no we cant take anything onto the premises that we have made even though its only for 1 child. There flexibility knows no bounds - non? We explained this as best as we could to Little B who has chosen to attend the party to play with the kids and have his face painted. We will then have a cupcake on the way home in the car. Problem sorted, crisis averted.....for now.
So what would you do? Have you ever had a birthday invite that made you think twice?
It certainly is a hard one.. and something I have no idea how I will tackle in the future as I would be just as torn as you.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have given Little B as much control as possible which can only be a good thing considering he needs to live with these food allergies into the future. As with you, I suspect, I still would be torn as I stepped through the door even if my child wasn't partaking in that horrendous food.
Kind Regards
Belinda
I had exactly this scenario myself last year... my 4 yr old daughter was invited to a McDonalds party and just seeing the invite sent a chill down my spine! I have never eaten there or taken my kids there and don't intend to either... for all the reasons you mention above! However, we too decided that we didn't want to restrict our daughters social life so took her along... saying that I refused to set foot in the place so sent hubby along instead ;-)
ReplyDeleteIn the end my daughter nibbled a tiny corner of the burger bun and then left it... she obviously has excellent perception about what she should and shouldn't be eating. Keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get any more Maccas invites in future.