No box! No toy!
Written by Helga
Wednesday, 30 December 2009 12:42
Flotsam and jetsam. I like that term, it applies to what a mom must manage ten-fold. All that STUFF that comes home with your kids. The goodie bags from parties. (I stopped giving out goodie bags a few years ago. I don’t want to add to someone else’s flotsam and jetsam). All those freebie pencils with the CRAPPY erasers that do not do their job. Junk from the cereal boxes that they fight over. (Really? A spoon that lights up every time you take a bite? We need that why?) It takes over your house. It clogs up drawers and floors and under the bed. The floor of your car. It’s the stuff you step on in the middle of the night running into your kids room as they cry out for you and feels like you stepped on a tack. Or – the worst! – the stuff the kids step on in the middle of the night shuffling off to the toilet and they start howling. That will ruin your sleep for sure.You get the point. It is the stuff that you go to throw out and if the kids catch you doing it they are upset, indignant – you’re throwing out my stuff?? You have to do it when they aren’t looking. And they never miss it! I have never had a kid come looking for their…whatever it was I got rid of.
Here’s one of those thing in particular that I truly despise. Toys from fast food places. (Live Green Mom, you take your kids to fast food places? Look, I said it was a struggle and I’m working on myself! Slack, please.) There are times you gotta take them to get food and you gotta do it fast. We all know the ones we take them to.
I hate the toys in the Jolly Meals (I’m just calling it that, you know what meal I’m dissing here). I hate Jolly Meals because they hand you food in a cardboard box that you walk a few feet with to a table, sit down and start disbursing who gets what, eat, then – walk a few feet over to the trash and throw it away. I take the boxes home and recycle them if they didn’t get any food on them (you cannot recycle cardboard that has been contaminated by food) or ask the guy at the counter, if I’m quick enough, to NOT put the meals in the boxes. Puzzled looks but they comply.
And I hate the toys that come with them. Some of the most useless toys ever. And because kids demand instant entertainment, (they have been conditioned, they know what to expect from these toys) most of them make a blip, a beep, or light up in some way. And now you are faced with - how are you planning on recycling that thing? It has some sort of electronic or light up thingy in it. You cannot just toss it in your recycle bin. Are you keeping a box of electronics to recycle responsibly, and you just toss it in there? That is what I do. My town offers electronics recycling once a month but you have to pay extra for it and it’s limited, what you can bring.
So about, oh, not quite two years ago I started to…wait for it…request that we DO NOT GET A TOY when I ordered.
Did you gasp? Because that is what the folks at the counter did. (it wasn’t a loud gasp but still…) Not just the people taking my order but the moms in line. My kids getting sympathetic looks from other kids. I am not kidding here, this was major. And can you just imagine the cry and hue I got from my kids? The whaling and gnashing of teeth. How dare I deny these kids a free toy? One guaranteed to satisfy? (I have also gotten the ‘But it’s free! Why not take it?” argument but then I say it is one more thing I have to be responsible for, I have enough, thank you) You thought I got puzzled looks when I ask them not to put it in a box you can just see it in your head, they looks exchanged by the guys behind the counter accompanied by a small shrug as they call out:
“I need a Jolly Meal one hamburger NOTHING on it one apple side caramel sauce one chocolate milk NO BOX NO TOY!”
Like a ripple effect people craning their necks to see who is the mean, cruel mom. That would be me. Heaven forbid I am in total frumpy mode wearing a doo-rag on my head. Then its: “oh, one of those moms”. (Note: I’m not one of those moms, if I were I wouldn’t even be in there getting a Jolly meal.)
Please. I will admit that occasionally between big Hollywood mega action films providing the inspiration for these toys, they have their back up filler toys. And the ones like the tiny Beanie Babies, my kids LOVE them and can play with them endlessly. The stories they come up with, especially Sophie, the towns they build for them with tissue boxes and Lincoln Logs. They take these toys in the car and play together with them. These toys I don’t mind at all and will happily let them have. And they don’t hurt to step on them.
It took a while and many disappointed Jolly Meals for my kids to get over this. But they did get past it. they don’t make a fuss over it anymore, not really. They still ask for the toy, and after I take a look at what is being offered, I say yes or no. Usually no. Sometimes, I give in, because they have been really good that day or I’m with another family and don’t want a big scene (“why do they get the toy and I don’t?”). Earlier this year we were headed there for a meal and Sophie really really wanted the toy. She didn’t even know what the toy was. She begged and pleaded. I gave in. I don’t know why. I’m not perfect. But the big movie out was Monsters VS Aliens. She got her toy and ripped it open to find a red plastic blob of a character from the movie, I think it is the giant caterpillar, and it made a s-c-r-e-e-c-h-i-n-g noise. It was so nondescript, useless and utter landfill. We both saw it for what it was right away. She burst into tears, threw it on the floor and screamed about what a horrible toy it was and how mad she was for getting that toy. What she was really mad about, I think, was that she knew I don’t give in often and she used her card up on that hard plastic blob instead of a better toy at another time I might have said no to.
Hard lesson, kid. I’m not heartless but I have a job to do here and I clearly have my work cut out for me.
*UPDATED on October 28, 2011* This small change in our family was a good one that stuck. We hardly ever, ever go into McDonalds or other fast food places unless it’s as a last resort. And when we do, my kids will say “It doesn’t taste as good as I thought it would”. My kids don’t even think to ask about the toy anymore, either. This wasn’t that hard to implement, so give it a try. You might be surprised!
15 Comments
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had to lol when i read about the light up spoon! dont know HOW we acquired one, but we did! some give away, somewhere in our universe, someone thought my child’s world would be complete owning one. i either gave it to goodwill or bluebinned it, don’t recall.
best wishes for 2011 my friend!
No box! No toy! http://bit.ly/9RFETy
RT @livegreenmom: No box! No toy! http://bit.ly/9RFETy
No box! No toy! Causing a ruckus at McDonalds http://bit.ly/9RFETy
RT @livegreenmom: No box! No toy! http://bit.ly/9RFETy
No box! No toy! I'm tired of it! http://bit.ly/9RFETy
RT @LiveGreenMom: No box! No toy! No thank you! http://bit.ly/9RFETy
No box! No toy! No thank you! http://bit.ly/9RFETy
RT @LiveGreenMom: No box! No toy! http://bit.ly/9RFETy
No box! No toy! Why I don't let my kids have the Happy meal toy. Or the box. http://bit.ly/9RFETy
I think this article about the start of the end for the Happy (Jolly) Meal may interest you.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=62234
Sometimes the toys are quite good. The Avatar action figures have been in heavy rotation with my 5 year old and they are WAY sturdier than the current Star Wars action figures being sold at toy stores. What I don’t get is why there are Avatar action figures being sold at McD in the first place, since it’s not a kids movie.
Thank you for taking the time to comment on this post. I will agree with you, sometimes the toys are quite good. Like I mentioned, I like the Beanie Babies and sometimes they have really cute tiny stuffies from the Build-A-Bear workshop line and my kids love them. I let them have those. But more often than not, the toys do have an electronic element to them, and then I have to deal with how am I going to dispose of them responsibly once the thrill is gone. If you child plays with them and loves them, then that’s a freebie worth having. But if you are a mom, you probably have deal with alot of stuff all over the house and it is a constant battle to keep it all in check. At least I do. As for why there are Avatar figures, well, kids see the commercials, and they are gonna want a piece of the movie, especially if they cannot actually see it! It’s that wanting what you can’t have thing, maybe.
Happy 2010!
New post: http://livegreenmom.com/?p=62 Thank you!
New post NO BOX NO TOY! http://livegreenmom.com/?p=62 Thank you!