I agree that children shouldn’t be mindlessly sitting in front of the TV. However, I do think there is value in them watching the Olympics. But if they can’t watch the Olympics without being inundated with messages about how top athletes eat McDonald’s every chance they get, I think that is really sad.

Agree TOTALLY with Callie in that it is possible to control your household to the extent that you can. We never do fast food. And I mean, never. My kids don’t know what McDonald’s tastes like. Neither have never had any drink with carbonation in it – just 100% juice, or milk, or water. It is possible to avoid fast food & soft drinks altogether; just begin it and go from there. Our two boys, 3 and 6, have been going to the gym play area from the respective age of 2 months each so that my husband & I could work out 3+ days/week. They understand that junk food inhibits performance, and that a relatively healthy diet is part of how at 40 years & 106 pounds I can pick up the 40-pound 6-year-old or the 30-pound 3-year-old and swing them around, or just pick the older one up while waiting for the bus and (for now, at least) they think that’s cool & fun. They watch us do what we can do in the gym – lift weights, balance into yoga positions – and they know how much fun it is for us & how much we enjoy it. They see us go out to go running & come home hot & stinky on a regular basis. And they know we do it because we are trying to be the best we can be. As time moves on it will become harder and harder for us to be in the shape we are now. The 3-year-old especially is into yoga & it’s cute to see. Food is just a part of the picture. I bake at home using some really good butter, etc. so the real emphasis is on the fact that Mickey D’s is able to sell cheaply because their base ingredients are cheap and cheaply made, and therefore just not as good; they’re just junk – yuk! And you don’t put that disgusting stuff down your throat when you can get much better at other places. That’s simplistic – but for the most part, accurate. There are good restaurants, and there are bad restaurants. Note Chili’s & Outback are just as bad as McDonald’s!! Ever read Men’s Health “Eat This, Not That?”

So I could care less about the advertising. McDonald’s gives the money which allows my sons to witness some of the coolest athleticism out there, and that’s worth getting off any super-high moral horse I could be riding. If they’d like to eat junk later, then they’ll have to ride their own bikes to get it, and I won’t be making a big deal out of it, but here at home, we’ll continue to be eating healthily, no matter what.

And you know? I could care less who lets their kids eat Mickey D’s & drink soft drinks, and who loves or hates the gym & working out, and what kind of shape anyone’s in or even cares to be in. It’s not for me to pass judgment on anyone or anyone’s method of parenting their own children. We all live life and parent how we can, how it feels good for each of us to do it, and we all make mistakes. There’s no one right way to feel about any of these parenting issues, either, whether it be breastfeeding, co-sleeping, going organic, joining the PTO or not. We can go through feeling guilty, or we can just chill out. They’re all future 40-year-olds anyway, & rest assured we’ll have done something wrong by the time they’re 19, & something right by the time they’re 35. That’s my loooong 2 cents.

Yes, that desire for the familiar is easy to fall into. I am not an athlete, but after a very stressful day on my first day living in Germany as an exchange student, on my own, barely speaking the language, and not having slept all night (overnight flight), I did flee to McDonald’s for dinner after realizing that the grocery stores had all closed at noon (it was Saturday and everything in Germany closed at noon on Saturday for the weekend back then).

But that was an exception when I was caught off guard and completely overwhelmed by the situation. Six months later when I left on a two month backpacking tour of Europe, I swore that I would not go into a North American fast food chain once on my entire trip because I knew it would be too easy to use the excuse of “OMG I don’t understand anything” or “OMG I’m so tired” to just pop into Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, etc. all the time and miss out on the cultural experiences in the process.

One way or another, even though I did seek out McDonald’s because it was comfortable and familiar, I still wouldn’t go on national television telling kids who look up to me how I “eat at McDonald’s every chance I get.” There is a difference, IMO, between the choices we make in our personal lives (whether freely or under duress) and having your name and face associated with the promotion of a brand.

But overall, in life and in sports where weight obsession is not part of the game, food is not poison . . . not even bad, evil foods (and since when did foods gain a moral dimension?) that nobody should eat without feeling ashamed.

Sheesh. What disordered attitudes we have, when it comes to eating and feeding!

The more stress one is under, the more one wants to cut out non-essential stressors. Sure, dinner not tasting the way you expect is a minor stressor, but it’s one that can be eliminated easily, especially with mega-chains like McD’s.