Gender Neutral Happy Meals

[Kestryl]

Hoping this works- apparently McDonald’s has been asked very recently about if the policy is to say “boy toy or girl toy.”

Turns out it is not their corporate policy.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Hoping this works- apparently McDonald’s has been asked very recently about if the policy is to say “boy toy or girl toy.”

Turns out it is not their corporate policy.View attachment 450532

I don't see it a problem the other way but I don't see it a problem this way either; it's kinda whatev to me.

At the very least this is McDonald's saying this rather than some person deciding to take up the issue with the store employee who is likely doing what they were told (by someone at least, probably McDonald's in the past) to do.

 

[Hikergirl]

As far as I'm concerned the differences in the male and female brain predispose us to certain behaviors that in turn can make us gravitate towards certain "gender" specific toys.
There is nothing wrong with recognizing our differences, and at the same time also teaching children that those differences don't mean they can't play with A or B or be a Y or Z when they grow up because they are labeled for one gender or another. If you are a parent and make it an issue, then for your kids it will be an issue.
I don't care what McDs calls their toys, bottom line is, it isn't going to change the fact that 90% of the time boys will pick the hotwheel over the barbie even if it isn't labeled by gender.

 

[RangerPooh]

While something gender neutral would be best, I can understand why they might offer girl or boy toy. Toys are marketed to one gender over another.

As a parent I often said 'no preference'. The kids played with them for a few minutes or hours then were forgotten. The exception would be something that I knew the'd specifically want.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

While something gender neutral would be best, I can understand why they might offer girl or boy toy. Toys are marketed to one gender over another.

As a parent I often said 'no preference'. The kids played with them for a few minutes or hours then were forgotten. The exception would be something that I knew the'd specifically want.

No preference is a great way to answer

 

[Diznygrl]

I saw somewhere that they're doing a line of retro Happy Meal toys. Hamburgler, Furby and such. I was thinking about picking one up for myself!

Not to stray too far off topic, but apparently the 40th anniversary retro toys are only going to be available for FIVE DAYS (Nov. 7-11) with SEVENTEEN different toys! Did they learn nothing from the whole Szechuan sauce debacle? I suppose they're just trying to stir up another frenzy for publicity, but we'll see what happens. If you want any of the toys, best get there at "rope drop" as someone in the Chik-fil-A thread said about Popeyes chicken sandwich.

 

[PollyannaMom]

And, as a female, I have no issues with the "girl or boy?" question when getting my happy meal at McDonald's. I get whichever toy I like.

...As for their reactions, in this respect, my kids are sooo different from one another. So DD is my little world-changer and super-hyper-aware of injustices (according to her.) So she happily takes and plays with the boy toy, but that's always accompanied by "I don't know why they call this a boy toy. Boys and girls can both play with it"...DS, on the other hand, is generally easy going and doesn't really care about things. But he definitely knew he didn't want the girl toy starting at about age 4. Frankly, I'm not sure where he got such strong feelings, but he definitely did.

I think both of these posts hit on the fact that we've made progress, but not enough. We (as a society) been working very hard the last few years to empower girls and make sure they know everything is open to them. But we don't do the same for boys. So, though I find it sad, I'm absolutely not surprised by your kids' different responses. (And I'd bet on peers for the part I bolded.)

(As for the original article - I'm definitely in camp "Let the poor kid pee first!")

 

[mom2rtk]

Not to stray too far off topic, but apparently the 40th anniversary retro toys are only going to be available for FIVE DAYS (Nov. 7-11) with SEVENTEEN different toys! Did they learn nothing from the whole Szechuan sauce debacle? I suppose they're just trying to stir up another frenzy for publicity, but we'll see what happens. If you want any of the toys, best get there at "rope drop" as someone in the Chik-fil-A thread said about Popeyes chicken sandwich.

Eek! I had no idea. I'm not sure I want one that bad. Thanks for the heads up!

And what's the Szechuan sauce story? I missed that one. Did they really do a limited edition sauce? Oh my.

 

[Diznygrl]

Eek! I had no idea. I'm not sure I want one that bad. Thanks for the heads up!

And what's the Szechuan sauce story? I missed that one. Did they really do a limited edition sauce? Oh my.

Basically what happened, the popular adult cartoon Rick and Morty made reference to an old discontinued McNugget sauce that was introduced back in 1998 to promote Mulan. McDonald's decides to bring back an extremely limited quantity of the sauce for one day only for said R&M fans. Well of course, McD's underestimated the popularity of this promotional stunt. Extremely long waits, chaos, riots when they ran out of sauce, the usual drill. A big disaster.

Now granted, I don't think people who want retro Happy Meal toys will be as rabid as Rick and Morty fans, but you never can tell with these things! Best to err on the side of caution and just make enough for everyone. In this case I really don't understand why they can't just release this line of toys like any other normal line of Happy Meal toys and why it has to be so limited, but whatever. Like I said, we'll see what happens.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Not to stray too far off topic, but apparently the 40th anniversary retro toys are only going to be available for FIVE DAYS (Nov. 7-11) with SEVENTEEN different toys! Did they learn nothing from the whole Szechuan sauce debacle? I suppose they're just trying to stir up another frenzy for publicity, but we'll see what happens. If you want any of the toys, best get there at "rope drop" as someone in the Chik-fil-A thread said about Popeyes chicken sandwich.

I got over my "must have the whole series" bug way back when McDonald's had the birthday train. Thankfully, I have 5 different McDonald's close to where I live that I, basically, hit up every day. And, yes, I got the whole train.

 

[MrsPete]

QUIT MAKING A HUGE ORDEAL out of little insignificant things. Remember the saying, don't sweat the small stuff. Every once in a while is good to be reminded of that.

Agree completely.

... I think sometimes we can “over correct” when it comes to trying to be neutral ... Honestly, I don’t think they give a thought to labels, they just like what they like. I think if I made a big deal about labels that would twist them up more than just letting them be who they are.

Again, agree.

I don't think you're giving employees enough credit here.

Consider, too, that many of those employees are still teens -- probably in their first jobs. Don't mess with them. Don't make their job harder by demanding to see a manager. Just say what toy you want, and move on with your life.

I am 1000% over this gender neutral crap

Make that political correctness in general, and I'm with you.

Honestly, the only thing that caught my attention in that article wasn't the McDonald's employee's word choice... it was "super mommy" who chose to get in a line and order meals and pay while her 4 year old needed to use the restroom... who does that?
Bathroom first. Then order.

I thought I was the only person who noticed that!

Additionally, what genius mom asks for one of each toy? We all know how that turns out: the kids both prefer one of the toys (impossible to predict which one), and the kid who receives the non-preferred toy whines for the next two days -- until you finally agree to return to McD's for a second toy, only to discover that a whole new toy /whole new problem has come into play.

 

[skyblue17]

Make that political correctness in general, and I'm with you.

So people should have to deal with being dismissed, disregarded or misrepresented because it annoys you? Cool, Mr. Pete.

 

[MrsPete]

So people should have to deal with being dismissed, disregarded or misrepresented because it annoys you? Cool, Mr. Pete.

No, people should not have to walk on eggshells and worry inordinately about offending people as they through the motions of everyday life. And, as the poster who started this thread said, Don't sweat the small stuff. And about 99% of it all IS small stuff.

 

[skyblue17]

No, people should not have to walk on eggshells and worry inordinately about offending people as they through the motions of everyday life. And, as the poster who started this thread said, Don't sweat the small stuff. And about 99% of it all IS small stuff.

I actually agree that people should not sweat the small stuff, but I don't think any of us should be the arbiter of what is the small stuff for everyone else, seeing as rarely do we know what might be behind a person being upset by something that seems "small" to us.

 

[RedAngie]

Hoping this works- apparently McDonald’s has been asked very recently about if the policy is to say “boy toy or girl toy.”

Turns out it is not their corporate policy.

Many McD's are franchised, not corporately owned. While it's not their corporate policy, apparently they really don't have a major problem with franchisees offering "boy or girl toys." Employees "should" ask customers which toy is preferred.

Sounds like corporate gives a standard pseudo apology on the handful of occasions someone complains.

 

[ronandannette]

Not to stray too far off topic, but apparently the 40th anniversary retro toys are only going to be available for FIVE DAYS (Nov. 7-11) with SEVENTEEN different toys! Did they learn nothing from the whole Szechuan sauce debacle? I suppose they're just trying to stir up another frenzy for publicity, but we'll see what happens. If you want any of the toys, best get there at "rope drop" as someone in the Chik-fil-A thread said about Popeyes chicken sandwich.

I just heard about these today. Apparently McDonald's Canada is going to give them away all month BUT they will only be putting random retro toys in every 40th Happy Meal. That seems weird to me and the waste of a potential promotional opportunity. There would have been quite a few adults probably that would have ordered Happy Meals just for the retro toy and now won't bother (unless they're really into gambling ). The 40th kid getting one of the retro toys is very unlikely to appreciate it.

 

[CarolAnn856]

Possibly. But I don't fault the employee for saying boys or girls toy either. If it bothered the parents, they can always ask what the toys are are request by the toy, not by gender.

The bottom line, in a perfect world it would be nice to say the toy 100% of the time, but maybe it is just easier at times to say boy or girl. I don't fault the employee.

And I may be unpopular with my opinion, but getting upset over being asked "boy or girl" is making a bigger issue out of it than it is. Kids really don't care, they just want the toy! When you make a ordeal about it, then they notice.

Unfortunately, you are wrong. I'm a school librarian. While younger girls don't seem to care, many older girls and most boys do when it come to checking out books that have covers that seem to be "boy-ish" or "girl-ish." And there's no doubt that genderizing toys contributes to the notion that certain things are just for one gender. I applaud any effort to stop that notion, even small ones.

As for employees not being able to remember? That's ridiculous and rather insulting to those workers.

 

[Gracedis1]

My kids are teens now but used to be big fans of Happy meal toys. Sometimes we would just buy the toy and skip the meal. The workers definitely know what toys they have. My son sometimes wanted the "girl" toy and sometimes my daughter wanted the "boy" toy. No big deal for the workers. My DD would get annoyed that it's labeled that way. Why are cars for boys and stuffed animals for girls? They have always played with each other's toys. I'm always shocked at parents who won't let their sons play with dolls. Don't they hope their son is a father one day? Play is useful for helping kids learn, and toys don't need to have limits on them.

 

[luvsJack]

Could just use the kiosk. It shows the toys (if they aren’t out of those particular toys) or gives you the option of toy only or no toy. No question or conversation needed, no one gets offended.

McDs toys have always been something popular with kids at the moment. So sometimes that is a doll of some sort and a lot of boys do not want a doll-and that is ok too. So they had the genius idea to offer two toys! And of course that’s bad now too.

I actually liked back in the day when the toys were somewhat useful. During the summer it would be a sand bucket and shovel or a beach ball. At Halloween a treat bucket.

 

[DisneyKoyote]

Whether or not McDonald employees change their wording, I think a lot of kids grow out of the boy/girl constraints anyways once they get older, mature up, and just stop caring about what others think. Or at least in my experience. for example in hs, the guys I knew would be so concerned about looking macho. But by senior year college, the same guys would sing Disney princess songs at the top of their lungs. My bf loves anything cutesy (I bought him a princess wand for fun) and does not care what other ppl think. It’s like you’re dealing with so many other real priorities in life (work stress, wanting to start a family, saving to buy a house, etc) that who cares whether society considers your interest a “boy” or “girl” hobby. Just do whatever makes you happy as long as it’s not hurting anyone. No ones got time to worry about what strangers think on top of all their other stress.