Entry #8 Midterm

What A Real Parent Should Do

Would you take your children to fast food restaurants of you have children? What are your reasons to do it if you already know what’s in the food and what the food would do to your children’s little bodies? It is hard for many people to avoid from eating fast food. However, it is the parent’s responsibility to control what their children eat, not the Fast Food Industry nor the U.S. government, since parents are the guardians of their children and they are the ones who really care about their children’s health. In this case, both Fast Food Industry and the U.S. government are considered outsiders. As we can see today, they have never done an effective action to control children from consuming unhealthy food.

            In the eyes of marketers Ray Kroc and Walt Disney, kid customers are highly welcomed to their businesses. In chapter 2 of “Fast Food Nation”, Schlosser mentions the advertising strategy of the two marketers which is called “cradle-to-grave”. This considered children as lifelong consumers, which the children would nag their parents or grandparents to the fast food restaurants after they watched the advertisements about fast food. Furthermore, these children may take their own children to fast food restaurants in the future, and the patter would go on and on. In other words, the parents are the ones who bring their children to fast food restaurants and feed themselves and their young children with unhealthy food. However, their children may learn from their parents and feed their next generation with unhealthy food as well. So, a simple action that the parents could take is to feed their children with healthy food. This could help children to develop a healthy eating habit and the influence may goes on to the next generation, and so on.

            The crazy marketers are targeting on children and attracting their attentions through “playgrounds, toys, cartoons…” and etc. it is time for parents to protect their lovely children from being brainwashed by the marketers! Being inexperienced children with young minds, most of them can’t even define what’s right or wrong thing to eat. And, that is why every child needs their parents to teach them and guide them to the correct eating habit which had previously been misdirected by the fast food marketers.

            As the matter of fact, our government and the giant Fast Food Industry do not really care about our young generation. Therefore, the responsibility goes to the parents. Since it is very hard to avoid advertisements to harm our young generation, the parents should do their best to keep their children away from fast food restaurants. In short, parents are the only people that their children can depend on; they definitely need the help and the guides to healthy eating habits.