Happiness is…. why a Happy Meal, of course.
I have to admit – McDonalds is BRILLIANT at marketing. All of you out there with kids older than mine are nodding your heads and wondering why it took me so long to figure this out. Alicia-Rae, who is not yet two, only has to catch a glimpse of those golden coloured arches and she’s yelling at the top of her beautiful lungs, “Donnells!!!”. And Jaedon’s the same, within the first nano-second of their television advertisements. It’s little wonder us parents don’t stand a chance.
My parents had it MUCH easier. I grew up in Tasmania and, I kid you not, we didn’t have a McDonalds in our city until I was 19. Seriously!. So, yes, you all have permission to let the Tasmania jokes roll now and, for once, I’ll let you get away with it (I’ll probably even join in). I’m not sure I even set foot in one of their buildings up to that point either. This was before the days of budget airlines, when Ansett was still TAA (gasp – am I that old), and a trip across the Tasman via air or sea would set us back a small fortune. So we certainly didn’t frequent the ‘mainland’ just to get our hands on a Big Mac.
I was a bit of a laughing stock sharing this example with friends last night, but it made me wonder what our kids will think when one day they realise their mummy is older than McDonalds. That she was here before the internet, before cable TV, wii, digital cameras, central locking, cordless or mobile phones, CDs and DVDs and automobiles. Ok, I’m kidding about the last one but, seriously, how old am I going to feel when an angelic little voice says to me, “mummy, back in the olden days, you know… before i-pods were invented…”. Maybe it’s nature’s way of exacting revenge. I know for certain my mum will smile when she reads this. I’m sure I made her feel as if she was there when they built the pyramids, on more than one occasion.
It’s scary how much the world has changed in the last 10 – 15 years. And do these things really make us happier (I vote yes to the internet). And I guess I vote yes to McDonalds. Not because of their Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese, or their Caramel Sundaes, or even their Hot Apple Pies. But because they make my kids happy. At the end of a day, filled with all the fun things they can list, a trip to McDonalds just tops it all off. And it makes me feel like the bestest, most fun mum in the whole wide world. Even if it only lasts until the last of the fries is polished off.
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{ Children’s Photographer Melbourne }