As a rule our family avoids the golden arches of the McDonalds Empire. But as a parent, who hadn’t eaten all day, with two kids in tow suddenly the allure of seat and eat became an acceptable defeat.
So, down trodden and comfortable with my defeat, I order up! Burgers, fries and drinks all round. Not even a second thought of the copious quantities of fat and sugar.
We were happily hardening our arteries and tormenting our pancreases when my three year old gave a scream. Pointing at a poster of the beloved Ronald he said, “Look there’s a clown. Clowns are sccaarryyy. I want to shot it. Bang, bang. I’ll get a gun…” Pointing his two fingers at the poster like a gun, he gave one last “BANG!”
I was torn… my three year old wanted to take Ronald out. This, quietly, made me proud and made his big brother laugh very hard. But it was violence and with a gun (I don’t care how many amendments your constitution has, guns are yet to make the world a better place).
My conscience was trying to tell me before we walked beneath the yellow ‘M’, “Don’t do it, feed your kids something real.” But I belittled my conscience with a, “Shut the hell up, I’m hungry now!”
I guess like my mum enjoys saying, “If you hang around bad places, bad things happen.”
And for those of you parenting experts out there, yes I did take advantage of the ‘teachable moment’. It went something like this: “You shouldn’t shoot anyone including good people, bad people or clowns. God loves everyone including the clowns. And guns are bad.”
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