McDonalds Birthday parties – Ergh... never again. WDYT, WWYD?

[Epacris]

Why let your kid miss out just because of your views?

Ummm... because they are deeply held, extremely important (to me) and permeate my whole existence. What more can I say?

ETA: I suppose the only other thing I can say is “my kids, my choice”. Deal with it.

[Muffy]

But like i said no one is forcing you to eat the food or buy their little plastic toys!!!

But to answer your questions -
WDYT? Sounds a bit snobby to me!
WWYD? I would still go

[Epacris]

I think it is completely, utterly unrealistic to go to one of those parties and hover over my child and say, no you can eat that you have to have these sandwiches I’ve brought, and no you can’t have those plastic things that everyone else is having. It just would not work. Either they go and are involved in the party as is, or they don’t. JMHO.

[Astrid]

It is a tough thing to decline an invite. DD1 really does not get that many, but I did have one that I would not let her go to. The birthday girl as a frenemy to her and had caused way to many tears in this house. I declined the invite and I lied. Just told the mum we were away that weekend. Felt bad, but I would have felt worse being at their house wanting to have words with parents about their daughters behaviour.

Been at a HJ's party, very similar to the one you talked about. Really not fun at all, very stressful to be at and honestly the parent holding it had no clue that there was anything wrong with the place. It would have gone completely over her head if someone had declined an invite due to personal ethics. We do eat junk food and do eat HJ's, but I would be very inclined to decline another invite to a party there.

So I would say, decline but just say you already had plans and then take the family on a nice day trip somewhere.

[krysalyss]

In my honest opinion, so many people don't even bother to RSVP if they are or aren't coming that they will be glad to know that one person is a definite no.

It is an ethical issue but I wouldn't consider it the best time to discuss ethics so I would probably decline but give a different excuse. If you feel bad about that, makes plans for that day so you aren't actually lying.