Sunday, May 17, 2009

Mad Mom Responds To Del Taco Uproar


First off, welcome to my blog. Glad you found me in the dark of night, even if you were carrying torches and pitchforks. Nothing like a public lynching to get your day off to a good start!

I thought it best to create a separate blog to respond to all your responses, so here goes:

Look, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you. So while I could react very defensively to some of the vicious, mean-spirited attacks on me, I’m not going there. Nope, not me. I’m above all that. I’m resilient. Made of rubber. I soar with eagles.

Well . . . I’ll try not to go there, anyway. But you know, I am human. And female. So I may be little, teensie-bit offended by your barbs. But I’ll try not to show it. Turn the other cheek. Shrug it off. Bounce.

So, um . . . do you really think my blog makes me look FAT??

Anyway, for the sake of brevity, let me sum up your responses this way: About 98% of you think I am a bad mom who stifles her children, a prude who needs to get laid, an overreactive psycho divorcee who is screwing up her children for life because I try to shelter my daughters from society’s attempts to oversexualize them.

It's a wonder that I get anything done around here.

I just have one question for all the people out there who have these lovely thoughts about me: How many of you are parents? I suspect not many. Because if you were a parent, you would understand the need, the impulse, the fierce, mother-bear instinct to want to protect your children from things they don’t YET need to know about.

And I don’t think an 11-year-old needs to know what “bagging a hottie” means! Let’s stay focused on the issue here! One of you named “Anonymous,” and there were many, made my point for me when you said that 11-year-olds already know all about sex because they’re giving each other blowjobs in middle school.

Where do you think the knowledge of blowjobs is coming from, Anonymous? Could it be that there aren’t enough boundaries out there between adults and children? That the line between what children need to know and what they don’t has become terribly blurred, possibly in the name of entertainment? That maybe we are exposing our children to messages and information that they don’t need to understand yet at their young age?

All right, maybe the call for a boycott was a little overreactive, I’ll give you that much. And yes, maybe I shouldn’t be feeding my kids fast food. But it was the middle of the afternoon, we were far from home, the kids were hungry for an after-school snack, what was I supposed to do? Drive around until I found a Mother’s Market or a vegetarian co-op? No time for that. We had an appointment to get to in 10 minutes.

Sifting through all the negative comments, I came across a few CONSTRUCTIVE ones that I think are worthy of mention. First, the one that suggested I ask everyone to recycle the Del Taco bags, not throw them away. VERY good point. Very green of you.

And then this one, which I think sums up all the hysteria in a very logical, non-emotional way. Whoever you are, thank you for being the voice of sanity in a sea of madness:

Poor choice in advertising on the part of Del Taco.

Poor choice of food on the part of mom.

Del Taco: Please consider changing your advertisement to something that might be more appropriate for families with young children.

Families with young children: Please stop feeding your kids dinner from the nearest fast food joint.


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28 comments:

Dave said...

Yet you still fail to understand why moaning about something as simple and silly is a symptom of what is wrong with suburban America. - and the internet called you out on that.

I do have to applaud you for taking the high-middle ground with your response. Did show some reasonable moderation.

Felonius Monk said...

Read this:

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Personal_army

It explains,in detail,why so many of us find your butthurt call to arms not only pathetic,but also quite retarded(OMG,I used the "R" word!).

FMX said...

How many of you are parents? I suspect not many. Because if you were a parent, you would understand the need, the impulse, the fierce, mother-bear instinct to want to protect your children from things they don’t YET need to know about.We understand it just fine. We're telling you that actually acting on the desire to shelter your kids from reality is going to screw them up. Glad to see you entirely missed the message...

Felonius Monk said...

I,m a parent.I am also a fairly bright person,who knows what's inappropriate,and what's not.I'm also bright enough to know that Del Taco's ad campaign would not have been that big a deal in 1969,let alone 2009.

I also know the "hottie" being referred to on the bag is frigging taco,which this drooler apparently couldn't figure out.

Jenni said...

If this, and other things listed in your bio are running yours and your children's lives... you are in for a shock if America continues its economic decline.

I'd love to drop a family like yours in a 3rd or even 2nd world country. Hell, you'd probably spaz out just living in Canada.

Noticed you're an OC family... how's that whole economic and social bankruptcy thing working out for you?

Anonymous said...

How many of your children's clothes toys, cars electronics are made in China or India by child labor?
How much do you spend a week in gas the goes to support Saudi Princes while their woman are treated like things to be used then destroyed? What is your bio footprint? For fuck sake woman there are things to get outraged about. Shitty ads teenybopper movies other people getting tattooed are so far down the list it is insane. You come across as very shallow and immature to say the least. There are worse crimes then sex.

FMX said...

I mean, are you really claiming that it's OK to act that way just because you feel a desire to? That logic is flawed in so many ways.

Is it ok for someone to murder just because they have an overwhelming desire to? That is an extreme example, but it is the same thing. Just because you feel on a deep level that you need to do something doesn't mean that it is by default an OK thing to do.

Your only argument against those of us saying you're a loon who will destroy your kids was "Well, are you a parent? It's a HUGE desire to do this!". Meaning that all you're going on is "You can't be right if you aren't also a parent." and "It's alright to do because it feels like instinct." both of which are wrong and fallacies.

You entirely missed the point of everything everyone said.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
finnius said...

Anon.. she wouldn't know the difference. Her world is spinning out of control! There's a reference to enjoyable human reproductive activities exposed to her crochfruit!

you are a puritan said...

This whole thing has been the biggest passive-aggressive suburban American puke I've ever witnessed.
And I've worked on the set of The View.

This woman clearly needs to grow up and think about some of the bigger issues facing her little snowflake in 10 or so years.

Perhaps if her child were taught to treat human sexuality as a normal thing without all the taboo and flipping out on the internet, she won't come home in a few years knocked up like Palin's kid.

Anonymous said...

"There's a reference to enjoyable human reproductive activities exposed to her crochfruit!"

Holy shit! My mistake I did not understand they were exposing basic human reproductive activities to children!!!!!
That my friends is a crime worse then gang raping an elderly blind elephant. Just plain sick. Or for that mater the even worse crime of wearing white after Labor Day.

El discount taco joint you guys are sick!

PinkTaco said...

This whole blog has earned its attention from the internet. Somebody seriously needs to shut this woman up, or get her laid.

It's like she has the coping skills of an 11 year old when dealing with the outside world.

Tonya said...

regardless... if you are too immature yourself to not tell your kid something like:

"They're making a joke... the bag is saying you have a pretty or handsome boyfriend or girlfriend, but what they really mean is there is hot food inside"

Seriously, if you can't explain humor to your children, you are underqualified to reproduce.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh, that was a pretty good answer. Don't let these people get to you, they (we) are a pretty strange bunch over at Fark. By the way, I am a parent of two teenagers and work at a school. Kids do know a lot more than they used to; I personally prefer talking to my kids about what they are going to see in society than trying to hide it from them. The reason? I was a homeschooled SHELTERED child and once I went out into the "real world"...well I was shocked and scarred by what I saw and faced. It is a favor to your kids to prepare them for what society will show them and the appropriate way to deal with it, otherwise they might be permanently damaged when they have to deal with it.

Anonymous said...

Refusing to teach your 11-year-old (who is about to enter puberty, if not already entering it) about sex because you want her to "remain innocent" is closing the barn door after the horse has long since escaped. If you want to shield your kids from society, move to a small mountain retreat. If you want them to live in this society, empower them with knowledge. How will they deal with it when they come upon it unprepared?

You are living in a fantasy world if you think your 11-year-old hasn't left your womb. Ever since the moment that cord was cut, your job has been to teach her to get along without you. Because you cannot be with her 24/7. Learn it, love it, live it -- to do otherwise is to endanger her.

Jocelyn Plums said...

I get the same kinds of comments on my blog every day. Welcome to the club, honey.

FMX said...

You cannot do that, "Jocelyn". You cannot go "Yeah, just ignore them, because they're angry." Anger does not mean irrational. A lot of people being angry does not mean someone is being ganged up on.

SOMETIMES, it means that the person being told off is in the wrong and needs to be told so.

Crywolf said...

I fail to understand how bagged a hottie is that offensive. You could tell your kid it means you managed to find an attractive girl or guy. Or that you have A HOT TACO IN A BAG. Problem solved, dust hands, continue your conservative ways.

Anonymous said...

It is not offensive at all. She is just a professional at being outraged. By that I mean she makes money off of it.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I work for Bear City Fudge Company.

We are still waiting to pack your fudge.

However, having read your blog posts and ensuing responses, I sincerely hope you've kept your children ignorant enough to not equate the appearance of fudge with feces; this has happened several times in the past with children possessing common sense, and we will not stand for our product being mocked.

Anonymous said...

Canti,

You certainly are full of opinions for an 18 yr old. How many kids do you have? Agree with "mom" or not the fact is that just because the world has become a more f-up place than it used to be does not mean people should just accept it and say "oh well." There are far to many ignorant, "fuck you" types in this world already. This woman felt Del Taco crossed the line of good taste and she spoke out about it. Good for her. All the angry haters should put that energy into doing something worthwhile instead of attacking "mom."

Anonymous said...

Classic, write off someone because of their age. For Canti being 18 he seems wiser then "mom". The world is not becoming a more evil place. Please remove your rose colored glasses when reading history. We no longer buy and sell woman and children to be worked to death growing the nations cash crops. We as a nation stopped handing out small pox infected blankets with the idea of genocide. We don't murder women for being different then call them witches anymore. People are in fact getting less violent. Not completely as we still demand blood sacrifice from foreigners to keep us supplied in cheap consumer goods.
I digress.
Some people want to be angry. "mom" is looking for any excuse she can. Is it because as someone pointed out this benefits her financially. Maybe. She could just feel lonely and the world is out of her control. So she has to put some sort of order. Mayhap she just wants to feel a bit of stability. So if that means hugging her children too close and screaming at the darkness she does not understand, then so be it. Just do not expect everyone to understand that same fear.
My personal suggestion is education. You do not know when your child will need to make a choice about a difficult situation with out you there. Hiding the truth of the situation from them only cripples them. They are stuck with using their own limited experience. That rarely ends well. Do your child a favor. Help educate them in how you want them to live. Just don't demand and then expect others to live up to your own impossible standards. After all when did sex become evil? When did it stop being about loving someone? When did sex on TV become worse then violence? After all we glorify our war heroes but never our great lovers.
~Ben

Anonymous said...

Enough of this bullshit. Let's all get laid.

Jouda Mann said...

Yes, Mad Mom, we do know you.
You are the person who never lets a child get a scratch, and then doesn't know who to blame for their child's lack of backbone when they don't take risks.
You are the mother that has gallons of Lysol and bleach for cleaning, having your child in a sterile environment so that they never have the chance to build up natural immunities, and then when your child plays with my child out in my yard, where children are supposed to play, you get mad at me because your child got sick, and you shun my family for not being as clean as yours. However, it doesn't matter to your child, because he/she knows that when they get over their little illness, they are still welcome at my house, where it's more fun anyway.
The over-sexualizing of children in America is a problem. We can at least agree on that. But you and I react in different ways.
Lets take the once popular BRATZ dolls. I never bought them for my two girls, who are now 13 and 12. You know what I did do though? I stopped and looked at the dolls on the toy aisle. I made it a point to say to my daughters, "Huh. I can tell these toys are meant for kids, but these dolls look like street trash hookers. You two would never dress like that or wear heavy makeup like that, would you?" And I got a resounding "NO" from my daughters. And more to the point, I have never seen a BRATZ doll in my house or yard. No, my daughters do not know what hookers are, or what they do. But from the inflection of my voice, they can tell that a "hooker" is a word that carries a bad connotation to it, and they don't want to do something that makes me think of hookers. I accomplished the goal that I was looking for without belittling anyone, and without raising a stink to the manufacturers who are only exploiting capitalism to it's fullest advantage, and who also apparently have a market base for their product. But neither my daughters nor I am a part of that market base. Isn't that nice?
Yes, I am a parent, and frankly, all of this crap that I hear from other parents about "you're not a parent, you don't understand" is so overworked that it drives me nuts. Parents like you drove the gross, irreverent, but harmless fun of the Garbage Pail Kids into oblivion when I was about 10 years old, and they have been making the world a little less fun ever since.
"Mother Bear" sounds Palin-esque. You already sound like an overbearing idiot a lot of the time. Don't make yourself the butt of a washed up national punchline.
Where did the knowledge of blowjobs come from? Probably from the children of parents who bought BRATZ, and thought it was okay for their child to mimic street trash hooker dolls. Or, being less irreverent, they probably learned it from a family member who has a sickness that I can't even describe. Or, being somewhat more realistic, they probably learned it from watching their older sisters and cousins from the cracks of barely-opened doors when said sister or cousin was supposed to babysitting them, and not giving the neighbor boy a blowjob. You can be sure the DID NOT learn it from Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, or any of the other totally vapid airhead pseudo - role models they see on the Disney Chanel or Nickelodeon.
Wow. It seems, after I have read a lot of your posts, that you make parenting a whole lot harder than it has to be.

Anonymous said...

It never ceases to amaze me just how many assholes there are in this world. And I'm referring mostly to the commenters. It's a sad state of affairs. And I remain anonymous because I’m not going to open myself up to the abuse of the great unwashed, ignorant masses

Mike said...

Made of rubber. I soar with eagles.

Palymama said...

Lynn, according to most blog experts you've definitely developed a "community". I'm amazed that there are people who spend time lecturing(commenting)on other people's views. By definition, your blog is your place to rant. There is a big difference in my mind between spending time trying to find a creative, funny way to write about every day irritations and someone who writes hyper-emotional responses to issues that don't even effect them. Continue your great writing - other mothers in the blogging community, really enjoy it. All of the attention (good and bad) is making your blog a successful place (although it might not feel like it).

Anonymous said...

The point you missed in the first "I'm a crazy person" blog is that because 1 person (you) were offended and called for a boycott over something so stupid -that is why the Internet came and punished you.