McDonald playground...how groos are they?? - Page 3

[HomeBirthMommy]

It's not just the inside places

Last week we were at a very nice outdoor park at the beach. There was a little girl who was probably about 3 (same as my dd), that was wearing a t-shirt and panties and nothing else. Her mother was sitting on a bench watching her. My dh was with dd as I was staying in the car with the sleeping baby. This little girl was standing there in the playground and just peed. A LOT!!! Right through her panties. Now this is the gross part-the mom calls her over to her and squeezes her panties in the crotch to wring them out with her bare hand. Then she just wiped her hand on her shorts and let the little girl continue to play. She had on soaking wet panties and was going on the slides and swings and the mother just let her. I was absolutely horrified! I immediately called dh to bring dd and we left. That was the grossest thing I have ever seen. Maybe rain and sun do a help a little, but for the children who went down the slide right after this girl-they were just sliding in pee. Yuck!

[applejuice]

Sorry -

I never thought that people would do this - how very unsanitary and what is that woman teaching her daughter? I know there is a problem with cats doing this at night in the sand.

I remember a similar incident 25 yrs ago at a bus stop in Los Angeles. A little girl just pooped right there on the side walk and the mother put an empty coffee cup over it! When I told the woman that is not clean and she should do something more she pretended to ignore me; when I persisted, she called me a vulgar name in another language.

Some people have a very different idea of hygiene.

I wish I had reported that woman to the CPS!

Could you have done the same?

[LunaMom]

We don't eat at McD's, so my first experience with one of these places was last weekend at a birthday party. I wasn't crazy about letting dd (age 4) play there, and my reasons may be different than some of the ones mentioned here. I mean, I do question the cleanliness of these places, sure, but these were my main concerns:

1) Unsupervised, wild kids - I was afraid she was going to get hurt.

2) VERY few "windows" in the tunnels, so that once she went in, I really couldn't see her for quite some time, and for all I knew she could have been in there crying and I couldn't help her. She wasn't, but I was worried anyway.

3) The play area was not in a room of its own; it was just open to the rest of the restaurant, which had two exit doors. On a weekend, as this was, it was VERY crowded, and dh and I kept losing track of where she was even though we were watching quite carefully - the tunnels made it tricky, because you couldn't be sure where she would come out! It was like a kidnapper's dream. And so many of the kids weren't being supervised well at all.

As far as opportunities in my area for indoor play in bad weather, I wish we had more. But we are lucky to have an excellent children's museum close by (20 min. drive), and we are members, so we can go as often as we want.

[kater07]

All I can say is EEEWWWWW

[Pigpen]

LunaMom, every community needs to have a children's museum! That's the solution to the indoor play problem. We live in an area where we can play outside most of the year so it's not as much of a problem for us (no snow, freezing weather). Children's museums allow your kids to get totally messy, creative, and everything is at their level, it's great. The one closest to us is rebuilding so it's closed for 2 years!! There is one about 40 minutes away that we will go to while we wait. I do not like indoor play structures (kids have never eaten at McD's), at Sea World they have a play area (monstrosity) that I try to avoid at all costs, of course the kids love it so we usually spend some time there. It's dangerous in my opinion b/c you enter one area with your children, they go in and could come out in a different area, you'd have no idea. It's not enclosed so they could end up at the other end of the park, or worse Poorly designed in my opinion. I know kids love these play structures (who wouldn't) but I try to take them hiking, to the beach, so they know that they can have fun without some man-made accident waiting to happen.

[becoming]

Well, the main turn-off for me was seeing a little girl about 2 years old waddling through our local McDonald's with feces dripping down both legs, then heading straight to the ball pit. And knowing that the ball pit has probably not been cleaned out since that incident, which took place about 2 years ago.

I shudder to think what nasty, horrible, disgusting things lurk at the bottom of those ball pits. Not to mention that there could be spiders, snakes, and rats hiding in there. I never had any intention of letting my children play in those things; unfortunately, my sister-in-law didn't know that and took my son there about a month ago. She no sooner got the words out of her mouth than I had in the bathtub scrubbing him down! Now she knows :-)

[Poetmama]

Last week I drove past an outdoor Burger King playarea. A boy about 9 or 0 was peeing off of the top structure onto the driveway. I wasn't sure of what I saw until dh asked "Was that kid peeing?" I wanted to throw up. So, I will avoid at all costs taking my children to those play areas. As far as outdoor equipment being "cleaner," my most distinct childhood memory of the nearby park my son now plays at, is the tube slide stinking of urine, and it always being wet. Thank God they took that slide out a couple of years ago...

[kater07]

I think that one of my biggest turn-offs is the story of the little kid who died of a herione OD b/c some junkie tossed his needle into the ball pit. The doctors couldn't figure out what bit the kid.

EEEWWWW...pee, poop, vomit...I had a friend who worked at a play land...

My child will NOT play in them if I can help it. Thank goodness, DH thinks the same way.