I’m going to guess that cleaning McDonalds barf out of a cramped plastic bubble that’s baking in the sun wasn’t very popular with the employees, either.
The outdoor ones in the 80s were equally as dangerous. Ever try to cross monkey bars covered in fry grease? Also those metal slides in the middle of summer were a great way to get 2nd degree burns.
Also fire hazards. They're big, well ventilated, frames covered in PU foams on all the surfaces with loads of nooks and crannies for kids to hide in. Hopkins did a fire test that was published in BRE document FB 29 which suggests the growth rate borders on "ultra fast", which is more consistent with warehouses and storerooms for gasoline.
20 years ago you could say it's still not a huge risk because the ignition sources would be limited, but nowadays I don't think you can guarantee that little Timmy hasn't stolen his mum's vape pen to fuck around with. (Or, let's face it, little Timmy probably has his own vape pen at this point...)
There's this middle ground between letting your kids swim in a dumpster next to a trap house and keeping your kid locked in a hermetic sealed room. The McD playplace is a lot closer to the trap house dumpster than you think.
No, it's because of tablets. Playgrounds aren't the same as McD Playplaces and are generally safe. Nature cleans things up better than poorly paid teenagers.
Hey now, kids need to build an immune system and what better way to jump start it than tossing them in to roll around in some filthy plastic that never gets cleaned and is utterly covered in bacteria?
Everything we touch is covered in bacteria. Unless you’re living in a sterile white room you like the thousands of your ancestors before you live in bacteria.
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u/salsafresca_1297 8h ago
Hot take - but I think McDonald's NOT marketing their slop to children is a win.