Play Areas at Fast Food Places
Drive thru I guess!
One of our favorite places to go for a quick weeknight dinner is Chick-fil-a. It’s right down the road from where Serophina takes Karate, so we often end up there after class. It’s great because we like the food and they have a play area that the girls love to play in.
When this particular Chick-fil-a opened up in our town about two years ago I was not at all hesitant to let Serophina play in the play area. It was brand new, therefore clean and free of the usual grossness that lurks on every surface of a fast food playground.
I’ve never let Serophina play on a fast food playground otherwise. I think they smell weird and there are always a few grubby kids with snotty noses that make you want to sit as far away as possible. But when Chick-fil-a opened I was excited to have a place to let her play indoors and since it was new and nice I had no problem with it.
Well now I’m afraid that our go-to-playground is off limits. One day I had to go half way up the climbing apparatus to rescue Saioa and I was horrified at what it looked like in there. It smelled of dirty feet and was sticky and there was dried ketchup and it was just plain gross!
Now I’m in a pickle because my kids couldn’t imagine going to Chick-fil-a and not going into the playground. Am I overreacting about this or should I just look the other way and let them play in what I consider an icky play area?
How do you feel about play areas in fast food restaurants?
Speaking of snotty noses, you should see schools.
I mean that in harmless jest. I’m all for my kids playing in those play lands. I sanitize their hands and faces before they eat and when we leave. But I feel my kids are going to be exposed to germs in the real world when they’re at a sitter, school, the park, public restrooms, or any other setting. So I try to teach them good hygiene while letting them have fun.
Hi Rikki, I agree with what you’re saying about how they’re exposed to all sorts of germs everywhere they go (grocery shopping cart for example) and somehow the irrational part of me overrides the rational part when it comes to filth I can actually see!
Thanks for commenting!
Hi so i’m actually a worker at another Chick-fil-a and due to the fact that i’m short i’m often sent up to clean our play area but do be warned this is only something that the reasterant i work for has recently started doing most places do not and even the one i clean is still gross because built of dirt in the groves will take weeks of cleaning to return it to it’s clean state. it is a job i truely hate because after one trip up the stairs i feel like i need a shower, and as far as i know only my chick-fil-a cleans it. if you want more info look up this one mom and her story on utube. it’s called McSwarth: Kids Play Safe
How interesting! In a way I’m glad you filled us in because now I have some valid justification for my phobia of those play areas! It’s just crazy to me that it’s not regular protocol for all restaurants to clean their play areas. It would be like never wiping the tables clean. The chick filet that we go to is a really good one, better service than most sit down restaurants and I’m sure that they clean their play areas, I just don’t know how often.
Thanks for commenting!
you could try calling corporate and complaining about the conditions that’s y the one i work for got so serious about cleaning people called and now we clean. and don’t be afraid to ask how often they clean, theirs a reason chick-fil-a is so well liked
Thanks for the tip Bre, I will do that!