McDonald’s PlayPlaces Were Forever Changed by This Arizona Mother

We've talked about unique McDonald's stories in Arizona before; one city is home to the only restaurant WITHOUT the golden arches. But it turns out that Arizona also played a huge part in making sure the McDonald's PlayPlaces were actually kept CLEAN back for children to use.

If you don't remember the PlayPlaces, here's a trip down memory lane

Growing up in the 90s & 00s, kids LOVED going into the giant play area that...let's be real, if you remember it, it was quite an adventure. (at least I thought it was). Giant tube mazes, slides, the ball pit... kids loved it! Nowadays not many McDonald's restaurants have them but they DO exist in various parts of the country.

While these areas were fun, there was ONE issue with them... with SO many kids playing in these areas, just how clean were they exactly? Well that's where our Arizonian mother comes into the story.

This Arizona mom made people aware on how dirty the PlayPlaces were

In October 2011, Erin Carr-Jordan, the Executive Director of Digital Equity and Social Impact from Arizona State University (ASU), while taking her kids to a local McDonald's, noticed just how dirty the PlayPlace was, decided to travel to 8 different restaurants to see just how dirty THEY were. She found rotting food, hair, windows broken, as well as several pathogens that could've caused health problems. The story made national news & was even covered by ABC News.

After this discovery, Dr. Jordan founded the Kids Play Safe nonprofit organization, a group dedicated to making sure that play areas in food service establishments are clean & safe for children. It was after this that McDonald's decided to make changes to their PlayPlaces, or in some cases, remove them entirely. This wasn't the only reason why they're not around, but the fact that they were very unclean didn't help at all. Oh and don't forget COVID...

I'm not sure if these areas will entirely come back so let's just be thankful of the memories we DO have, and if they DO come back...let's make sure they're clean for the next generation.

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