Mom Demands Apology After Kid Leaves McDonald’s Play Place Covered in Poop
Intellectually, I think we all know that a McDonald’s Play Place is not the world’s most sanitary thing. Countless children run all over them, and they are often filthy. New Hampshire mom Justina Whitmore says she knew that when she told her 5-year-old son he could play in one, but she had no idea just how filthy a Play Place could be. When he came back, he was completely covered in another kid’s poop.
”Germs yes, poop no,” she told the local Fox affiliate.
Whitmore says that she was eating at her table, watching her son on the Play Place. He went down a covered yellow slide, and when he came out the other end, he was covered in human waste.
”I was still eating and the next thing I knew he came out and just stated there was poop all inside the slide,” she said. ”When he came out, he was covered in poop.”
It wasn’t the staff’s fault.
The poopsplosion was not the staff’s fault, though. Whitmore’s son was playing tag on the Play Place with another child. That child was wearing a diaper. Whitmore’s son says he the other kid went down the long, twisty, covered yellow slide first, and the diaper exploded. Gabriel was close behind, and it got all over him.
”It was because he went down the slide first,” he said. ”And then I couldn’t help it and it went all over me.”
That is exceptionally disgusting, but somehow it feels a little less gross than the idea that there was just errant poop sitting in the Play Place for God knows how long.
Bad form, other parents.
Whitmore rushed her son into the bathroom to clean him off, but there was no soap or paper towels.
The McDonald’s employees, however, did not help much when Whitmore went to ask for soap and paper towels. She says they were just laughing and arguing about whose job it was to clean up the Play Place, which was now covered in some random kid’s shit.
Whitmore says she argued with them for 10 minutes for paper towels or soap or something to clean her son off with. She wound up using her bare hands and one of his socks–which was the only clean garment on him.
The person responsible for the kid in the diaper should have handled it, but it sounds like that kid and his parents both disappeared from the story as soon as the poop appeared. Bad form, other parents.
Whitmore is pissed off about how unhelpful she says the staff were and that there was no soap in the bathroom.
Gross, grosser, grossest.
”I’m sure employees go to the bathroom,” Whitmore said. ”There’s no soap. How are they washing their hands?”
That’s actually a good point. Employees are required to wash their hands after using the bathroom. If there’s no soap in the bathrooms, how are they washing their hands before going back and preparing food?
The restaurant owner eventually apologized to Whitmore, after she complained to the news about the incident. The Manchester, N.H., health department allowed the Play Place to reopen the next day after it was cleaned and sanitized.
This whole thing is profoundly disgusting, most of all the parents of the kid who lit out of the building with their poop-covered kid and did not stop to give the other mother wipes, or to clean up the slide, or even to apologize. It’s not fair to make the McDonald’s employees do it.
Do you let your kids play in the Play Place? Let us know in the comments.
(Image: iStockPhoto / Shinyfamily)
