McDonald's Play-Place Protocol

*In this blog post there will be appearances from my best friend and his 3 year old daughter. For privacy purposes their names will be "Funman" and "Le-Le", respectively.*

Picture of an authentic McDonald's play-place for reference. Minus the millions of unattended children and mass chaos and confusion. :D

 Yesterday, after running errands with Funman, Mikah and I decide to join our friends at McDonald's for a small lunch and a run around the play-place. It was a really gloomy, wet day so I was pretty satisfied to have somewhere, besides my house, to let Mikah burn off his toddler energy. Even better, Mikah had never been prior to this one occasion so I was curious as to how he'd react.



 He and Le-Le had a great time running, jumping, and rolling around. Mikah didn't quite get what he was supposed to do, but Le-Le was a pro at it. She tried to get him interested a few times, but Mikah was just as happy jumping inside a big, red "ball"... as he put it.

 Then, the others came... Two women and their kids came in with their lunch maybe 5 minutes after we had gone in there. The oldest two, a boy and a girl, were older than our kids by probably a few years. The oldest was the boy and he was sweet and patient with both Mikah and Le-Le. The girl, however, was bossy and rude. She initiated adventures through the winding tubes but only if you did as you were told. Though, even with her attitude, there were many things that were easily overlooked. Funman and I even got in there with our kids so that Le-Le wouldn't get upset that her new friend didn't want to play anymore.

 After a few minutes of climbing, chasing, and sliding, Funman and I got out to catch our breath. That's when the other kids got their infant brother in there with them so he could "explore". At first it was cute, but then the little girl decided that no one was allowed in the tube where he was at. Le-Le, not understanding this, tried to get in to see the baby but the little girl was not having it. She pushed Le-Le and I reprimanded them telling them to share. Then the little girl yelled at her, telling her to stay out when Le-Le tried again to play! That's when Funman started getting upset and confused as to how to handle the situation. Instead, I kept telling them to share and stop being mean, but when the little girl forced Le-Le out of the tube I scolded her and told her to keep her hands to herself.

 All of this happened while the two women they came with just sat eating and talking like nothing was happening. Funman quickly decided that playtime was over so I changed Mikah's diaper and we were out of there. We discussed what had just happened when we got into the car and that's when Funman commented, "I didn't know what to do. I mean, what's the protocol for that? Is there a McDonald's play-place protocol? Ugh, stupid parents." We had a pretty good laugh about that and went on our way. I feel like we handled the situation well, but both Funman and I have heard tales of fights breakout among parents for strangers disciplining each other's children, Even adults being rude to children at places like these. So what is the protocol? In this day and age we all have to walk around on egg shells, it seems, just to want to defend our kids. Silly.