I am actually not a fan of McDonald’s food. I avoid going there as much as I can – for my own sake as a vegetarian and for the sake of my children’s health. But, I have to admit, McDonald’s has its usefulness. Particularly when you need a kid-friendly, neutral place to meet someone you don’t know very well.
McDonald’s is one of the first places that we met our kids when they were still in foster care. And, it’s the place that we relied on for more than a year as a meeting place for our kids’ monthly visits with their biological aunt and cousins. Now that we know aunt S and cousins D and M fairly well, they’ve been to our house a number of times. But, McDonald’s was the perfect answer for us while we were still getting to know each other. And, we still take our kids there for visits sometimes in the winter. It gets too cold in Michigan to play outside and the four kids occasionally need a larger space to play.
So, I hate to admit it, but sometimes I appreciate McDonald’s. Do you have an alternative that works for you? If so, please share – I’d love to find something better.
Shannon Mackie 
We were at McDonald’s this afternoon (reward for a good week at school and a fun place to meet up with cousins) and I have the same feelings you do about it. We sometimes go to Jungle Java (there are a few in Metro Detroit). Last winter, it was worth buying a three month pass for us when it was too cold to go outside.
I like Jungle Java too, but it’s a little far from us.
I wonder if McDonald’s has any idea that it plays such a pivotal role in the lives of foster and adoptive families. This is where we “met” our kids for the first time (we were supposed to go to Home Depot, then Chapters, which were both closed for Remembrance Day until after our designated meeting time, so we wound up at McDs). I have a particular fondness for McDonald’s because of this.
Thanks for sharing, Gus&Otto. There must be a lot of us!
Old Country Buffet, too. 🙂
Fun fact: there are more McDonald’s Playlands than public libraries in the US.
Thanks for commenting, Nicole. Does Old Country Buffet have play scapes?
I am from Indonesia, and McDonald’s is not always the first place when we need to meet someone! I am a vegetarian. We have many vegetarian restaurant options here!
Thanks for reading, Vegetarian. It sounds like I would love Indonesia!
I despise McD’s but we go there for unsupervised visit meet-ups. It’s what the kids are used to with their bio-family.
Ironically one day, an older guy came up to us and said he was a former foster dad and used McD’s too.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Laura. I bet there are a lot of us foster/adoptive families who use McDonald’s.