People are yearning for the days with less screens and more ball pits because of a viral post about the current state of McDonald’s PlayPlaces.
On March 5, author and journalist Nancy French posted on X about one she visited in Franklin, Tennessee.
“This is so heart breaking,” French wrote. “I’m at a new McDonalds in Franklin, TN and look at their ‘play place’ for children. Two screens/two chairs. 😭😭😭”
Indeed, the sight is a stark one: Two chairs sit in the corner of a nearly empty room with tablets affixed to the wall. It has wood paneling, a wavy paint job on an accent wall and a pint-sized sign with a waving cartoon Happy Meal.
French said she returned to make sure she didn’t miss anything and took a video that gave a fuller view of the space, including a sign displaying the rules.
“There was this column thing that might be for getting kids to exercise,” she wrote, showing off a competitive stomping machine in the restaurant. “But I don’t think this is temporary. I think this is it.”
French’s post went viral, garnering more than 16.4 million views and even more on Reddit. Needless to say, people had plenty of feelings about the space.
“stop this is so depressing,” one Reddit user wrote.
“black mirror vibes,” commented another.
“@McDonalds bring back huge play gyms,” posted an X user. “Sincerely, every Mom.”
“Chairs in the corner too. Thats pathetic,” wrote another. “I never got tired of it, but they removed it and replaced it with a cement slab, so I quit asking my parents to go and we got a trampoline instead.”
This user, like many others, shared memories of past PlayPlaces, including “metal igloos” painted like hamburgers, networks of tunnels and more.
Others offered a different perspective — that our childhood PlayPlaces could not exist in today’s world.
“The playgrounds of the past were a liability nightmare, so there’s no way they’re coming back,” noted one X user.
“Less lawsuits. More profit,” wrote one Redditor, to whom another replied, “Also less of a b—- to clean. I can only imagine the horror of poop in the ball pit.”
When TODAY.com reached out to the specific McDonald’s location, a manager said that both tablets have four games to play in addition to the stomp machine.
“McDonald’s and our franchisees are proud to provide family-friendly spaces across many of our US restaurants,” a McDonald’s USA representative tells TODAY.com. “While this restaurant has a few interactive features for younger guests, it does not represent the full PlayPlace design and experience.”
Meanwhile, French says she agrees with many of the comments lamenting the lack of whimsy in modern times.
“In my life growing up in Tennessee, we could not afford McDonald’s,” French tells TODAY.com, which is why she loves treating herself to it. “I think of it as a really special thing and I know a lot of people feel that way. And in rural communities, that is where you gather.”
Whatever happened to McDonald’s PlayPlaces?
In 1971, a McDonald’s in Birmingham, Alabama built the first PlayPlace prototype, and in 1972, a refined version appeared at the Illinois State Fair, where an estimated 350,000 kids and parents tested it out over 10 days. It was a hit.
The ball pit was invented in 1976 and brought to McDonald’s in the ‘80s, along with slides, other attractions and the PlayPlace name.
Eventually, a litany of controversies and lawsuits plagued the PlayPlace — including injuries, second-degree burns and harmful bacteria — which led to its demise.
McDonald’s does still offer kids parties and encourages parents to hold them at locations with indoor or outdoor PlayPlaces. Its restaurant locator, however, doesn’t currently provide that information.
