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Showing posts from June, 2018

Having a Soft Heart in a PlayPlace

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"You're gonna fall and bust your ass!" the guy called to his son, who was dangling upside-down from a climbing rope on the second level of a three-tier McDonald's PlayPlace. This father and his friend had together brought three rambunctious boys for Happy Meals, ice cream, and play time. Their boys were maybe 9, 7, and 2. I had brought my own two kiddos -- ages 5 and 2 -- to the same junk food joint for dinner and to burn off some energy. My husband was on day three of a five-day trip out of town, and I didn't have the energy to keep yelling "stop yelling!" at the library so I took us somewhere that yelling was acceptable if not encouraged. This, however, was not exactly the kind of yelling I expected. An enormous array of people visit fast food restaurants located near major highways. I was the suburban SAHM sipping a Coke; these two dads each wore large-gauge, black plugs in their earlobes and spit dip into used plastic cups while they chatted. Nev