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I rarely share personal posts on this blog, but I know many of you are parents, sisters or brothers, aunts or uncles, grandparents, babysitters, and friends of those with young children. With that in mind, something happened over the summer that I simply can’t forget and I think you all should know about it.

On July 7th, my kids and I were enjoying a playdate with a friend of mine and her two children at a McDonald’s PlayPlace. They ate lunch and went off to play. Our two eldest children, both four years old, would occasionally holler or wave at us from the play area.

And then Sophie fell.

Because she landed behind a plastic toyhouse, no one saw her hit the ground. The nearest person (a good samaritan named Grace) called 911 as everyone rushed to see how badly my Sophie was injured. She was crying, sort of gasping in shock, and we wouldn’t let her move as we waited for paramedics. It was apparent that she had fallen from the upper level of the structure, but we couldn’t understand how it happened. She didn’t have any visible injuries and I was terrified that she might have internal injuries. Paramedics secured a brace around her tiny neck, strapped her little body to a gurney, and we zipped off in an ambulance.

At the hospital, it was determined that her injuries weren’t severe. A bruise on her bum indicated that she hit the window ledge on her way down, but because she was never unconscious we had no reason to believe she hit her head. A few hours after her fall (and after very close supervision), we were released from the hospital and sent on our way.

However, I could not stop reliving it over & over again in my head. How did she fall? Did she slip through a hole in the net? Had she scaled the poles like a monkey and fallen while hanging from one of them? I just didn’t understand. Finally, a couple days later, I decided to take her back to “the scene of the crime” to have her show me exactly how it happened. Together we climbed up to the top level of the playplace, and she pointed to where there had been a gap in the net — it was no longer there, as McDonald’s management closed it since the incident, but I knew exactly which one she was talking about. In the minutes immediately after her fall, I had seen it but ruled it out as a possibility because there would have been no way for her to get through it (or so I thought). The hole was in the net attached to the roof, and she would have had to do some acrobatic pull-up without any leverage for her feet (or perhaps could have used a boost from another kiddo). Regardless, she managed to climb through this gaping hole and onto the roof of the structure. She then shuffled to the side and fell approximately twelve feet to the ground. If she had fallen a foot or two to her right, she would have landed on bare concrete in a closed-off, padlocked area. Fortunately, the ground she landed on was filled in with some kind of substance with a little bit of “give,”  the kind of stuff that’s used in the newer playgrounds instead of sand or woodchips. It was just enough to provide some protection when she hit the ground. We were fortunate.

I later learned that federal laws only require playplaces such as McDonald’s to have a third party inspect the structure for safety ONCE per year. That’s it. One time every twelve months. Any additional safety checks must be initiated by McDonald’s — and although you think they would do this often, they don’t. The franchise owner of this location stated that he has safety inspections done monthly. Whether or not that’s true, I can’t say for sure, but I have my doubts.

In hindsight, I wish I had gone up into the playplace with Sophia and checked it out before allowing her to play freely. Unless and until federal or state laws are changed, it remains solely the responsibility of us parents (and relatives, caregivers, babysitters, and friends) to go above and beyond to ensure that our children are safe. Accidents happen, absolutely, but this fall was 100% preventable. I was far too trusting and naive in my belief that my daughter would be safe in the playplace. Although there are an endless number of lessons to be learned from this experience, my hope is that other parents will pay closer attention when they take their kids to play areas such as this one — or avoid them altogether. We know how lucky we are that Soph wasn’t more seriously injured; the outcome could have been far worse. Please keep our experience in mind the next time you are at any play area, and take an extra minute or two to closely examine the structure before allowing your child to go up. Trust me; it’s worth it.

McDonald’s PlayPlace (pics taken last week on my iPhone)

This is the flooring, maybe a few inches thick (it replaced the ball pit from the “olden days”). You can also see to the right, where another portion of the playplace is sectioned off. That’s purple painted concrete.The cemented, closed-off space is also padlocked. Thank God Sophie didn’t land there.This sign was posted after Sophie’s accident.My precious girl celebrated her fifth birthday a few weeks ago. The nurses let her keep her neck brace, which protects a different teddy bear every day.