Raising our kids mostly in California mostly in the ’90s, it was a thing to just get in the car and go to McDonalds, Burger King or Carl’s Jr. so the kids could eat and play in the ball pits or climb on the slides with other kids their age.  Eater.com says those amenities are going away as the chains save money on space and upkeep and the kids aren’t so interested anymore anyway.

How much do kids today care if McDonald’s has a playground? They have iPads and Game Boys, and their parents might not even be taking them to fast-food restaurants anyway. According to Technomic, a food-service research and consulting firm, families with kids going to McDonald’s fell from 18.6 percent in 2011 to 14.6 percent in 2014…

According to Tristano, it doesn’t make much business sense for a fast-food restaurant to invest in a playground now. The square footage alone costs money, not to mention the equipment, the maintenance, the safety hazards, and the insurance costs. “Over the last 30 or 40 years, we’ve seen the larger playground shifting to a smaller, condensed playground and, in some cases, moving outside, which doesn’t help in the winter. It’s evolved to a point where it’s smaller and much less relevant.”

I mean, I feel bad that we fed our kids so much poison, but the playplaces were mostly cool.  There was the occasional asshole adult that would appoint themselves the playground police and yell at somebody else’s kids.  That was not cool!

It’s bad enough that my kids grew up so differently than I did.  But now even my kids can look back at this next generation and shake their heads and say “we had it better.”

Only fair, actually.  Tee hee hee!!!

And time marches ON!!!