Is This Woman a Hero or a Crazy Person?

Vigilante Mom Blows the Whistle on Disgusting Fast-Food Playgrounds

I may have mentioned in the past that McDonald's playland is a very important option for us when it comes to energy-burning activities during inclement weather.  Truth be told, there are many aspects of McDonald's playland that make it a darn-near perfect place.  It's nearby, with parking that is both free and close to the front door.  I, as a parent, can just sit there and supervise play without having to participate.  They have free wi-fi, so I can get some stuff done on the Internet while my kid is entertained.  Plus, everyone gets fed without my having to cook or clean up, and Nathan eats the food without any type of battle.  (Side note: I usually make Nathan get the apple dippers, so nutrition-wise, I think that probably makes me Mother of the Year.  Also the salads are very Weight Watchers-friendly.)  And Nathan tends to regard the cheap plastic Happy Meal toy as like the greatest toy he's ever owned, for 15 minutes at least.   

Sure, I feel uneasy about going to McDonald's, kind of like I've sold my soul.  But the whole fast-food thing certainly isn't the worst of the ideals I've compromised since becoming a parent, so mostly I feel okay about sitting under the golden arches from time to time. 

Which is why I eagerly clicked over to this Chicago Tribune story about a watchdog mom who is visiting fast-food playgrounds looking for germs. 

Erin Carr-Jordan is a 36-year-old Arizona mother who is visiting fast-food playgrounds nationwide and recording the sometimes-appalling conditions she finds.  In some cases she has swabbed the playground and sent the swabs for microbial testing.  (The article does not indicate the results of the microbial tests.)  She's so serious about her mission that she has incorporated fast-food playground-testing into her family's summer vacation travels. 

Now, on the one hand, some of the article's examples of filth at fast-food playgrounds are disgusting.  The article talks of hair, food particles, sticky surfaces, and something it calls "thick black schmutz."  (And look, I love a good Yiddish colloquialism as much as the next guy, but the term "schmutz" does not really give the reader a terribly accurate description as to what exactly is in these playlands.  Urban dictionary just defines schmutz as "random, icky stuff.") 

Of course I don't want my child playing in filth and schmutz, especially at a place where he also consumes food.  I'm glad somebody is calling these fast-food places out on their failure to keep play areas clean.  Certainly there are children with compromised immune systems--the article mentions that Carr-Jordan's partner-in-crime at the biology lab is the mother of such a child--and the world should be a safer place for these kids, and all kids. 

However, there's just something about this woman that makes her come across as a crazy person.  Maybe she just looks crazy in the picture that accompanies the article, in which case I acknowledge that it's unfair to judge a person as crazy just based on one random picture taken by a newspaper photographer.  But that look in her eyes suggests that she has just stumbled upon what she perceives as the world's greatest injustice, and doggonit, these people are going to pay. 

And for some reason I get the impression that she gets some kind of pleasure out of finding fault with the McDonald's playground.  When she peers through the window of the playground and mouths the words "The is bad.  This is really bad," I can't help but feel that she is really excited about the disgusting conditions she has exposed. 

I guess, to me, this situation just comes across as some white, middle-class mom who has nothing better to do than complain about fast-food playground conditions.  I mean, the part about how she incorporates the playground visits into her family's vacation?  That's weird, right? 

I guess I'd like to see this woman devote her energy to more important causes, like raising funds for research on the condition her biologist friend's child has that makes his immune system compromised.  Or maybe she could work on exposing the filthy living conditions of the poor, not the problems she has found at a few McDonald's franchises. 

I get it.  She has to start small, focus on something she can possibly change.  Charity begins at home and all that.  (Though I should note that she is not, in fact, at home if she's looking for bacteria at fast-food restaurants during her vacation.  She's from Arizona.  This article took place in Chicago.)  I guess, though, that I wish she would set her sights a little larger and focus on a bigger problem than fast-food playgrounds.