Not so happy meal (From Swindon Advertiser)

Not so happy meal

11:56am Friday 22nd August 2008

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We had a rather unfortunate experience today whilst visiting MacDonald’s in Swindon town centre. We had decided to take the children for a treat, but sadly it went from being a light hearted treat to a hard, shocking life lesson for them. My youngest daughter (6) was especially distressed.

We sat on the big table downstairs which is situated within close proximity to the toilet (always an advantage with six children who seem to be constantly flitting to and from the loo every two minutes!) Immediately on arrival, even before we could ask our youngest two what they wanted to eat,they had to visit the loo. Despite the restaurant being quite busy, the upstairs section, along with the toilets were closed, so the only toilet available was the one downstairs. The kids had to wait to use it as there was a queue.

We had just managed to get the food sorted, the two youngest to the loo, the other four sat nicely and had all just started eating, when in walked an extremely scruffy, dirty looking man, along with two equally scruffy women. They immediately headed for the one and only loo. The first woman went in and was in there an age. During that time a large queue developed. Her companion stood outside the toilet shouting at her to hurry, she appeared very agitated. I tried to distract the children with chatter and we continued to eat.

The first woman came out and immediately after that the second women went in along with a huge ruck sack. The other two sat in a nearby seat, the woman got out a make up case and proceeded to paint her face. The woman in the toilet started shouting loudly to her friends outside that it was taking ages. At this point I passed my mobile phone over to my other half, I had typed a text message out telling him that I suspected that they were taking drugs in the loo and we needed to finish our food and go asap, I asked him to avoid letting the children use the toilet, not that we could of gotten in there anyway.

The queue got bigger and people started to complain to the counter staff. They banged on the door and were greeted with a colourful verbal exchange from the occupant. The kids were watching the whole scenario with interest, whilst I tried to distract them and hurry them along with their food.

It was at this point that the children’s drinks were finished and their little bladders full. The youngest started “I want toilet” “so do I!” “Me too” came five resounding calls. It was gone 5.30pm at this point and all the shops were closed. We decided to try the public toilets nearby but they too were closed. By this point Alfie was near on bursting and Abbie was crying. We needed to find a toilet and fast.

We sat on the big table downstairs which is situated within close proximity to the toilet (always an advantage with six children who seem to be constantly flitting to and from the loo every two minutes!)

I spotted a security guard showing shop workers out of the Brunel Centre and decided to explain the rather desperate situation to him. He was torn between rules and regulations and obviously wanting to keep his job, but luckily for us he was a lovely chap who could empathise with our desperate situation. So he allowed us into the shopping centre and escorted us to the loo. We were so bloody grateful!

Unfortunately the whole situation confused the children and provoked lots of questions (as is often the case with kids, when anything remotely out of the norm happens.) The children had overheard me telling the security guard that there were people doing drugs in the toilet in MacDonald’s. The oldest four know what illegal drugs are as we have discussed the subject at home and also they have had some talks at school. My youngest daughter who is six though didn’t have a clue, as I had yet to broach the subject with her, choosing to hold onto her innocence for that little tiny bit longer. However that decision had now been snatched out of my hands thanks to some desperate druggies, who had decided to invade what should have been a child friendly environment.

The oldest four asked questions like why do people take drugs? Why did they do it in MacDonald’s toilet? What happened to people who took drugs? I answered these questions as best as I could and they seemed to be content with my answers and soon forgot the incident, as we toddled off home to feed the piggies, rabbit and cat.

Youngest daughter however was stil distressed by the whole situation and most put out that her treat had been ruined by these naughty grown ups. She already knew and understood that children were sometimes naughty, but had never experienced a grown up being naughty and trying to take that on board was a struggle for her. She also wanted to know what a drug was and how people took them. I tried to keep it as simple as possible and showed her a picture of a needle, telling her that if she ever saw one never to touch it and immediately tell a grown up.

She found it hard to settle down to sleep, as this whole episode unsettled her and she lay awake puzzling and worrying for a while. This experience has taken away a small piece of her innocence and I really don’t think she was ready for this. But this decision was forced out of my hands by druggies who just simply do not understand the consequences of their actions, as they are much to wrapped up in their “drugs bubble.”