Like any good health conscious mother, I took my precious preschoolers to McDonald’s before our visit to Bush Gardens for the afternoon. I had a coupon for a free meal and I was feeling generous with the kiddos so they each got a nutritious Happy Meal with a toy. After chowing down on the artery clogging, but delicious food, we made our last trip to the bathroom before heading out to a late afternoon at the park. If you have preschoolers, then you know it is always an adventure to go anywhere and keeping up with all your stuff and the kids is no easy feat.
So as we are washing our hands and getting ready to head to the car, I went looking for my keys. They were not in my purse or jacket pocket where I thought they were so I figured I must have left them by the register when I was trying to get one of my children off the counter while I ordered their food. The keys were no where to be found. I then looked out into the parking lot to see if my car was still there, because certainly someone could have found my keys and taken off with my car by this time. Of course though, this was just a crazy pregnant brain thought, because my car was still in the parking the lot just sitting there nice and pretty. I told the kids they had to keep an eye on ME and let’s go to the car.This is when I discovered the answer to, “HOW TO SAVE WHEN YOU VISIT MCDONALD’S WITH PRESCHOOLERS.“
And the answer is, DON’T LOCK YOUR KEYS IN THE CAR!
I called my dear husband and a police officer friend thinking one of them would be able to help me out. The advice from both, call Pop-A-Lock. The good news is that I did have my phone on me and though I have very few contacts, I was able to “Google” Pop-A- Lock’s number. So we went back inside McDonald’s for some ice cream while we waited on the locksmith. Cade had more fun getting it all over his mouth and then letting me take funny pictures of him.
Since I had my camera in my purse, I decided to make the most of the situation and document it instead of cry over how forgetful I had been. Pop-A-Lock dude arrived in about 30 minutes and rescued this pregnant mom and her preschoolers.
It was a cold afternoon in Tampa, so as you can see below the kids were very excited to get back in the car and I was even more excited to not be stranded and McDonald’s for the rest of the evening. 
Now you know how to save when you visit McDonald’s, go through the drive-thru or just DON’T LOCK YOUR KEYS IN THE CAR! Like the words in the famous Master Card commercial say…
Two Happy Meals – $7.00
Two ice cream cones – $2.00
One Lock Smith – $44.00
Learning how to save when you visit McDonald’s with preschoolers – PRICELESS.
Sincerely,
Paige
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
THIS is PRICELESS!! I love it!!! You are such a great Mama!! I’m glad I’m not the only one with this dilemna, oops… Love you woman.
loved your story – but here is a little tip from your older friend Gerry – about what i did when my kids were little (and could not read yet) and I was too tired for the fast food battle –
When they would see a macdonalds and just HAVE to have a happy meal I would tell them that the MacDonalds Sign said that they were out of fries that day and we would have to go another day – worked like a charm
by the way- your kids are too cute (!) – what will baby number three look like?? maybe a little bit of clay will show up?
Gerry,
That’s a great tip and THANKS! I wish I would have known that today when I when the kids were begging to go to McDonalds today. I told them we could only spend $5 so they said will order something cheap mom, don’t worry:)
I’ll use your line next time.