THE contents of the Happy Meal is the last thing on the minds of divorced parents, who are increasingly using McDonald's restaurants as the drop-off and pick-up zone for children.

Gold Coast family lawyer Jennifer Hetherington said yesterday people were often unwilling to have their former partner visit their home and McDonald's restaurants were chosen instead because they were both on neutral ground.

"I think that it is sad that parents can't put their differences to one side and have to use McDonald's as the handover point," she said.

"It sends the wrong message to children about how to behave.

"I don't think parents think through the impact on their children of such arrangements."

But family lawyer Antonious Abdelshahied said McDonald's was being turned into a family drop-off centre because judges preferred it to police stations.

"When there are domestic violence issues, the judges want to make sure the drop-off is happening somewhere safe," he said.

"That used to be police stations, but they don't like using them.

"McDonald's has carparking and toilets, but more importantly, they have CCTV.

"If something happens, it is caught on camera. A lot of my clients don't want to go somewhere like a park because they don't feel safe being out in the open."

Mr Abdelshahied said he expected McDonald's to object in the future if judges continued to use the restaurants as the location for drop-offs and pick-ups.

"This is an increasing trend," he said. "At some point, McDonald's will raise it with the courts.

"There are duty of care issues for McDonald's if something happens in the restaurant or car park."

Police stations were a worse choice than McDonald's, according to Ms Hetherington, but some parents insisted on the drop-off and pick up happening there - even when there were no legal issues.

She suggested using schools if the parties were unable to get along.

"If a home changeover is not possible, we suggest children be dropped off and picked up at the start and the end of school instead," she said.

"It avoids interaction between parents and sends a positive message."

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