Today's playgrounds may be too safe, critics warn

MSNBC ^ | July 19, 2011 | John Tierney

[Kaslin]

Eliminating towering monkey bars, tall slides may be safer, but it can keep kids from conquering fears

When seesaws and tall slides and other perils were disappearing from New York’s playgrounds, Henry Stern drew a line in the sandbox. As the city’s parks commissioner in the 1990s, he issued an edict concerning the 10-foot-high jungle gym near his childhood home in northern Manhattan.

“I grew up on the monkey bars in Fort Tryon Park, and I never forgot how good it felt to get to the top of them,” Mr. Stern said. “I didn’t want to see that playground bowdlerized. I said that as long as I was parks commissioner, those monkey bars were going to stay.”

[ken5050]

That’s almost it....the first guy was called the “pillow.” He’d lean against a wall..everyone else on his team.bends over at the waist, grabs the guy in front of him..the other team sequentially runs and jumps onto the backs.

[PATRIOT1876]

A short film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's “Harrison Bergeron”, 2081 depicts a dystopian future in which, thanks to the 212th Amendment to the Constitution and the unceasing vigilance of the United States Handicapper General, everyone is “finally equal....” The strong wear weights, the beautiful wear masks and the intelligent wear earpieces that fire off loud noises to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains. It is a poetic tale of triumph and tragedy about a broken family, a brutal government, and an act of defiance that changes everything.

This is the fondest dream of Leftists like Pelosi, Moore, Maher, Gore and Reid. Of course they will have special privileges as members of the Elite (some animals are more equal than others). We almost have that now. If Obama wins in 2012 and we don't have the House & Senate, this will have been an accurate prediction for 2013.

[ken in texas]

How about school cross-walks? The kids are taught that when you're in the cross-walk people have to stop, plus they're assisted by crossing guards at times.

So... they never learn that it's still important to look for oncoming traffic.

[Fiji Hill]

You hardly ever see kids outside playing anymore.

Not long ago, a woman who had lived a long life--she was in her 90's or 100's--was asked to describe the biggest change she had seen in her lifetime. And no, it was not space exploration, jet travel, or the Internet--it was the fact that children today are rarely seen outdoors.

[jurroppi1]

Go to any playground in any rural area and listen to the foul language coming out of 5 year old kid’s mouths - let alone the teeny boppers, baby mommas and such that seem to hang there and defile the places. You probably wouldn’t want to bring your 4 year old child there either - or let them go there when they are older.

Yes, playgrounds are becoming obsolete for a lot of reasons. I suspect another biggie is people not wanting to deal with the filth they must encounter so little jimmy or susie can conquer the few monkey bars left at them...

[Fiji Hill]

Before flaming me with “it’s for the CHILDREN!” what about the guy heading home with two drinks in him...

...or the guy who has just taken his daily dose of "medical marijuana," a growing hazard on the roads.

[TheOldLady]

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[EQAndyBuzz]

“Remember “Johnny on the Pony””

We called it Buck Buck. We used to have massive games of Buck Buck. Went on for hours. One time someone landed wrong on me, busting up my coccyx pretty bad. Spent most of the night in Coney Island Hospital.

About 3:00am after hours of watching knife winds, overdoses and battered people being treated, the emergency doc finally got to me. Told him how I got hurt and he looked at me and my dad, and said to me, “you weren’t aligned correctly.”.

Then the doctor and my dad talked about the Giants for 15 minutes.

[ken5050]

Coney Island Hospital...wow..that takes me back...

Nathan's on Coney Island was the best...

[Elsie]

ONLY if the safety strap interlock is activated on the controller.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Taliban Denies Reports That Leader Mullah Omar Is Dead

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/20/taliban-denies-reports-that-leader-mullah-omar-is-dead/#ixzz1SfZm41ff

still, keep your eye our for him.

[fredhead]

I do remember a serious injury at a playground. It was when I was in 2nd grade, back in 1966. One of my classmates had the wooden seat break in the swings at school, he fell out backwards and broke both arms.

Of course, in 1966 his parents did NOT sue the school.

Swingset seats were changed to the strap kind within a month, however.

[Elsie]

It suddenly occurred to me that she was one of those school bus kids all grown up.

Or it was California!

[Elsie]

Just this morning, a woman strode out from between two cars in the parking lot with giving me or my car the slightest glance.

She was a VISITOR from California!

[Elsie]

Takeru Kobayashi; is that YOU??

Say “Hi!” to Chestnut for me!

[Texan]

Or "Smear the Queer."

Was that another name for Red Rover?

At the age I played that (in a small rural grade school), none of us knew that word had any other meaning except something being "odd". Same for "gay". Too bad those words got corrupted.

[pigsmith]

Bwahahahaha!

[pigsmith]

All those school-bus kids have grown up and come to work at my place of employment withing the last twenty years or so. One of them tripped and fell over a parking bumper in the parking lot, so instead of just saying 'pay attention next time', the response of the company was to remove at least ten acres of concrete parking bumpers, repave it all glassy-smooth, and fence in the pedestrians to restricted walkways.

Otherwise, any pedestrian seen walking anywhere near a curb or newly-fenced walkway causes all motor vehicle traffic to screech to a stop until the ped has safely entered a building.

[Elsie]

and we did it to ourselves!

[Politicalmom]

It may BE racist against gypsies!! :p