The dulling of American playgrounds (no more monkey bars or see saws)

MSNBC / AP ^ | 7.5.03

[mhking]

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 5 — The playgrounds, like so much in Gigi McGaughey’s 4-year-old world, are not the way her parents remember. No 12-foot-tall metal slides shimmer and bake in the summer sun. The hulking jungle gyms where girls would hang by their knees, ponytails dangling over hard asphalt below, have been dismantled. It is hard to find those kid-powered merry-go-rounds that used to give giddy gut-level lessons in centrifugal force.

GONE, TOO, are the seesaws where earlier generations learned the art of cooperation and felt the betrayal of a sudden, bruising letdown.

Schoolyards and neighborhood parks have been transformed over the past two decades in the name of safety and in fear of lawsuits. The old standbys have given way to shorter, guardrail-lined plastic-and-steel play structures, leaving childhood experts complaining about cookie-cutter sameness and sterile designs that do not challenge today’s youngsters.

Many parents express a mixture of nostalgia and relief.

[Irish Eyes]

Thanks for starting this great thread. I had almost forgotten how much fun we all had "in the good old days".

I remember now about the Jungle Gyms, Monkeybars and the Maypole just to name a few. Great memories.

[jonathonandjennifer]

My concern in this regard has been for some time now that the goal of our society, for whatever reason, is to protect children from experiencing any pain resulting from their own actions. Carried to the extremes we are now approching, the first pain some coddled young people may feel is when the auto they have recently been allowed to drive slams into a wall.

[Paleo Conservative]

Carried to the extremes we are now approching, the first pain some coddled young people may feel is when the auto they have recently been allowed to drive slams into a wall.

Oh! I hate it when that happens.

[Blood of Tyrants]

YOU had swings? We would just throw each other out of a barn to see who bounced highest. (Contrary to popular belief, the fat kids don't bounce higher. The just tend to splat like a piece of clay.)

[longtermmemmory]

There is no father to say get up and be tough.

We are now virtually tough in video games.


No more old trains to play on in the playground.

[proudofthesouth]

Throwing green pine cones. That brings back memories. I once got hit in the face with one. Ouch! But I recovered and it left no scars.

Aside from riding my bike, one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to get the cardboard boxes that large appliances came in, crawl inside, then roll down a hill. One of those boxes could keep a neighborhood of kids happy for a couple of days.

[CARDINALRULES]

We had the large metal swingsets at school, we would jump off and land in the soft sand but after a kid broke his ankle the school put an end to that...so we made up a game we called Frogger, where we had to dodge the kids on the 12 swings in the shortest time. It was always better to be on the swing than running and dodging.

At home we had a fairly large swingset...2 swings, rings, bar, monkey bars and metal slide.
I remember the ONE time I jumped from a swing onto the bar swing ... hurt my shoulder, but I caught the bar and did a flip off of it.
My oldest sister broke her arm when she fell from the top.

My sisters and I also spent a lot of time on the roof and jumping off onto an old mattress.

[dsutah]

I know what you mean about helmets anyway. I remember not having to wear any years ago. Of course, we had more injuries then. I narrowly escaped a concussion once; by hitting the back wheel of a bike turning into a driveway on our street. I flipped over, and the next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky with my bike on top of me!

I was only shook up, and had a mild headache. The neighbor lady was real worried, and had me come into her house and lay down, until she could call my mother to tell her I was there. I was just really lucky!

Another little girl ran into a light pole on the corner near our house, and she was badly injured. She was lucky too, but it was scary for her for awhile! She was in the hospital for a bit; I can't remember how long. But it was quite awhile before I saw her come out to play again.

[dsutah]

Oh, that must be like playing "Queer Day", when I was in Jr. High! That seems like such a long time ago! I didn't even know what a 'queer' was! Talk about naive! But we were blessedly sheltered in those days. That was something we really didn't need to know about. Now it's in our faces all over.

Sad thing is, it's no fun to make jokes about them anymore, when you have a couple of relatives that are gay. I would never make fun of them, out of regard for them as family; but find it so sad that they wound up being like that! But for the most part; even in those days, most of them kept to themselves, and didn't 'force' themselves at others in such an obnoxious way. It's like they seemed to respect, if not themselves, but others around them; and mind their own business.

[snippy_about_it]

lol.

[Prodigal Son]

One of those boxes could keep a neighborhood of kids happy for a couple of days.

Yep, we did that too ;-)

[tiamat]

Oh I know! I was just adding my two cents worth in! :-)

Tia

[miss marmelstein]

Sounds like you had a great childhood. I spent half of my time in the boroughs of NYC - playing rough games of stickball where the sewers and manhole covers served as bases - and the rest of the time in suburban heaven - falling out of our apple tree every other day or spending hours fishing a car tire out of a swampy pond (I think we wanted to make a swing). We also picked up candy that had fallen in the dirt, shared chewed chewing gum and played "blood brothers" with unsterilized needles stolen from our mother's sewing box. I still miss those days!

[Tijeras_Slim]

Guess kids don't play in the woods now either.

Kids don't do anything that hasn't been created, designed, or organized for them by adults. The whole Soccer-schedule-runs-the-family syndrome is a case in point. I used to vanish into the woods after breakfast and emerge bug-bit and sore at dusk.

Several generations of kids "discovered" the same creeks and ponds, and were sure they were the first. How can you be the "first" to discover the food court at the mall?

I'm glad I'm not a kid now.

[HairOfTheDog]

generations of kids "discovered" the same creeks and ponds, and were sure they were the first.

Ahhh that was so good! Well, if I have children, they shall play in the woods. I'll kick them out if I have to!

[TheSpottedOwl]

Hey weegee, thanks for the ping!

This has got to be the most depressing thread I've read lately. Not only do I remember flying off the merry go round and maybe breaking my nose, but I used to spin that thing with about 12 kids (including my 2 oldest kids who were pretty small)most of whom spoke something other than English. I'd whip that thing hard, and the kids would just scream with joy. Guess I was setting myself up for a lawsuit.

This is why we have a problem with fat kids. If there is something to do, some crank of a neighbor will call the cops on you. In some jurisdictions, it's illegal to even be a kid. I lived in the High Desert until a few years ago, and my son and his friends would spend the day at the Mojave River. I remember he came home and told me about the beavers came back and were building dams. Because of all the confusing laws regarding helmets and whatnot, hardly anyone rides anything in the people's paradise of Torrance. We're a paved over suburb of Los Angeles. When I was in grade school, my best friend, her little brother, and I would put on rain boots and crawl through the city storm drains. This sanitized version of the 4th of July has really gotten my mind to thinking about all the fun we used to have.....

[stainlessbanner]

What's next? Tetherball?

Well, you can't play dodgeball anymore in school either. What these pundits do not realize is that for every playground and game they destroy, kids will find something else to do or play. If they take everything away, the kids will get into something. Without organized activities, the kids are on their own and will often get into trouble.

I'll take a "dangerous" playground over kids running the streets or watching the tele anyday.

[Momma Lou]

I had a very high swing, hung from a catalpa tree. Jumping off at the very top of the swing, with one leg bent so to look like superman, straightening out at the last minute. It was a good one when my legs would tingle on landing. I wonder if that has anything to do with my bad knees.

[E Rocc]

LOL our parents would let us spend the night in the corn field(we would make forts by pushing the corn over to make trails to them)......bet nobody does that anymore!

Older "kids" might. :snicker:

-Eric

[Aquinasfan]

In my time, it was dirt clod fights with weed bombs.

Dirt bombs!

We were too poor to have weeds ;-)