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.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

I got a 5 yr. old with a broken arm. Broke it on the monkey bars. 1st day of summer vacation. It sucks. But it's better than the high score on a video game.

People learn by making mistakes. It is life. If we take away all of the things that can cause a mistake. How are our children supposed to learn?

[ArrogantBustard]

thus pays careful attention when walking in front of moving objects.

I have a very old scar under my eye, to remind me of the dangers of certain sharp objects, and the fragility of life. When Joshua is my age, he will be able to say the same. It's a valuable lesson in the facts of life.

[mhking]

I can identify. I broke my nose in 7th grade on a bad bar on a set of monkey bars. My wife says the lump adds to my character.

I wouldn't trade the playgrounds in for anything.

Even though everyone has this picture in their minds of what life in a community like Gary was like, I can tell you that I did everything that most others here did. We built go-karts out of all manner of stuff, and when we got tired of that, we took the same wood to build treehouses. We played incessantly on playgrounds with huge sliding boards (those things were HOT in the summer sun!) and monkey bars and see saws and swings (I ALMOST got the thing to go all the way around on more than one occasion). We played dodge ball, kickball, baseball, basketball, and football.

We lived across from the elementary school that my brother, sister and I went to as kids. One day, when I was in junior high, I went as far as to tee up a golf ball on our front lawn and launch it at the school. To this day, I'm sure the janitor has no idea how a golf ball broke a window at a school nowhere close to a golf course...

We rode bikes - in the street, mind you - we played in the dirt, we had snowball fights.

I've got my share of battle scars. Those that know me have seen a large hook-shaped scar on my forearm. That's just one of those battle scars, stiches and all.

By the reckoning of those who try to over-protect everyone today, we should all be dead. But damn, if we didn't have fun doing it...

If my kids have half as much fun getting the battle scars of life's experience, then I've done a better than half-assed job as a parent.

[annyokie]

You bet! A kid I knew in grade school fell off a REALLY high piece of playground equipment and broke his elbow. He was proud as could be.

I remember me, my brother and our friends all bragging about our cuts and scrapes, peeling back bandages, "wanna see?"

How we survived riding bikes barefoot and without helmets down very steep streets, is a mystery for the ages, I guess.

We played kick-the can everynight in the summer until at least ten o'clock, too. I tore the leg right off my capris climbing over the neighbor's fence.

Those were the days!

[Sabertooth]

While I'm indifferent to playgrounds today, I have to confess I've always wanted to jump into a ball-crawl.

Funny thing is, those "safe" ball crawls are filthy, bacteria-laden pits.

[annyokie]

We pitched a tent for our kids over Memorial Day weekend and they slept out there for three nights. They had flashlights and ran around like Indians catching fireflys with two of their friends who spend the weekend. Oldest is 13, youngest 6, and friends 9 and 7.

They had a blast!

[Cate]

I loved the maypole we had as kids. I think somehow I am smarter today after being flung off of it and hitting my head on the ground more than one time. Also, the great wisdom of my dad telling me not to play baseball after dark and then splitting my eye open after getting hit by a baseball. My punishment was that my dad sewed my eyebrow laceration closed himself. And, he was a machinist by trade, no training in stitches. I can honestly say I've never thrown a ball after dark again.

[Remole]

My view on this is that modern playgrounds are a lot more interesting than the old ones; but what really gets my goat is that I take my kids to playgrounds all over my area, and there are often NO One there. Where are all the kids during the day, in the summer?

[frodolives]

You got that right. The problems stemming from childhood obesity could be obviated if all the kids could just walk to their neighborhood school, and ride their bikes around the block.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

I think almost every kid I ever knew had a scar under his chin from whacking it on something. My shins looked like I had been thru WWII from bike wrecks, tree climbing, etc. It was all part of growing up.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

OUCH! Dad doing the stitching?? No fun! Maypoles were great, I think the boys liked them because it was a good way to see the girls underwear as they swung around with their arms over their heads. Remember the days when you were not allowed to wear pants to school?

[Cate]

yup, I remember the boys seeing our underwear. big wow, they had their choice of seeing pink, blue, or white undies. I never cared, as I was on the maypole and they weren't. Life was good. We weren't allowed to wear pants until we were in junior high. And no jeans.

[annyokie]

LOL I was one of the few girls who would hang by her knees on the monkey bars and show off her underpants. The Yard Duty teacher took me to the Principal.

[cajun-jack]

but he got the most girls didn't he?

[Paleo Conservative]

You got that right. The problems stemming from childhood obesity could be obviated if all the kids could just walk to their neighborhood school, and ride their bikes around the block.

It would be a good idea for their parents too.

[Paleo Conservative]

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.

And designed to reinforce the politically correct biases of the "adult" organizers.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I have an exciting idea: we could have 'invisible friends' at the playgrounds. Just spray paint names of invisible friends on the asphault. I hope insurance companies wouldn't consider them to be too dangerous.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"Seems like these days many adults & kids are risk adverse."

The 'playgrounds' they have now are more like 'force the kid to crawl like baby' grounds. That's due to the pervasive influence of insurance companies, cobbled with the health care system and malpractice laywers.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Maybe we could have 'sound affects' playgrounds. The kids can push buttons and hear sounds. Or would that be too dangerous?