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.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Well dang! If you let your kids skateboard, then I'd say you are no member of the nanny-state conspiracy. I was a cautious kid. But I did ride down 'Suicide Hill' once, a place rumored to have killed two skateboarders. I made it to the bottom, but then I had a wipe-out. Not sure how fast I was going, but it was f.a.s.t. I was 25 years old. =]

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I was wondering if the accident rate wasn't affected. Kids will find trouble no matter what. Until they hear about friends getting hurt, it will not stop.

[Xenalyte]

Just spray paint names of invisible friends on the asphault.

That opens up the mental-health can of worms . . .