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.

[glory]

That's not funny! No really, ok it is pretty funny. I'll never forget that. I forgot all about that frog after hitting that crossbar! Man, oh man, that was some lesson for a 4 yr old!

[glory]

I've had to do that too Dianna-keep my mouth shut sometimes and just let them be kids. It's hard though, as mothers, we want to protect them.

[JoeSchem]

'Risk equilibrium.' When you reduce people's risk, they end up doing riskier things, so that the accident level remains the same. This effect is a real phenomenon observed by highway engineers, who noticed that improving the safety at one intersection caused the accident rate to go up at adjoining intersections.

[steplock]

Give thanks to all the LAWYERS who have made this lack of fun possible.

Lawyers = Politicians = SCUM

[ladylib]

I read recently where there will be no more diving boards and pools will be about five feet deep at public pools because of high insurance premiums.

I talked to an owner of a motel on Cape Cod who removed the diving board from his pool because of the insurance.

[ladylib]

I don't even see kids on the street anymore in my town. I know they're somewhere because our schools are overcrowded.

[ladylib]

We used to take our sleds to the school next door and sleigh down the hill. One of my brothers had a sled go over his head and he required stitches. The next day he was back on the hill.

You see very few kids sleighing down the hill today.

[tiamat]

EggsAckley wrote:

“The sad fact, though, is that the injuries really haven’t come down significantly. Whether that’s because there are many more playgrounds in use today and more children using them, I don’t know.”

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I think a lot of that is because children are SO over-protected that they have no chance to grow some caution or common sense.

Kids ALWAYS find a way to nail themselves, and you cannot overwatch or protect them from EVERYTHING no matter WHAT you do

end result? When they nail themselves now they REALLLY do it up right!

Tia

[tiamat]

That's right!

They have no chance to grow some common sense, and it's going to be "Evolution in Action" for much of the current crop......

Shudder.

Tia

[PatrioticAmerican]

NO child shall be hurt. Of course, no child will grow up, ever. Today's "adults" are proof of that, and it will only get worse.

[Uncle Meat]

Our elementary school had a deadly piece of equipment that was great fun - it's the only one I've ever seen. It was called a maypole and was a tall metal pole with chains suspended from a bearing of some kind on the top of it. At the bottom of each chain was a multi grip metal handle.

Hell yeah,My elementry school had one of those too.I was describing it to someone a few weeks back.The more dangerous,the more we loved it.Couldn't tell you how many times I lost my grip and flew off and hit the concrete.

[EggsAckley]

You're right. I learned at a much earlier age that I was not unbreakable. Hence I learned to be careful and judicious about what I attempted. Wow! I never thought of it like that. Thanks!

[EggsAckley]

I didn't write that Tia. It was lifted from the article. Just to clarify. ~/;o)

[Clintons Are White Trash]

Weren't those a hoot! Before you know it they'll outlaw trees - my worst childhood injury was a broken collarbone from falling from a tree while umpiring a softball game between my brothers (I had a better view from up there, to bad the limb broke).

I'll never forget laying on the ground with the wind knocked out of me telling my brothers I couldn't breathe. My little brother stuck his hand in front of my mouth and pronounced "you can too!". No sympathy there! I was one heck of a tomboy....

[7DayRepo]

My son will not drink tapwater. He has to have bottled water.

Too much television.

[kcat]

Everybody on my street was banished to the outdoors during the day except for "curfew" when everybody had to go to their own house for a rest for about 2 hours. After that we had to go back out for the rest of the afternoon.

I really miss the big metal swings. The city just removed the huge swings from a park nearby my home. Where's an adult to swing now?

[fnord]

I especially liked jumping out of the big, tall swing sets. You could fly about 30 feet.

I'm guessing tetherball and dodgeball are absolutely verbotten.

[7DayRepo]

I can only shake my head at this. How's your kid going to learn to fend for itself if you won't even let it play in the same manner that you did when you were its age?

A feminized society like ours tends rapidly to a state of helpless cowardice.

[Scenic Sounds]

What do y'all think? Do you think that you could come up with some fun ways to make playgrounds more dangerous for kids?

The last time I took my grandson to the park I wound up having to rescue him from the top of a tree he climbed. LOL

[Amelia]

No more seesaws?

As a physics teacher, I find that appalling!

Best way in the world to explain first class levers!