Playgrounds: TOO safe?

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Playgrounds: Too safe?

Thoughts, anyone?

It is annoying how un-fun playgrounds look today. They used to be built so anyone from ages 1 through 12 could have fun. Now after watching my younger siblings play on more recently built playgrounds, it seems anyone over 5 won't get much out of it.

At least there are still some good playgrounds out there that haven't been taken down. When I was little we played at a park in Monroe CT, and they still have three multi-story (about 10 feet off the ground) wood castles and big metal slides and what not. It was awesome.

I've have noticed how much playgrounds have changed over time. When I was little, there was this playground near my house, that had a big slide, that everyone loved. It was huge! However, they took it away.

There is still this fun playground that is like over an hour drive from where I live, I went to it a couple years ago. It had a super high jungle gym, really fun slides and cool swings.

There is one playground, they they DID renovate and they actually made it MORE FUN! They have a slight that even my adult friend got scared on.

I do agree... banning swings‽ I mean... seriously, guys, gals, penguins‽

My thoughts:
*Monkey bars will still be dangerous to kids
*Kids will find ways to get hurt
*Not all swings have metal bars on them
*Banning tag is the most ret*d thing I have ever heard during my life time
*I never got to experience dodgeball
*They also banned running on the pool grounds...ironically the kids could burn their feet
*Running is a good sport, idiots
*I get excited whenever I see the spinning things on old, old, playgrounds
*"a child who’s hurt in a fall before the age of 9 is less likely as a teenager to have a fear of heights."
That's weird because I almost feel off a 100 foot cliff at age 8/9 and I doubt that it would help me to not have a fear of heights

i like to throw some broken bottles up in them joints, for the good of the children.

i haven't noticed an issue really? some new parks can be cool. those big massive basket swings that are all the rage are pretty fun/dangerous. and roundabouts are just as fast. parks were made for getting hurt in.

Parks have to be boring because today parents dont want their kids to get hurt. And if the kids do it get hurt it is not their fault, but someone else's. He fell while playing in the park? The government should be responsble for that because its THEIR park. Lets sue them! (If I was the government there would be no parks at all, ungrateful people)

I have a saying that says, "It's so safe it's dangerous." I think things can be too safe---to the point that it can be harmful.

This reminds me of a somewhat-related issue. Parents (and school administrators) go too far in protecting children in terms of falls and injuries, but also in terms of immunity. I read an article that suggested the use of things like anti-bacterial wipes and dispensers is preventing children from developing their own immunities to germs and bacteria. Apparently when kids would get minor cuts and scrapes or play in dirt or on playgrounds (before they were made from plastic) they would be exposed to small amounts of germs and bacteria that would enable their bodies to develop a natural immunity. Now the use of anti-bacterial agents is preventing children from developing these immunities, which in turn leaves them more susceptible to infections.

I wish I could remember the source article or post a link. It was a while ago and I can't remember where or how I came across it.

I remember the fun playgrounds that the elementary schools used to have. Now they have these stupid playgrounds that are made of plastic. I'd jump into a time machine just to visit those old playgrounds.

This playground:



is amazing! It's quite near to where I live in St. Neots. It's got spinny things, climby things, things that even I at my age and height (4'10") found ridiculously scary and it's also got a massive swingy thing and little sand diggers for the nippers!

In general however I do think playgrounds are getting too boring. Swings are dangerous are they? So is climbing on the top of a really boring playground and jumping off (as someone I knew found out the hard way). I used to live near one of these 'safe' playgrounds and it got set on fire several times, hacked to pieces and a little kid fell off the monkey bars and broke his arm. Kids will always find a way to make ANY play equipment dangerous!

Edit: that big climbing frame at the back is REALLY tall! The picture doesn't do it justice!

_________________
I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

I miss the playgrounds from when I was a kid but I bet those have all disappeared and replaced with these dull playgrounds. It sucks how PC this world has gone. But who can blame them, who wants to face lawsuits because of greedy parents?

I remember kids playing tag, touch football, soccer, red rover, but we were never allowed to have snow ball fights and my school banned red rover because two kids got hurt. But the school I went to when I was 6 and 7 didn't allowed running on the playground on the hard ground that was made out of asphalt and concrete.

Sometimes the future scares me.


When I lived in Montana, we had this nice playground along the flathead lake in Polson and it was shaped like a fort. It had a picnic table in there, a jail, and a huge slide. If you were wet from the lake, you slide down the slide fast and slid across the ground when you landed. Then they took it all out and put in a plastic playground.

I also remember this one playground at Battleground lake in Washington and the playground was made out of wood too but there was this slide it had and it had no sides. I would not go down that slide unless my mom and dad were there because I was afraid of falling off. Then one day they took it out and out in a playground and I liked it better.

I remember another playground that was next to my school when I was six and seven and it was made out of wood too and had tires to climb and jump on and one day they took that all out and out in a new playground and liked it better.

I also remember my school had the eagle next and then they shut it down and took it down and put up a new playground equipment and then by 1997, that was gone and a whole new playground was put up. The other playground equipment was gone too except for the swings. But it looked better.

Even my old school I went to when I was 8-12 has a new playground and they were thinking of the project when I was 11 but didn't put it in until after we moved to Montana.


One of the senior classes in my high school put up this neat playground in Missoula, MT right next to the carousel. It looks like a castle and it's all wooden and it has dragon faces on it. I remember being down there for the choir trip and we stopped to go on the carousel and I saw the playground and started to play on it, then soon all the other high school students were playing on it.

I thought it was just because I'm getting older. I guess not. The old playgrounds that I enjoyed several years ago were much better than the newer ones I see today.

Still have good playgrounds around here. My nearest playground had a major renovation last year, they replaced the old "big slide" (about seven foot tall, with sandpit, accessed via steps) with an even bigger slide (about ten foot tall, accessed via climbing wall or ladder, with "look out" section at the top).

My second nearest playground doesn't have the awesome (if slightly decripid) climbing frame it had when I was very young, but it has a replacement climbing which isn't too shabby, several other more challenging small climbing frames, two of the "net" swings, several sets of swings, and an exciting sit-on roundabout.

YES, they are, and there is a potentially deadly result: Kids are OVER-protected in many many ways, and thus they will be wide-open to peril when met with a situation that has not been prepared for kids' safety.

Playgrounds, and bicycles, toys, and anything for kids, has had virtually every hazard removed. Nothing sharp, nothing poisonous, and nothing small enough to swallow, etc. So if we only learn from mistakes (HUMAN NATURE), how will these kids learn safety? Will they run crying to their lawyers as soon as they cut themselves on a kitchen knife because they don't understand the concept of "SHARP"? Will they die a painful death when they fall off ledge with no railing and safety foam in real life, since there was always a railing and safety foam on the playground?

I believe in letting kids walk home from school alone, and I believe they need to learn how to defend themselves, and how to read situations. Even with Asperger's, I learned how to tell when somebody might be thinking about doing something, and I believe it was learned when I was 5 or 6, and was taught to use common sense when dealing with strangers, etc. I was never told not to talk to strangers, and in fact how in Sam Hill does any child make friends if never to talk to strangers? All friends and all extended family are strangers in the beginning, after all.

I walked to & from school, rode buses, talked to strangers, fell off my bicycle with no helmet many times, and never got hurt. I did learn to judge dangers, avoid them though, which I might not have learned if sheltered. I also was taught how to respect and use a handgun by age 5, and I was also taught how to respect and use fire and matches by much earlier than that. I learned how not to play on playground equipment by getting black eyes, etc. Guess what: I'm still here, and the black eyes and bruises have all healed up just fine, and I live a normal, safe lifestyle with strangers, guns, and sharp objects safely under my watch and control. Would a typical yuppie Mom let her son lift things "too heavy"? My mother expected me to use common sense, and use my knees if lifting something. I hear parents today telling their kids not to lift a 9-pound rock because they might get a hernia or hurt their back... I've hurt my back many many times, and it HEALS UP. Look at my avatar... I'm 44, and even though the doctors say I have degenerative disk disease, and two slipped disks, I'm standing there holding a 535-lb iron air raid siren. And I'm not in pain, and if I do hurt myself some day, I will have learned my limits.

Charles