Safer Playgrounds are not necessarily a good thing

[wapiti]

I wonder what it is about monkey bars that seems to lead to so many broken arms (that happens at my kids' school) - must have something to do with the angle of the arm during the fall?

 

We were at a playground this morning, and I was so glad to see ds8 on the really high monkey bars - they curve upward in the middle. I was happy because I believe monkey bars are very good for physical development, in an OT-kinda way. Ds8 has had his share of OT. His twin brother, who has far fewer issues than he does, and who is more athletic, was afraid to try :tongue_smilie:. Mostly I just had to get them out of the house and moving!

[mommymilkies]

Rose-that is a great park!

 

I hate our city park. It's so old and broken down. Half the things don't work at all, the kids always get blood blisters from their fingers getting pinched in the rickety hamster wheel thing, it's generally unsafe in more than just one way. I would say tetanus and lead poisoning are the least of your worries there. They do have one new addition of little kid climbing equipment, but it is so high up that most little kids can't even climb up to get onto it, so it's ridiculous. I think there needs to be a happy medium.

[Margaret in GA]

See saws are death traps? How so?

 

I know merry go rounds can be dangerous, if they are high off the ground. I fell under one once, and it even had sharp metal panels sticking down underneath. The kids on the merry go round didn't even stop! Lucky for me, an older cousin of mine dragged me out before I tried to get out myself. If I'd rolled off my back, I'd have been cut for sure. I still have fond memories of that merry go round, though. Man, you could FLY on it, if you had somebody strong spinning!

 

 

Not only do kids tend to bounce each other off (we used to call it cherry bombing someone), but the junction at the middle (of these old see saws at our playground) could take a finger off. I was more paranoid about the see saws at this place than the merry go rounds.

 

Margaret

[gardening momma]

Not only do kids tend to bounce each other off (we used to call it cherry bombing someone), but the junction at the middle (of these old see saws at our playground) could take a finger off. I was more paranoid about the see saws at this place than the merry go rounds.

 

Margaret

That's probably why the new ones are like this: [pic removed]

 

They don't work as well, though.

[Joyofsixreboot]

My kids are the ones who climb to the top of anything and jump off. Then throw the safety gravel at each other and attempt to poke their eyes out with sticks. I know why new rules have been instituted but kids will find ways around them.

[SquirrellyMama]

 

 

 

I believe this why the original episodes of Sesame Street have a warning label. There are scenes of kids running through and playing in junkyards and construction areas. That and the opening episodes shows Bob showing a girl new to the neighborhood around (Bob is a complete stranger to her). I'm old enough that I was Sesame Street's target audience and yes I did play in areas like that often bare foot. Do I let my kids do that no way.

 

.

 

I wondered what the deal was with the warnings on the old episodes of

Sesame Street.

 

Kelly

[Guest]

I love how that whole playset is shaded!

 

I know, right?

[Guest]

This is our new "safe playground". It is my kids' favorite. Safe does not have to equal boring. It has a merry go round that is level with the ground. It has slides and things to climb. It also has equipment that is designed for kids with disabilities. My kids (including the older two) can play there for hours and not get bored.

 

I am far less safety-conscious than most moms I know, and I did enjoy far less safe playgrounds when I was a kid. But for all of us who broke bones, hit heads, etc and came out ok, there are many kids who did not.

 

That's really nice!

[Night Elf]

I'm totally spinning the bolded off into a poll; my boys do this, too; but I had never seen it/heard of it until dh introduced them to it a year or so ago.

 

I walked the walls in our hallway when I was a little girl. I know it was before the age of 10, and I'm 43 now. :tongue_smilie: I would climb up the walls on one end of the hallway and see how far I could go before I fell down. My mom always knew when I did it because I left footprints on the walls. :lol:

[Heather in Neverland]

My school has a fairly challenging jungle gym with monkey bars but it is on a padded surface. However, the one injury we had last year, a 5yo girl received a compound fracture of her lower arm when she fell off one of those little tykes plastic climbing things.

 

She fell about two feet... That's it and SNAP ... both bones in her lower arm broke. But in the two years I have been here no one has been seriously injured on the big structure.

 

So I you just never can tell.

[akmommy]

I'm all for impact-absorbing surfaces, but it would be nice to see more merry-go-rounds and fewer tic-tac-toe games. Seriously.

 

:iagree: i really miss merry go rounds, teeter totters, and tall metal slides you could really get some speed on.

 

When we were kids we lived in an apartment complex with a great playground right across the street from our building until my uncle decided to to make it "safer". The best piece of equipment was rendered useless and I was injured as a result of one of his fixes.

 

I think the softer landing surfaces were a great idea, but i think they've taken it too far.

[missiemick]

I have noticed a lot of risk-taking behavior by children lately. My Dh and I have come to the conclusion that it's because we've worked so hard to make sure that everything in our environment is safe that no one has learned to use common sense anymore.

[Carol in Cal.]

I have noticed a lot of risk-taking behavior by children lately. My Dh and I have come to the conclusion that it's because we've worked so hard to make sure that everything in our environment is safe that no one has learned to use common sense anymore.

 

I actually think that there is a lot to this. I think that as a culture we really need to be explicit about teaching kids to watch out for themselves, because they are missing the whole natural learning of that in society.

[Rosie_0801]

Climbing stuff, merry go rounds, and swings have been replaced by stuff like tic-tac-toe, bongo drums, steering wheels, and a pretend spyglass. It's not even challenging to someone in a coma.

 

:lol: That's how I feel about most playgrounds. My daughter could climb to the top of everything when she was three. I like this blog: http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.com/ Playgrounds can be interesting and safe.

 

Ug. After reading the rest of the thread, I'm a bit depressed. Our playgrounds look just the same as yours. As far as I can tell, the local councils here want to buy the cheapest plastic stuff, which still costs tens of thousands. It is better to have a comparatively cheaper playground that no one wants to use than spend enough to build one that people will use. My favourite stupidity is the small, toddler height playgrounds that have steps so tall the tots can't climb them. The tots can't use them and no one else wants to.

 

Rosie

Edited July 24, 2011 by Rosie_0801

[Sara in AZ]

I wonder what it is about monkey bars that seems to lead to so many broken arms (that happens at my kids' school) - must have something to do with the angle of the arm during the fall?

 

Does anyone remember doing a "Dead Man's Drop" on those old monkey bars? I think that's what we called it. We hung by our knees from the top with our hands hanging down. There was a gap of 6 inches, maybe a foot (it's been a long time since I was 9) between our hands and the next bar and we literally let go of our knees and dropped to grab that next bar and swung our bodies over to land on the ground. It freaks me out every time I think about what we used to do on those monkey bars.

[Bug's Mom]

Every July we go to a small Wisconsin town for their annual art fair. We hang out by the stage and listen to music all day. Dd plays on the little playground that is next to the stage. They've put in some newer pieces, but the most popular thing to play on is what we lovingly call "The 4-Tiered-Spinning-Tower-of-Death! (very few kids fall off, and when they do, they manage to roll out of the way or the other kids stop it so that they can get up)