DailyDirt: Dangerous Playgrounds Are Fun!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Mar 31st 2014 5:00pm — Michael Ho

If you have young kids, you might have noticed that public playgrounds are a bit different than the ones you played on as a kid. Rubberized surfaces have replaced gravel or asphalt, and simple teeter-totters (or see-saws) have been re-designed using viscoelastic materials to prevent dangerous accelerations. You might have noticed it's hard to find monkey bars on playgrounds. The reasons for these changes are obvious: safety and liability. However, are kids still having as much fun outdoors? Here are just a few links on playground equipment.

Can a playground be too safe? Maybe some playgrounds are too boring for kids. A new kind of playground lets kids do a few more dangerous activities, but will parents have to sign a consent form for it? [url]
In 2001, a report on playground safety stated estimates such as: there were 7.5 playground-related injuries per 10,000 US population in 1999, treated by hospital emergency rooms. This report may have spurred a generation of playground equipment that is safer for kids, but arguably not as fun or enjoyable as homemade rope swings. [url]
The next time you see a kid sitting on a parent's lap going down a playground slide, you might want to stop them and point out that it's actually safer for the kid to slide down alone. Too often, well-meaning parents slide down with their toddlers and accidentally fracture their child's leg if a shoe gets stuck and the weight of the parent continues to push the kid down. [url]

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Filed Under: accidents, fun, injuries, kids, parenting, playgrounds, safety

8 Comments

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John, 31 Mar 2014 @ 7:16pm

Tough New Zealand kids
I recently holidayed on the south island of New Zealand. Not only is it a stunningly beautiful place, all the play grounds have 1 to 1.5cm loose rocks for the kids to fall on, under the playground equipment.

No wonder NZ rugby team as so good.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2014 @ 7:31pm

This trend started when I was young enough to hang out on playgrounds. I knew what they were doing then and why, and I hated them for tearing down the equipment I loved and replacing with useless, safety certified crap that wouldn't amuse a five year old. I've never understood why states don't pass laws to limit liability in these situations.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2014 @ 8:12pm

not the reason
Parents don't slide with kids for increased safety. They slide with kids who are to scared to slide alone.
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zip, 31 Mar 2014 @ 9:25pm

grist-mill-in-disguise
The most insidiously dangerous of the "classic" playground equipment had to be the merry-go-round, a heavy steel structure designed so that small children who fell off would get trapped underneath and ground up like hamburger meat.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2014 @ 7:17am

Battle scars all kids have them , embrace them .. because remembering that time when you hit the curb on your bike and brush burned your left leg, flipped over the handlebars and went home with blood running down your leg and gravel and dirt embedded in the wound .. those days are meant to remind you of a childhood that was both fun and daring.
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nasch (profile), 1 Apr 2014 @ 6:57pm

The first article is long and very worth reading, I recommend it if you haven't read it. I haven't checked out the other two yet.
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Gwiz (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 6:45am

Re: grist-mill-in-disguise
I always liked the eroded and exposed hunks of concrete sticking up around the legs of all the playground equipment in my day. They added a dangerous element to everything.

Man, those were the days back then, when we used to let Natural Selection do it's thing to improve humankind.
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nasch (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 7:58am

Re: Re: grist-mill-in-disguise
Man, those were the days back then, when we used to let Natural Selection do it's thing to improve humankind.

Natural selection always does its thing, only the nature of the pressures changes.
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