Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
My Uncle Dave taught me how to ski when I moved to Colorado midway through my adolescence. We had a breakthrough when he told me to get over my fear of crashing. He practically forced me to tumble down the mountain. And you know what? I was fine. And it worked. I got over my fear and was able to speed down the slopes with less caution.
John Tierney has an excellent column in the New York Times encouraging families and governments to get over their irrational fear of dangerous playground equipment. There's evidence that new "safe" playground equipment leads people into a false sense of security and greater risk-taking but fewer life skills. He tells the story about a parks commissioner refusing to remove one tall jungle gym during the rush to replace equipment:
Still, sometimes there’s nothing quite like being 10 feet off the ground, as a new generation was discovering the other afternoon at Fort Tryon Park. A soft rubber surface carpeted the pavement, but the jungle gym of Mr. Stern’s youth was still there. It was the prime destination for many children, including those who’d never seen one before, like Nayelis Serrano, a 10-year-old from the South Bronx who was visiting her cousin.
When she got halfway up, at the third level of bars, she paused, as if that was high enough. Then, after a consultation with her mother, she continued to the top, the fifth level, and descended to recount her triumph.
“I was scared at first,” she explained. “But my mother said if you don’t try, you’ll never know if you could do it. So I took a chance and kept going. At the top I felt very proud.” As she headed back for another climb, her mother, Orkidia Rojas, looked on from a bench and considered the pros and cons of this unfamiliar equipment.
“It’s fun,” she said. “I’d like to see it in our playground. Why not? It’s kind of dangerous, I know, but if you just think about danger you’re never going to get ahead in life.”
My two toddlers are nothing but bruised and band-aided right now. But all my oldest can talk about right now is how she achieved new heights on an old-school swing -- all with her own pumping action. And the two year old attempted her first solo walk in the neighborhood (I was hiding but close behind her). They are so proud of themselves and it's worth the scrapes and bumps we've endured to get there.
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Feb '11
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
"To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law—a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security."
--Walter Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
Feb '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
It's the same thing with bacteria and infections.
Sure, some degree of hygiene is necessary. But totally sterile environments raise weak kids. A bit of dirt is good for the immune system.
I forbid my kids to use the hand sanitizer dispensers that are popping up everywhere. I tell them to go wash their hands with soap instead. It's more effective, and less likely to cause antibacterial-resistant super-bacteria to arise.
Sep '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
To get an even more depressing view of the bubble-wrapped mentality of some people, head on over to Free Range Kids and check out some of the responses that Lenore Skenazy has gotten to her writings and her parenting philosophy.
Molly: I'm with you on letting my 2 year-old walk around the block "by herself" (ie, me, following at some distance). I also let her run all around the playground, with a visual check every 2-3 minutes or so. She is way more confident than almost every other kid she meets, and it's worth the minimal risk. I wouldn't keep a dog leashed up all the time, why do the same to a child?
Dec '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltzman_effect
"The Peltzman effect is the hypothesized tendency of people to react to a safety regulation by increasing other risky behavior, offsetting some or all of the benefit of the regulation. It is named after Sam Peltzman, a professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business."
And from our good friends at Cracked http://www.cracked.com/article_18775_5-popular-safety-measures-that-dont-make-you-any-safer.html.
All jokes aside as someone who is planning on having kids its a frighting thought that if I am not careful my childs first experience with failure/fear or even the danger of failure might not happen till well into their twenties.
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
Then there's this:
Jun '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
I'm in a constant scuffle with my mom about how I play with my twin two year old nephews. I love to roughhouse with them and they shriek with glee. My sister is a little bit more tolerant and her husband is even more so. Still, when I get cornered by mom in a private moment, she lambastes me about how I'm going to give the kids concussions. I'm not careless, but I'm not going to be a pansy with them either. Their whole identity is formed by how high they can climb or jump, how fast they can run, and how far they can fly when uncle throws them on the couch. Safety is getting so far out of control, it backfires on our society. Meanwhile, back to the nephew wrestling matches...
Dec '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
I broke my arm on a jungle gym, but we had invented a game that involved standing on the chin-up bars, jumping over the monkey bars, then catching ourselves on the far-side climbing bars, so clearly someody was gonna get hurt and I just saved the other kids from their turn at russian roulette.
Per Steven's comment, we are free-rangers. Or so the mom claims. When I point out some over cautious parenting to her she says, "So, I'm a hypocrite!" But we try. Boy it's a lot of work, especially during the summer when kids need to be doing things and their every reaction is with caution, formed during the school year.
Everything is shark this and alligator that and lightning the other. We live in Florida, in the lightning capital of the U.S. We have gators all around us and rarely get eaten. Yes, bull sharks are a problem, but mostly near dawn or dusk. I still think the Boyz are in greater danger playing World of Mesmer all day, or whatever it is.
Apr '11
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
CJRun - when I was in grade school, arm casts weren't terribly unusual and the proud wearer took pride relating the story behind the fracture and collecting signatures on the cast. My best friend suffered a compound fracture and we were all mesmerized by that... Cool!
May '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
It's all about the city getting sued for the playground equipment. Or parents being sued or jailed for whatever goes wrong.
I remember well enough the split head, broken arms, falls through thin ice, punctures, rather astonishing near misses.
Does anyone on this site really want their child to be maimed or killed because of a reasonably preventable accident?
Yes, the state is overbearing and becoming more so. Like a pendulum we are swinging to an extreme, having passed the midpoint at maximum velocity.
Dec '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
Nick, the only reason anybody would ever think this is an issue of the state is the same reason that I would never want a jury trial; there is no such thing as a jury of your peers, anymore, regardless of what little edge we allow our children to flirt with.
Juries comprise those that are willing to miss a bit of daytime TV, for the chance at some live action. There is almost nothing in my life I would allow to be judged by people that spend all day watching TV.
You're not watching a pendulum swing; that's an axe. You are trading a little bit of liberty for some perceived security. Franklin (and others, before him) would have said you would get none of either.
Jul '10
Re: Why Modern Playgrounds Are So Awful
You could still make playgrounds as dangerous as ever, it the dangers are obvious, my favorite was the thing you spun on until you were dizzy, as long as you got a fairly good surface to land on I believe a jury would let you slide on the odd broken long or flat bone. It's those broken spines that cost too much, and they should. I see juries in action a lot and I got to tell you, if there is a serious accident, whether I am suing or being sued, I would rather have the decision made by a jury. When I look around my neighborhood I see as many casts, temporary crutches, and gauze bandages concealing stitches enumerated with glee as when I was a kid. The parents I know can all tell you about emergency rooms in the area. I think the kids are alright, so are the parents, and so are the playgrounds.