Thoughts on Playgrounds

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

I agree with everyone on this. Schools have gone insane with safety, it gets annoying. There was a wooden ship on my schools playground. On this they had a Cross, a fireman pole, and two slides. They removed the slides due to a few mishaps. They got rid of the fireman pole because it was deemed too dangerous. They also got rid of the cross (obvious reasons). We also had a balance beam connected to monkey bars. They took out the balance beam because it was "too dangerous". I remember having a great time on those things. I'm glad theirs a playground kids can go too that is old fashioned around an hour from my house.

 

think about it from their standpoint though. there are always those people who will freak out over the littlest thing, and if a child gets hurt the parents of that child and even more parents could sue the school.

[hellocat 308]

Schools don't want that lawsuit that comes from that parent who freaks out that their kid got hurt having fun. Hell, my old school we used to build snow forts and have snowball fights until one parent complained that their kid got a bruise from being hit by a snowball.

 

 

For the record he wasn't hit by a snowball. I may or may not have punched him....

 

That, my good sir, is absolutely excellent. I laughed for quite a while when I saw this one

 

think about it from their standpoint though. there are always those people who will freak out over the littlest thing, and if a child gets hurt the parents of that child and even more parents could sue the school.

 

But that, I think is a problem. Unfortunately, you are right, but it is absurd that some parents react the way they do if their kid gets a bruise or a scratch. I remember back in the day, if I ever got hurt, my parents were always pretty nice about it, but they always blamed me for it, not the playground that I played on. "You should be more careful." was their usual reply. There is a flaw in the legal system if people can harm their child's development through such an act. It is understandable if the playground is actually dangerous because it is falling apart, but more responsibility should be assumed on the part of the child for doing something risky and dangerous.

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

That, my good sir, is absolutely excellent. I laughed for quite a while when I saw this one

 

 

But that, I think is a problem. Unfortunately, you are right, but it is absurd that some parents react the way they do if their kid gets a bruise or a scratch. I remember back in the day, if I ever got hurt, my parents were always pretty nice about it, but they always blamed me for it, not the playground that I played on. "You should be more careful." was their usual reply. There is a flaw in the legal system if people can harm their child's development through such an act. It is understandable if the playground is actually dangerous because it is falling apart, but more responsibility should be assumed on the part of the child for doing something risky and dangerous.

 

i completely agree with you about it. but you know, the overreacting parents are the cause of alot of restrictions we see today. i hate them so much, ive lost alot of things besides playground to their stupidity

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

think about it from their standpoint though. there are always those people who will freak out over the littlest thing, and if a child gets hurt the parents of that child and even more parents could sue the school.

 

The thing is kid's parents have become, well lets just say, paranoid with everything. Those parents are teaching the kid to be a wimp. Most children today are wimps (not being mean here just stating my opinion). Most thrive on their parents to protect them from any harm, but really that's life, your going to fall down, your going to get a splinter, your going to fall out of a tree. It's the whole aspect of life. Their taking away the experience that every child needs. It used to be that kids could do what ever they want at recess, as long as it wasn't fighting or anything else that is obvious rule breaking. They could go and run around and be active, they could go and be imaginative. I want that to return.

[Crispy 5,563]

What happened to the days where 7 year olds were climbing trees and jumping out of them like little monkeys?

 

Parents started suing places that "allowed" the conditions that could bring any sort of injury. That's why every game that was ever fun has been dumbed down.

 

I mean, seriously, tag. I remember playing Kill The Carrier all through school.

[TOMahwk 351]

Parents started suing places that "allowed" the conditions that could bring any sort of injury. That's why every game that was ever fun has been dumbed down.

 

I mean, seriously, tag. I remember playing Kill The Carrier all through school.

 

If you didn't bleed during recess, you weren't doing it right.

[Evilshy 5,090]

Oh man, this takes me back.

 

I never had some lame wooden playground, we had metal, muthafuckaz. Well, after a few years, they made this huge new play structure that was mostly plastic, but it wasn't one of those safe ones, it was just (presumably) cheaper to make it out of plastic. Anyway, it was the shit. This one structure had like 3 floors, 4 slides, two sets of monkey bars, a tic-tac-toe wall, a big plastic globe you could sit on while somebody spun you around, a few sliding bars, rope climbing walls, it was pretty much the greatest play structure I've ever seen that wasn't a tourist attraction in some secluded park. You know, those play structures that are more like huge wooden castles in the middle of state parks. The ones that you stop for on a road trip because they're so damn awesome.

 

Anyway, that was only until 2nd grade, then I got transferred to this other school because it was the only one in the district with an EXCEL program. My best friend had also tested into EXCEL, so we got to stay in the same class all through elementary school

That school was a bit poorer, and more money went to education, so the playground wasn't as awesome. But it was still fun. There were also more nerds there, so pokemon battles, both imaginary and real (using gameboys smuggled in coat pockets, cuz that shit was banned) were much more common. I remember the ripple that went through the student base when G/S came out. Same when the GBA came out. Or when the Pegasus Structure Deck came out and had toon world, toon monsters, and Relinquished, all in the same box.

Seriously, you've never seen a real nerdgasm unless you've seen elementary school kids react to a new pokemon game in the height of pokemon popularity, when literally EVERYBODY played it. Even if you had stupid, overly protective parents who didn't let you have video games till middle school, you still ended up knowing almost as much about it as everybody else.

[Nah 3,182]

Wow, in middle school, should've said this, but they had a very bad playground, as in bad shape, boring.

 

In fifth grade, there used to be swings right next to the school, so you were just a few feet atway from a brick wall, literally, well that went away, forever.

 

Then there used to be a jungle gym, that went away for rusting and the fact a kid got hurt falling off it and hit the ground with rocks under it.

 

Now all that is left is a soccer/ baseball field that nobody even uses (you can get suspended for just simply bringing your own bat to school), a swing set that is way too small, and a track.

 

Wow, school is boring today, glad I'm in high school. :/

[pactor 29]

school's are stupid and overly protective. They don't realize that wrapping these kids in bubble wrap is doing more harm than good. At my old school they had an awesome wood playground. But now like yours they replaced it with the plastic one. I feel bad for the kids that have to use it.

[hellocat 308]

school's are stupid and overly protective. They don't realize that wrapping these kids in bubble wrap is doing more harm than good. At my old school they had an awesome wood playground. But now like yours they replaced it with the plastic one. I feel bad for the kids that have to use it.

 

I think the schools do realize this. It is the parents that convince the school to make these decisions that don't.

[Espy Vibe 4,298]

Huh, I guess my school was a bit of the opposite 10 years ago.

We had metal playgrounds mixed with plastic, though I got more burns from the plastic than the metal. We also had a lot of toys for recess we could use, like frisbees, kickballs, softballs, stuff like that. And we got to play in the huge field behind the school.

I have no idea what it's like now but I don't think plastic necessarily means it's gone "too safe". I think they just went with those because of lower maintenance costs compared to wood and metal, where the former can rot and potentially cause splinters (one time, been there done that) while metal can rust (I can hear the creaking swings now). I doubt the schools have the budget or priority to keep them maintained also, so a plastic one would make the most sense.

also i was always scared of going down the firefighter pole and going across those circular platforms that spun. And the zipline too. 

Ok, now thinking about it before I submit. There's some playground whateveryoucallthems like those spinning platforms where you get on it and then someone (or you) spins it around. Ummmm kids are not the brightest and will spin it very fast and then hop on, then get hurt. And then the parent gets upset at the school so it gets removed cuz school don't wanna get sued. That's generally the scenario for playgrounds becoming "too safe" now.

Parents need to say "Oh, you're the one who was being dumb with it? Okay, well that's kinda your fault" to their kid rather than blame the school. The school should only be blamed if, say the support structures collapse because it wasn't properly installed. If I were a parent, then THAT is reason to get upset at a school for their negligence. I wouldn't get upset at a school because my kid was not being too bright and got hurt.

I realize now that this is kinda all over the place but whatevah 

[Fluttershutter 2,488]

Safety hysteria + fear of getting sued

People these days are in denial that everybody is going to get hurt and sick and eventually die no matter what.

[Clawdeen 14,268]

Growing up the playground at my elementary school was in very bad shape. Stuff was beat up, broken and rusty. Now driving by I see they have this big grand playground setup. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Clawdeen