Inside the weird and delightful origins of the jungle gym, which just turned 100
npr.org
npr.org
As I kid, I would have loved to have played on all of these (and in a few parks got a chance to).
Except trees. I've always loved climbing trees, and am bit sad that my kids don't.
https://twitter.com/deliprao/status/1719598749146624481?s=19
It's turning into a "Steve Buscemi was a firefighter in 9/11" level memetrivia, but that makes it no less interesting.
I think the blame lies even harder on insurance corporations. Medical bills are expensive, and insurance would love to externalize the blame (and costs) as much as possible.
EU countries have public attractions that Americans couldn't dream of being allowed to experience without signing a stack of waivers beforehand.
But now if you let your kid play or walk independently, you get a lot of “why aren’t you watching your kid closer?”
It’s a strange shift.
That, and let's face it: lawn darts were just a matter of time before someone took one to the head. There were some truly bad ideas back then.
tricky thing, that. "risky play is good" followed by "don't play on it, it's not safe".
I suppose in this particular case it's because it's rusted all to hell, but I can't help but think of all the play grounds I played on as a child that were bulldozed and named "unsafe".
I'm curious - what's the modern version of this "risky play"?
You see someone swing across the monkey bars, but your grip strength and arm reach isn't good enough, you fall, you cry, repeat. 4 months later you're the fastest monkey in the playground.
What's the modern "risky play is good but only if it's safe" version of this?
replacing the asphalt i fell on with rubber or something soft would probably make it take 6 months, but would also remove the 'cry'
managing risk through minimizing losses _when_ they happen
Like, I’ve seen kids literally keep going until one of them cries, because naturally that’s the only decent stopping point.
maybe a lunchtime or exhaustion can signal end-of-play
Where I'm going is that a child developed with every safety net deployed becomes a fearful, anxious teen / adult, which, in turn is the foundation of a timid, fear-based society.
Modern playgrounds of sufficient size will have some room for growth ("this area is for children under 5, this area is for...") but... I actually wonder... how much more popular would playgrounds be if there were adult playgrounds mixed in with kiddy ones? Like a set of monkey bars that're 12 feet up and assume you have a 5ft reach, etc. where it normalizes play for adults... thus we adults demonstrate skill, and reasonable risk-taking to our children while having a great time and exercising too.
Kids seem to enjoy them and it certainly provides problem-solving exercises for the body.
Touching grass.
>You see someone swing across the monkey bars, but your grip strength and arm reach isn't good enough, you fall, you cry, repeat. 4 months later you're the fastest monkey in the playground.
I did this, we'd have contests to see how far someone could jump and grab the furthest cross bar. I overestimated my abilities and got the wind knocked the hell out of me. It was over sand though.
It’s intended for 6+ and with stronger muscles and longer arms it’s safer. But still a risk.
Or, maybe it is because we are primates and it is in our DNA.
In any case though, the expression that something is "in one's DNA" is a common metonymy to express that it is the result of inheritable characteristics.