Photo Credit: Brian Ebersole

Remember the old days when you could walk to the playground and find a super fast, metal slide high above the ground with a steep, steel ladder? You’d climb to the very top and pause a moment to soak in the frightening, yet exhilarating view of the entire park.  You’d spy the yellow-painted, metal carousel that could spin you to windblown nausea.  You’d see the wooden beams connected together to form an obstacle course of balance-challenging logs and stumps smoothed by the many adventurous kids who hopped between them.  This is how I fondly remember the park near my childhood home.  It was a fun place to play, spend time with friends or make new ones, and seemed relatively safe with no recollection of any serious injuries.

Unfortunately, many wooden play structures became obsolete upon the discovery that arsenic and other harmful chemicals were part of the pressure-treating wood preservation process.  Metal slides which burned hot during hot, sunny days, fell out of favor also, so new playground equipment sprouted up.  Big, colorful plastic structures with clever handholds and bright pictures populate most playgrounds now.  They look fun and are safe for little ones to test their might when climbing, but what about the older kids? We realize they’re safe, but are they fun, and do they really offer the challenge older children require for exploring, learning and growing? Already my children rarely play on their wooden swing set which we bought 6 years ago.  They consider it boring and too easy to provide them enough excitement when I urge them outdoors.  The only item included that gets play anymore is the small clubhouse that my 6- and 9-year old now dwarf.

Did you read an article or watch a report regarding playground safety and if today’s playgrounds are too safe?  It mentions that today’s playground equipment offers less challenges, and also that there is a false sense of security for children with all the safety measures implemented.  Once a child meets up with a real test of their physical skills, they may either opt to avoid the challenge or not understand how to overcome it.   Apparently, parents’ fears about a child falling may be less dramatic because children who fall off a structure at a young age are less likely to have a fear of heights. [Read more...]