New Playgrounds Are Safe—and That's Why Nobody Uses Them

[Krauter]

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/ar...s-them/252108/

The problem with safety guidelines is that they make most playgrounds so uninteresting as to contribute to reduced physical activity.

[soopaman2]

I am a concerned parent, I will let my kids do whatever they want as long as they are not bothering me while I am texting my girlfriends. When they do something stupid, I will promptly blame you because my children are so perfect and never do anything stupid. It is never my fault, or never theirs.

I plan on suing you, for alot. I need to get my nails done, and my unemployed live in boyfriend needs to pay his parole officer or he goes back into the clink.

[Krauter]

So... So you're leading a couple girls on.. AND you've got a boyfriend

You... You sir are good

[Krauter]

Also, this makes me think of my coach and my childhood years.

1- My coach is from Moldova, moved to Russia, became a national wrestling champion in the Soviet Union (which was harder then winning the Olympics..), moved to Israel cause Soviets don't like Jews and then came here because he's a badass. Now he just complains about, pardon my russian "what pussy cats all the kids are today.

2- Makes me think of when I was a kid playing ball tag with a couple of friends on a playground. With a baseball.. (Think tag, you tag people by throwing balls at their faces..)

I was standing on the top of the playgrounds jungle gym, for lack of a better word, making fun of my friend for missing constantly with the ball when, finally having enough, he threw the ball with all his might. Hit me square in the nose which prompted me to fly backwards off the jungle gym (maybe 10-12 ft) onto the pebbles below. Had a pretty good bloody nose and some good cuts and bruises. I ran home to stuff paper towels up my nose so I could continue the game (I got the bugger back )

Nowadays, when I see kids playing (such as when I coach a highschool wrestling team) they can't even get a competitive atmosphere going and just run around like sissies..

The coming generations are doomed.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Why use playground? All you need is:
1. winter with snow
2. hillside leading to frozen lake (preferably with strong ice but who cares to check?)
3. some birches, pines and rocks for obstacles
4. plastic sled
5. few competitors
Safe? Fun?

[Gorduz]

kraznyi_oktjabr: You forgot the 10 kg round cheese that you have to chase!

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Originally Posted by Gorduz

kraznyi_oktjabr: You forgot the 10 kg round cheese that you have to chase!

We used to do it in Formula style although sometimes it became more of demolition derby.

Nice idea though.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by kraznyi_oktjabr

We used to do it in Formula style although sometimes it became more of demolition derby.

Nice idea though.

We used to have F1 races with bicycles. We had few practice laps, qualifying
and of course the race.

Heck, we even had small water bottles with holes in them taped to our bikes to simulate
fuel, so we had to make pitstops and all that.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Krauter

2- Makes me think of when I was a kid playing ball tag with a couple of friends on a playground. With a baseball.. (Think tag, you tag people by throwing balls at their faces..)

We used sticks, rocks, dirt clods, and sometimes marshmallows. Whatever we could get our grubby little hands on, we'd beat each other senseless with.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by krashkart

We used sticks, rocks, dirt clods, and sometimes marshmallows. Whatever we could get our grubby little hands on, we'd beat each other senseless with.

Haha, we used pine cones. The ones that are long-ish and pretty darn hard.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Haha, we used pine cones. The ones that are long-ish and pretty darn hard.

I forgot about the pine cones. Those things hurt like crazy! The best ones to use are still green and sappy, so not only do you get good impact you also get tree sap on your opponents.

One night, in my early twenties, we got into a bagel fight behind a Bruegger's Bagels. Bagels are somewhat soft, but it don't feel too good when you get zinged in the nards with one.

[soopaman2]

Originally Posted by Krauter

Also, this makes me think of my coach and my childhood years.

1- My coach is from Moldova, moved to Russia, became a national wrestling champion in the Soviet Union (which was harder then winning the Olympics..), moved to Israel cause Soviets don't like Jews and then came here because he's a badass. Now he just complains about, pardon my russian "what pussy cats all the kids are today.

2- Makes me think of when I was a kid playing ball tag with a couple of friends on a playground. With a baseball.. (Think tag, you tag people by throwing balls at their faces..)

I was standing on the top of the playgrounds jungle gym, for lack of a better word, making fun of my friend for missing constantly with the ball when, finally having enough, he threw the ball with all his might. Hit me square in the nose which prompted me to fly backwards off the jungle gym (maybe 10-12 ft) onto the pebbles below. Had a pretty good bloody nose and some good cuts and bruises. I ran home to stuff paper towels up my nose so I could continue the game (I got the bugger back )

Nowadays, when I see kids playing (such as when I coach a highschool wrestling team) they can't even get a competitive atmosphere going and just run around like sissies..

The coming generations are doomed.

I quote your entire post because I got a good chuckle. We used to play war with rocks as kids. Lets play rock fight! Right on, everyone loved that game. Sure people got hurt, but very rarely, most the time we had fun.

Then when we used to play football in a parking lot, and part of the end zone was concrete, we would "cream" each other onto that concrete. The other endzone had a tree in the middle, we would mash each other potatoes against it, then eat dinner at the kids house later that night.

But go back to the 1800s, where at 14 you had to be a "man" or else you fell victim to life.

As society advances it becomes weaker and more reliant on authourities to protect it, which explains all the "laws" to "protect" us from stupidity, rather than letting Darwins law work its wonders, as it did in the past, since we hunted with a spear, and painted stick figures in cave walls, after all we are still here.

Your last sentence resonates with me though.

We really are doomed.

[tater]

We threw chestnuts, and tulip tree seed pod things at each other. Acorns, too. Later, we did so while riding at high speed on our bikes playing fighters. The goal was to shoot the other bike down (cartwheeling wreckage, ideally). Much road-rash was had by all.

[krashkart]

I got knocked off a merry-go-round when I was a kid. Ended up with a concussion. I know parents want their children to be safe and remain unbroken, but seriously... after two concussions, a broken tailbone, and an abnormally-mended broken rib I managed to reach this age I'm at now in relatively good health. (*twitch twitch*) Do kids really need rubber mats to land on when they fall off the monkey bars? Dry hardpan is soft enough. How are they supposed to learn to stand up if they never fall down and get hurt?


EDIT: The real trick is learning not to fall off the monkey bars in the first place.

[Krauter]

Originally Posted by krashkart

Whatever we could get our grubby little hands on, we'd beat each other senseless with.

So very true!

Originally Posted by krashkart

How are they supposed to learn to stand up if they never fall down and get hurt?


EDIT: The real trick is learning not to fall off the monkey bars in the first place.

This This and more of This. I get that parents want to protect their kids, but all they're doing is hurting them later in life by coddling them.

@ Edit: Naah, the real trick was to make your opponent fall of the monkey bars, then land on top of them