It was a sad day when they took away the Big Slide from the park we used to go to. Of course, I would hardly let my son Nathaniel, then 2, actually go on the Big Slide, hovering Helicopter Parent that I was, but somehow, when they took away the Big Slide and the teeter-totters, which clearly could pinch little fingers, and installed a nice safe sandbox instead, it seemed that the heart and the soul went out of that park and we quit going there. It wasn't long after that when I noticed that parks all over my town were doing the same thing. An epidemic of overzealous, let's-not-get-sued, keep-our-kids-in-a-bubble safety makeovers.
Safe? I call it boring. And it's probably happened where you live, too.
Parks all over have become places where kids are less likely to get hurt, sure, but what's the point of keeping kids completely wrapped up in bubble wrap? How will they learn discernment? How will they learn to temper zeal with caution? How will they learn how to apply a Band-aid?
Apparently, kids are uninterested in playing in spaces that don't have some element of unpredictability. We're always hearing that kids should get out and play, but where? In the community where I live there are swings, spring animals, and a bit of a climby-thing. My kids play in the nearby creek or on top of a huge dirt mound left by construction instead. They, like your kids, know where the fun is.
Can we just bring the fun back to our parks? Then maybe the kids will want to be there too.
