ok, so I'm reading this article about safety on playgrounds and (not) letting kids be kids.

I first want to say. I'm 26 years old. I'm healthy, happy, and well-adjusted (for the most part...lol) - and as a young child, i broke many bones, had MANY skinned knees, bruised knees, elbows, etc...etc...I was a KID.

There's an article that I found out of Portland, OR about basically "dumbing down" school playgrounds and taking out all of the FUN playground equipment as well as banning running, dodgeball, tether ball, and other activities we ALL played as kids. And ya know what? I can bet every single one of us, whether we enjoyed the games or not - played them in elementary school - and we LIVED to tell about it.

I know, from my own elementary school back home, they took out the metal swing sets and monkey bars and slides and all that about 10 or 15 years ago and everything is now PLASTIC and enclosed in a fence. I HATE it.

But another point of this article states this:

One child psychologist points to the rising trend of childhood obesity in defense of letting kids play like kids.

National statistics indicate 34 percent of kids are overweight, with obesity projected to be nearly 50 percent in the year 2010.

I have to say, while I know I personally wasn't a fat kid because of the fact that i didn't play on th playground, I can honestly agree with that statement. I mean, I know it's NOT the "ONLY" reason - but it's definately a factor. Anyways, enough talk from me - i'm curious as to what all of you think about this article.


http://www.katu.com/stories/85715.html

Hmmmmmmm, I do wonder how much under staffing in schools is to blame. With good supervision there shouldn't be accidents.

I was a fairly overweight kid, and the only game I liked was dodge ball!! I enjoyed it because it wasn't about speed, but about cunning, which I had in spades

I think we do wrap kids up too much, and that in this litigation society things really have gone too far. Kids need to learn to have confidence, but also respect for one another, and respect for rules. Like most things, it's all about finding a balance.

That is absolutely ABSURD!!! How can they banish running on a PLAYGROUND? What extreme are they going to go to next? Make kids wear helmets with face guards, elbow pads and knee pads when they go out to play? Maybe the next thing they'll do is enclose all playgrounds in those "Moonwalk" things...that way there's no way for kids to get hurt. No, they wouldn't do that....there's a suffocation risk. They'll outlaw bike-riding. Good Lord in Heaven!
Playing on those old wooden playsets, metal slides, monkey bars and such are some of my favorite memories. I had my fair share of skinned knees, stitches, bruises and such and I was always fine. That number of deaths that they listed are most likely due to poor parental supervision.
I agree with the fact that these new rules are contributing to child obesity. If a child can't run around like a maniac on the playground, how else are they going to burn energy? Lifting the wonderful, healthy McDonald's Happy Meals that they serve in schools now into their mouths?
I still LOVE to go to the playground and swing on the swings and act goofy. It's nostalgic.
I can't believe our government.

My daughter got a broken finger in Feb. at school while playing at recess. Another child ran into her. When my daughter realized the the girl was gonna run into her she put her hands out to avoid being knocked down and the girl hit her at such an angle that it broke her finger. Yesterday I got a phone call from my insurance company. They wanted to know if I was in litigation with the school or with the child's parents for the medical expenses because they said that since it happened at school that the school should be paying in part for the treatment and x-rays and stuff and the child's parents should be paying the other part. They (the insurance company) are now reviewing the case to decide whether or not they are even going to pay for any of the treatment. If they don't I have 2 options. Sue the school, and the childs parents to get the money (which I don't want to do) or pay the over 2 thousand dollars worth of medical bills myself (which I definately can't afford). So my point is.. it's not necessarily safety concerns that are causing these changes. Alot of it has to do with monetary responsibility for incurred medical expenses in a sue happy society. I mean come on! These are kids. Accidents happen. That's why we have insurance, but the insurance doesn't want to pay if they can make someone else pay because it takes away from their bottom line profits. It's all about the all mighty dollar. And yes children are getting fatter. Recess time has been cut back, PE is only one day a week at most schools now, and I know that I've fought with my daughters teacher more than once because she uses m&M's and cookies as counters for fractions and then let's the kids eat them. She uses candy and chips as rewards for her students if they answer questions correctly, soda and chips at after school tutoring sessions etc..she says that this is common practice among teachers and I've talked with other parents who have also had this problem with other teachers and even other schools. So here's the issue. These places are taking away physical activity, using junk food for rewards and then wondering about obesity issues or blaming the issues on parents and these are the people responsible for educating our children. Isn't it lovely?

What? no running? And no tag because it encourages fights? That's a part of development! Even though I was an overweight child, I was outside getting "lost" in the mountains more than I was in front of the tv. I think this will only inhibit children from learning to overcome their fears and prevent natural stages of development.

Who are these safety advocates? I mean, I understand wanting to prevent accidents and the softer matting under the swings is certainly better than the sharp gravel of my youth, but this is excessive. What happens when my kid gets his first skinned knee at, like, 17???

It reminds of when I was younger and their were the parents who used to drive their kids to the school bus stop and make them wait in the car for the bus because it was cold out. Or hot. Or windy. Of course, I'm not a parent. I ould warp into a "safety advocate" in no time flat, who knows.

i will say, I was kind of glad to see the steel equipment taken out. I've had myn fair share of burned hands and, um, bottoms from those things...

I'm always complaining about how they are being too restrictive with kids. When I took my daughter to the park last summer it suddenly hit me that I hadn't seen monkey bars in years. I suppose kids nowadays don't even know what they are. And remember the tall slides in the park, now they are so short that as soon as you get on, you're off. As kids we used to poor bottles of water down the slide and make our own water slides. LOL Kids are going to get bruised knees and broken bones. It happens. Now as an adult I love showing off my battlescars from my youth with the long story to go with it.

I would like to see a statistic on how many injuries and deaths there are as a percentage of the number of children playing. I would like one for each decade going back about 50 years or so. I bet anything that the number of playground injuries hasn't increased compared to 20 years ago or even 50 years ago. Of course you have to take into concideration the population growing, so that's why it should be as a percentage of the total number of kids.

I think it's stupid. Kids need to play and explore and see what their limits are. If they can't do this as kids when their bodies can recover quickly, then it's only going to lead to problems when they get older.

No running on a playground... WTH are people thinking????? I'm not one that loved or even liked dodgeball. In fact I hated it, but I don't see anything wrong with it either. Are they going to start banning running in the gym next? How is running on a basketball court any different than running on a playground.

Yeah. once, when i was in sixth grade, we were playing basketball in gym class. i tripped over this witch, who i couldn't stand, and i swear to you, she did it on purpose, lol...but i fell and bent my middle, ring, and pinky finger on my left hand. i bent them back so far they all broke. and it hurt like he!!. i remember crying all the way down the hall to the nurse's office. and ya know what? my mom came and got me, we went to th ER I got bandaged up and my dad's insurance paid for it. did my mom even THINK about sueing the school or the girl's parents? no. the thought never even crossed her mind. i can't believe that the insurance is actually ENCOURAGING you to make someone else pay (or pay $2000 out of your own pocket - that's absurd!)

but i'm happy to see (so far) that everyone here agrees how completely asinine taking away these things from kids are. I mean, i don't have any of my own just yet - but i do have a little baby cousin, who's 3 years old...and he's a - well, he's a toddler who does stupid things that toddlers do - and he's been in and out of the ER for stupid things (including superglueing the back of his pinky to his eyelid...lol) - but what i'm afraid of too, is the hospital getting suspicious and starting to suspect my cousin (his mom) of child abuse! which of course she nor her fiance don't do. but with the way insurance and everything else is today...

shoot, the NUMBER of times i was in the ER for injuries? if i was a child today like that, they'd have called the police on my mom in a heartbeat...just for the sheer NUMBER of times i was hurting myself (i was a tomboy).

but yeah. reading stuff like this always gets me riled up. haha

Okay so I have two comments about this-when my middle girl was 8 she broke her arm doing a cartwheel at school (which was REALLY odd, considering she had been tumbing for almost a year) and unfortunately she is a drama queen (same reaction to a missing arm as to a hang nail) so I didn't take her in until the next morning. Whoops Anyway, I made sure I brought that note from the school, that way I had my protection, just in case they decided to freak out about it. The other thing is-in March my oldest broke her hand at cheerleading practice (she did a backhandspring and landed with her hand in a fist with her pinkie extended, then the girl in front of her landed on her hand, breaking her 5th metacarpal-the bone in the hand, under the pinkie knuckle) so I took her to the emergency room and everthing was fine there, but about a week later I get a letter from our insurance asking me to name anyone else who could be at fault...at fault?!?!?! Are you kidding me?!?! It's called an accident people...HELLO!!! Anyway, so sent it back explaining exactly like I did here what happened, I just didn't mention particulars-Cheerleading Academy name, girls name, etc. I dare them to try and make this into a big ol' production. One other weird thing was some other parents reaction, I was picking the girls up from school, takling to the girl behind the counter about what happened and this one mom scoffed and said "I'm so glad MY kids aren't into that" (I guess meaning cheerleading). The child with her was a boy about 10 and so I said "Well it's the same thing as football or baseball, they can get hurt doing angthing" to which she responded "Yes, well my kids aren't into ANY of that" any of what? Physical activity? living? So weird, especially since she said it like she and her kids were better for not doing anything. All I know is you can get hurt doing absolutely nothing. I dislocated my knee for the first time when I was 17 years old, I bent over to pick up a little girl, that's it, I wasn't even doing something cool, I have no good story to go with my injury. Bottom line, getting hurt is part of being an active creature, little or big, let it happen, it's part of life.
WOW!! Apparently I have something to say about this.

I have three older brothers and 3 younger,,,plus a younger sister...myself and my older brothers were all rough and tumble kind of kids...yes we did try to jump off the roof to see if we could fly and all that insane things. I call it science experiments gone bad. In school pretty much every month my parents were called to come pick one of us up...and then take us to the ER. I couldn't tell you how many broken bones together we have had...lots.
My boys, I have raised to be out there...sure we have had a few broken bones but seriously do I want my kids sheltered and not living?

My youngest son's school has banned all soda's and I see they are working on candy to be taken out. Hes in grade 8. Im so pro of getting that stuff out and letting they have their water and milk at lunch. A healthy lunch is provided, hot soup and salads...fruit. Occassionally pizza and hot dogs,,,but not often.
I know of other schools that havne't done that.

I live in Maine and I have not heard that we have any soda or candy in school, at least not in my son's elementary school. When I was in High School here about 15 years ago we had nothing like that so I am hoping that it doesn't make it's way into schools here. But on the other issue about banning playground activities I think is absolutely ridiculous. My son is 7 and thankfully has not broken anything but then again, the playgrounds ARE all plastic and soft squishy stuff to run on. Or wood chips. And you are right about no monkey bars and short slides. I can't believe how things change and you don't really think about it ~ but if you think about it, things have gotten "safer" in most aspects of life over the last 20 to 30 years. **** when I was a kid (and most of you I'm guessing) there was no such thing as a car seat. I mean my Mom told me when I was a baby they would just lay me in the middle of the front seat or in my Moms lap and that was that. There were no concerns about safety lol. I am in no way in agreement with any of the changes proposed mind you, just aware that there are always going to be bigger, better, safer ways of doing things. And crazy people with crazy ideas like that one. ...... it's late and I'm rambling about nothing.. Ok time for bed. Nite nite!

I agree. What has happened to the world? It's all about the almight dollar like a few of you said. People and insurance co.'s see dollar signs and that is it. Instead of the child having a good time and playing. Playing. Do kids really even do that anymore? I think kids are growing up WAY too fast! They have Ipods, personal computers in their rooms, tv's/DVD/VCR's, cell phones. Whatever happened to just going outside and playing an old fashioned game of tag or mother may I? (anyone remember mother may I?) lol.
I think your all right. We're "coddling" our kids and not letting them explore the world and learn well if you jump off the swings, you may get hurt.
I remember back in 5th grade we had a girl who broke BOTH her wrists by doing just that. Jumping off the swings. It just was an accident. There was no sueing the school or anything. They took her to the hospital, she came back a few days later and all the kids helped her with day to day stuff, no big deal.
Kids play, they get hurt. Heck my husband has broken almost every single bone in his body when he was a kid! But that is what kids do, they play, they get hurt sometimes. I think the world needs to chill out and let kids be kids again. Forget about the almighty $$. Is this what we want to teach our kids? That money is the most important thing in the world?

Getting off my soapbox now.

*Flady*

IMO, this is completely ridiculous. They sell all sorts of crap junk food at the schools in my area, and to take away the only form of exercise a lot of kids get, is just wrong. I worked one semester in a 2-5 school, and those kids loved to race around the playground. They loved it even more when the adults got off their duff and played with them, so it's too bad more parents don't supervise their children by taking part in some of their activities.

When I was a kid, we used to take all the "safe" things on the playground and try to make them dangerous. It was just more fun that way, and we all made it off the playground in one piece.

We had some sporting injuries, but nothing too severe. I was always into sports growing up, and I definitely had a few injuries that my mother would've rather not have had to deal with, but she never made a big deal out of it, and her insurance always just paid the bill. I played basketball, softball and rugby, and I was a cheerleader. Cheerleading, was by far, the most dangerous (and challenging) sport I was ever a part of.

Child obesity is far more dangerous than anything found on a playground, so I can't understand why parents and doctors can't see far enough in front of their faces to do something about it. IMO, placing them in front of the TV with a Coke and a Twinkie is more dangerous than metal playground equipment and dodge ball.

The whole thing makes me sad as well as angry.

But hold on, here. There's a difference between playing tag and trying your best to slap the out of your playmate. Sadly, some kids don't know the difference. Too many kids take it to the extreme. They don't know when to stop. If jumping into the pool is good, hey, jumping off the diving board is better. If jumping off the diving board is good, hey, bouncing as HIGH as you can right beforehand is better. If jumping HIGH is good, hey jumping from the roof must be better!

I was a cautious kid. Never had a broken bone. Never had stiches. Never even had a trip to the emergency room, for that matter. I played tag, but I really resented the kids who took it to the extreme. I played dodgeball, but hated the kids who made it into bulletball. Dispised the kid who purposely slid off the see-saw while I was at the top. Hated the kids who's sole goal was to hurt and humiliate others, then try to claim it was just all play...

And the parents and adults who excused their rude behavior saying it was kids being kids were no better.

As a parent, I tried to instill a love of active, but safe, play in my child. I remember once, when he was about 3, a 5-year-old shoved him nearly off the platform as he was waiting to go down a slide. A big, UUUMPH shove, too. Then the kid went down the slide first and laughed as he ran away. I was infuriated and gave that kid a little scolding. His mom defended him!!! Said, "That's just how boys are, kids'll be kids". That's baloney.

IMO there are too many kids with no boundaries and no supervision, who think of no one other than themselves and who don't think more than 2 seconds ahead (Hmmmm what would happen if I jump off the roof and miss the pool?). That's why there have to be some sort of limits set, since so many parents refuse to do it.

Is prohibiting running in the playground a bit over the top? Is eliminating the swingset wrong? Yep and yep. But until adults start encouraging and enforcing safe-play, until adults start teaching that there ARE limits and there ARE boundaries, something has to be done.

I opt for safer, softer play areas. Let them run on grass rather than concrete. Have the swingset and monkey bars placed on crushed/shredded rubber tires rather than hard-pack dirt. Replace the steel slide (which can fry a little butt in the summer sun) with a plastic one. Have rounded corners on playsets. And teach kids that having a good time playing does NOT include trying to hurt your playmates and that taking turns is not a sign of weakness.

Just my touchy-feely take on things .

Warning-mini tangent coming...

I am so glad you said that, as a mom of two cheerleaders (competitive cheeleaders), I get so tired of other people (kids, parents, random people) making snide comments, ugly faces, etc when they learn the SPORT my children do. My 13 y/o couldn't even do a cartwheel 3 years ago, now she can do both a standing backhandspring and a roundoff backhandspring, and is currently working on a double backhandspring. My 10 y/o can do all that too. At the last competition one of the moms from another team equated cheerleading to football without the padding and helmets...all I could think was how I couldn't have said it better myself. Thats not to say ANY one sport is better than another, it just is so frustrating, all the negativity that seems to go with cheerleading. I mean just the tryout schedule is crazy, of course I don't have any idea how other sports tryouts go, but I do know that last Saturday they had a 3 hour tryout-learning a 48 count dance, after working on jumps and kick for an hour. Tomorrow (My Birthday!!!) they will have two more hours, where they will work on tumbling, anything from a basic cartwheel up to layouts and fulls (they will probably not work on the dance at all). Then finally on Saturday they will have ANOTHER 3 hour tryout where they will have to show what they remember of the dance and then work on stunting. This is the part where they throw all the little ones around. My 13 y/o is a base, my 10 y/o is a flyer (thats the one that gets thrown around). Then on Sunday I get to go online and see what team they are on. I LOVE that they love this, they've tried different things and this is the one that not only stuck, but stuck with both of them. I'll be posting soon with a problem I'm having with them, well not them really, their parents. Long story short-MY girls are my nieces, like I said I'll be posting soon for support and advise.

Okay, maybe not SO mini...sorry