Moms Talk: Are Safer Playgrounds Stunting our Children?

A current story posted on the New York Times website asks the question, "Can a playground be too safe?"

The story is focused on New York City’s increasingly cautious playground equipment, but the question is universal to parks everywhere. Now I’ll sound like an old fogey, but they just don’t build playgrounds like they used to.

Back in the early 1980s when I was a kid, I remember hot metal slides scorching the backs of my thighs as I slid down (I could only pull up my tube socks just so high for protection). I remember this crazy, giant wooden pyramid at one of our city parks that left any young climber with several souvenir splinters from each ascent and descent. I remember getting caught under a kid-powered, wood and metal merry go round ride and living to tell the tale. In the 21^st century, all of my childhood playgrounds are gone, rotted and replaced with safer, buffered alternatives.

Of course under today’s strict standards, any playground my children play on these days, either at daycare or at a county park, doesn’t have any wood anywhere near it. And all the metal seems to be coated with rubber to soften it. The slides aren’t too high, and I think any kid would have to work really hard to get caught under any apparatus.

I guess I mostly think that is a good thing. Why would I want my kids to feel any pain? Playgrounds should be fun, after all, and getting hurt is never a good thing. But as the psychologists quoted in the Times story point out, minor childhood injuries have a backward way of being good for our children, teaching them to respect limitations, and preventing them from having a fear of heights as they get older. Boring playground also have the effect of making our kids lazier, the story says, the theory being that if they don’t want to use simple, low, unexciting playground pieces, they won’t burn as many calories and get as much exercise as they would on something edgier and more dangerous.

What do you think? Are today’s playgrounds in and around Baltimore County too safe? Are there any around that are a little riskier that your children find to be more fun?