Which Way To The Playground?

A couple of days ago I read an article on the internet about children being injured on playgrounds.  The title grabbed my attention immediately.

Danger on the Playground: Riding the Slide with Your Toddler in Your Lap Could Break Her Leg

What grandma wants that?  Of course, I clicked on the link and quickly read through the advice the author mentioned.  Seems if you ride with the child on your lap, their leg could get caught and could be easily broken.    So, don't do that!

You know in this internet age there are people that post comments on every article they read.  After reading the article, it was like a huge vacuum drawing me toward those comments.  Sarcasm.  I love it.

The first was a quip about being amazed that he survived being a child.  What with sliding down slides and hanging on bars and climbing flag poles, all without the benefit of a helmet, shin guards or elbow pads.

The next comment went further and mentioned riding a bike without a helmet, shoeless and having a sister or brother on the handlebars.  Again, how did we survive?

I posted a comment on my facebook page about the article and mentioned our elementary school playground.  Seems there were quite a few memories about the merry go round.  "Best scar ever" was what one of my friends had to say.

Later in the week I had the pleasure of attending recess at a local elementary school.  Yes, contrary to popular belief, they still have recess.  (Remember, I said I loved sarcasm.  I think there should be a font especially for sarcasm.)  What I noticed on today's playground was a lot more "stuff."  Brightly colored things for kids to climb on, slide down, climb through, shimmy down and balance on.  Lots more to play on than our selection of metal gray/brown slides, swings and maybe a monkey bar or two.

Despite all of the brightly colored slides, swings and monkey bars I couldn't help but notice that most of the kids went to the open field and played kick ball.  Funny, all these years later kicking a ball with your classmates is the first choice.   Oh, for a repeat of 5th grade.  On second thought, maybe not.

Just Bebe