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Friday, May 02, 2008

Children's play equipment and the decline of the American yard.

I find it amusing that I ran accross this after visiting Jerry's house. I will still defend his yard though-he is the exact opposite of the typical American house in the article-he has a small house with a giant yard (though rented, not owned). In his case the two swingsets were being thrown out by other people, and much of the other equipment was also being trashed or else yard saled, or he bought it secondhand. I think the trampoline was the only thing bought brand new. I think he just wants to encourage his kids to spend more time outside, that's the impression I get, anyway.



They do have a valid point about people not using playgrounds as much and buying their own ugly plastic contraptions instead. I don't think that it holds true for most people living in a city, or at least in the economic group I travel in. For middle and upper class maybe. I'd also guess that part of the desire to have your own playground equipment comes from the fact that middle class parents are busy shuffling between their two jobs and sports and lessons and playdates for their kids-who has time to sit at a playground and watch the kids play? Much easier to just let them run out into the backyard (it's probably underused anyway).

I find our local playground to be scary a lot of the time. It's overrun with teenagers who are there to hang out, not horrible in itself, but they get in the way of younger kids trying to play. In fact, aside from my recent vists there with the boys in the AM, I had not gone back because the last time I went teenagers were throwing rocks and one nearly slammed into my head. My guardian angel was there that day because instead it hit the metal pole I was standing against instead of me. But it was very close and it hit very hard. There were several bored fathers there also, and all came over to check out what had happened. (I think it gave them something manly to do) and they all pronounced that had the rock hit me instead of the pole, I'd be sleeping right now. I found the thought terrifying because I had baby Timothy in the sling, and I was watching Leanna and Justin run around-what might have happened to them if something happened to me?

Every day this week at least one kid has asked if we can go back to Jerry's house! It's better than most playgrounds anyway-no lines, no rude kids, tree lined, and real grass under your feet.

5 comments:

Jamie said...

i think one of the problems is that the nice wooden sets are way more expensive than the plastic ones. and more accessible (walmart has a lot of plastic sets). and not many people do it themselves, like go out and buy the wood and build a playset. i wouldn't be suprised if more people wouldn't start getting the wooden ones with the rise in ecofriendliness... i think it makes sense to have the plastic ones at the public park b/c they do last longer. but before you know it, they will be warning us that those leach harmful plastic chemicals into the soil or something along those lines.... =)

ADP said...

My father made us a wooden swing set. It was a big one, bigger than the regular metal swingset they made at the time and then he laid a ladder across the top of both of them. We had a blast on those things. I remember one time my cousins came up from tennessee and we were playing hide & seek. We couldn't find my cousin Michael--finally we found him on top of the ladder (hey it was dark outside) lol. I always thought that was really clever of him. But anyway, we had the big yard back then when we lived in Hellertown and we had room for both those swingsets. Once we moved to where Mimi lives now, there wasn't room so we had to be happy with climbing the mulberry tree that was in our backyard. Oh, and playing kickball in the alleyway out behind our house.

sajmom said...

I think there are problems with the wooden ones also-I vaguely remember hearing something about the chemicals they use to pressure treat the wood being dangerous also! You really can't win in today's world!!

Jamie said...

ok, now we can start a lumber business with a focus on playsets...with...

ORGANIC CHEMICAL FREE WOOD!!

hehe

sajmom said...

Ok, and we can have our own oganic garden where we grow our own food too. Ummmm....maybe not me cause I usually kill things. But I would happily eat the results and teach my kids to grow stuff too. I'm not sure what my contribution would be then, I'd just have to find my own way to contribute to this fantasy world!