Comments on: Do you remember your childhood playground?

By: Michele

Michele — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:28:48 +0000

I totally remember my elementary school playground. Metal slides, monkey bars, merry go round etc. We had tanbark in our playground though. Not as bad as concrete, but still guaranteed to give you a splinter or two, when you fell.

Oh and the best feature? A 3 story fort!!! This thing was tall, and on the little kid side which made no sense to me. I can’t believe they let us, play on that. It totally rocked. Now days, you wouldn’t see anything like it, that’s for sure!

By: Lynne

Lynne — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:32:28 +0000

It’s amazing that any of us ever survived childhood without products like these! It’s surprising there are any adults in the world at all. You’d think we would’ve all died during childhood.

By: Cassie

Cassie — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:41:52 +0000

I am a mother of 4 and I think these are the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen!!
I am definitely not a make sure your kid never gets hurt by anything, ever kind of mom.
I can’t look at that picture without laughing.

By: April

April — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:54:53 +0000

LOL, my youngest son would rip this off and that would be the end of it.

By: Monique

Monique — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:52:16 +0000

Our playground was also concrete… with a broke down basketball hoop and one of those things you get on with your friends and spin until you are all about to puke.

I had such good times at that playground… and I would hope my kids would have an equally good time at whatever one they play at. Minus that thudguard nonsense.

By: Damien Riley

Damien Riley — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:37:56 +0000

Hey, I loved this post. It is a such a great notion to think about childhood playgrounds. It brings up every sense in my brain, and about every emotion. Do we ever really go far from the sandbox? I say no.

By: Mamaflo

Mamaflo — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:41:25 +0000

Every scar I have from playing and hurting myself has given me character (as do the wrinkles and grey hair, or so I’m told). Could I have hurt myself real bad, yeah I guess but I wouldn’t have been happy wearing a freak helmet (and no doubt I wouldn’t have had friends).
Thanks for the chuckle and a walk down memory lane.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:54:16 +0000

Lets see when i was a kid, and mind you this wasn’t too long ago I am only 23, I never wore a helmet while biking, or knee pads, or any of that stuff. Not even for skating did we do that back then.

I have a 3 year old, and I was concered about him when he started crawling and walking, but I would never have put a helmet on him. Before he got the hang of things I was always around to make sure if he fell he would be getting right back up again.

There is only so much you can do, we tried the cabniet locks, and the cushion corners on the tables, but eventually those all got broken or lost, and before I knew it there wasn’t any protection besides us in my home.

Still my son is thriving, would a helmet have made a difference when he was an infant? No it wouldn’t. As a parent you do your best to protect your child, but you can’t wrap the world in foam, and I think we would all be a little better off if we realized that.

By: Gina

Gina — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:50:26 +0000

Weird! We never even had seat belts when I was a kid. We sat in the back of the station wagon.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:52:41 +0000

Yep, our playground was concrete, too. Well, the closest one. There was one a little farther away that was gravel and grass.

These things are just plain silly. I’m a parent. I would never have put one of those on my daughter when she was an infant/toddler. Heck, they’re not even good for the embarrassment factor because kids that age aren’t old enough to know they’re being embarrassed! Now, for TEENS, on the other hand… LOL

By: Milena

Milena — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:52:28 +0000

I’m mother to a three year old toddler and the answer to your question is YES. There is such a thing as too much protection. Major overboard this hat is.

By: fragileheart

fragileheart — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:28:19 +0000

lol it’s like those mothers who bleach everything in sight when their new born is brought back home without realising that they’re actually doing more damage than good. The child needs to build an immune system, just like he or she’s going to have to get cuts, bruises and bumps for their skin, muscles and bones to get stronger – within reason of course. I’m not suggesting you throw your kids against brick walls to help them ‘grow stronger’. hahaha I can’t believe you had a concrete playground. We at least had gravel (and plenty of sand being that I was in Dubai at the time).