How Safe Was Your Childhood?
As I was reading this list of playground safety tips from the American Accociation of Pediatrics I had to laugh. I'm sure these are all great tips, but none of these was part of my childhood. How did we ever survive?!
The playground should have safety-tested mats or loose-fill materials (shredded rubber, sand, wood chips, or bark) maintained to a depth of at least 9 inches. The protective surface should be installed at least 6 feet (more for swings and slides) in all directions from the equipment. If we were lucky we had sand, usually the surface started out as lawn, turned into hard packed dirt.
- Equipment should be carefully maintained. Open “s” hooks or protruding bolt ends can be hazardous. Our equipment was full of bolts and "s" hooks, it was only the bolts that ever seemed to hurt anyone.
- Swing seats should be made of soft materials such as rubber, plastic or canvas. How about a board?
- Make sure children cannot reach any moving parts that might pinch or trap any body part. So what would that have left us? Monkey bars? see below.
- Never attach—or allow children to attach—ropes, jump ropes, leashes, or similar items to play equipment; children can strangle on these. How do you swing like Tarzan from the monkey bars if you can't tie on a jump rope?
- Make sure metal slides are cool to prevent children's legs from getting burned. Yeah right, and the person who's cooling the slide can make sure it's warm in the winter so no one can get their tongue stuck.
- Parents should never purchase a home trampoline or allow children to use home trampolines. Ha, like we had home trampolines.
- Parents should supervise children on play equipment to make sure they are safe. Sending us to the playground was what kept our parents sane
Kim Barber
RE/MAX Legacy
Office 638 383-1425
US Landline 408 890-7806
KimJBarber@hotmail.com
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