I thought that I had a wild, dangerous, free range childhood, but THIS puts me to shame! Danger is FUN! Today’s helicopter parents would probably faint dead away if they saw their precious snowflakes even look in the direction of this glorious masterpiece!
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Terra Nova Park in Richmond, BC is pretty f-ing cool. I used to have some photos of it, but the video in the link will have to do. It feels dangerous to the kids, but it feels safe for the adults. We’ve spent many days there as a family.
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If I ever become ridiculously rich, I’m going to spend my fortune building playgrounds like robots and pirate ships and dragons and stuff.
But scaled up to adult size. So people can’t complain when I want to have a go on the swings or the climbing frame.
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The park I went to as a kid had that robot. By the mid 1980s when I could play on it the heat was welded shut for safety and it was later torn down because it was so dangerous.
I can say on hot days those slides would burn and it always smelled of urine and feces.
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so pretty much like every McDonald’s Playplace in existence?
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oh no, we can’t have little Timmy breaking an arm and gaining life experience and a fun story.
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Interesting gender balance in these videos…
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Still plenty of merry go rounds around, but they’re actually cooler right now! The local ones are mostly either the off-center spinny ball merry go rounds which you can climb inside of get up to insane speeds without needing someone to push, or the elevated ones you have to hang from by your arms until you get flung multiple feet away into the sand. A few of the standing tower-style too.
All of them are more fun than the old style since you can build up speed inside without having to push off anything, and without the risk of getting caught underneath and having a limb degloved!
Ball spinner: http://abcreative.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/comet_1-1.jpg
Hanging spinner: https://solodialogue.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/img_0412.jpg
Vertical Spinner: http://www.xccentrecreation.com/images/products-fusion-ground-spinner.jpg
And that’s not even counting the spinner bowls swings, for those who really want to spin friends until they are dizzy and go flying off!
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I think the worry was more about little Timmy breaking a skull and not being able to get any more life experience at all.
Modern playground equipment is largely just as fun and exciting as the old stuff but overall better designed, and it’s not just improvements in safety (although improvements in safety are hardly a bad thing).
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Some of the playground equipment I saw in different parts of the US was really good - definitely better than anything we had growing up. They had a very good use of space and were often multifunctional, while some others I’ve seen elsewhere had a lot of decoration or could only really be used for one thing.
Let me know when your Kickstarter is ready and I’ll contribute.
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I’m surprised they failed to go with the “floor of broken glass” option.
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The Seattle Center recently put this guy in:
It’s huge, and all those kids just left of center are climbing a rope web. Looking at these pictures, though, I’m confused because I was certain there was something not-grass underneath it. I’m gonna have to look next time I’m over there.
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,satire…
Good one.
Personally, I don’t see what’s moral in denying that coal miner kid his right to pursue the American dream.
That was the attitude I knew growing up. My dislocated shoulder was shrugged off as the normal cost of being an idiot kid.,and I recall being screeched at about my clumsiness.
Aaaahhh, the 70’s…
The term “helicopter parent” did not exist, as the “helicopter parent” didn’t exist. What do you expect from people who survived The Great Depression and WWII? Empathy?
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It’s just a pipe dream and I already fear for my hip.
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Is there? How can you tell?
I’d probably get my head stuck between the bars…
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