My daughter has finally reached the age where visits to the playground are a near-daily occurrence. It provides much needed interaction that is important for intellectual stimulation and social development – and she likes it, too. I try to rotate our schedules so she doesn’t get bored going to the same place all the time, but we both find ourselves drawn to a circus-themed playground just a few miles from our home. She likes it for its varied activities and its bold, bright colors while I enjoy its safe design – after all, I’ve been researching safe local playgrounds since this summer.
Image source: Sarasota.patch.com
While there are people out there who still appreciate a dangerous playground, I am not one of them. My fourteen-month old is fearless and fast, which is a frightening combination. She brazenly scampers up tall structures and would fling herself off of them in a heartbeat if I weren’t there to catch her. So I am grateful for a playground that is blanketed with soft, recycled scrap tire rubber that is shock absorbent and eco-friendly for those times when I am not quick enough to catch her if she should fall.
Image source: Sarasota.patch.com
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t necessarily want to become a helicopter parent and suck all the fun out of my daughter’s life with my nonstop hovering. But playgrounds can be dangerous places. The playgrounds of my youth were made of dangerous steel and concrete. We faced rust, cuts, and splinters on a daily basis. And in addition to being unsafe for kids, these playgrounds were bad for the earth. Decrepit rusty playground steel more often than not ended up in landfills as these old, dangerous playgrounds fell by the wayside. And the playground equipment that wasn’t made from rickety wood or sharp metal was typically molded from plastics laden with BPA and phthalates. So yes, I’d love it if my daughter could play on a softly knitted playground instead of one filled with hard surfaces.
Image source: Sarasota.patch.com
Sadly, the fact of the matter is that my baby is going to get bumped and bruised by life, so I may as well let her careen wildly know while I’m there to catch her and kiss away the sting of a scraped knee. Maybe one day my courage in letting her fall sometimes will inspire her to pursue a dream job designing the world’s safest playground. Until then, we’ll have to find some middle ground: she can keep leaping off of tall structures as long as she’ll let me catch her.
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