A few years ago my 9-year-old cousin fell out of a tree and broke his arm.
Turns out the reason he was climbing the tree was because my aunt felt it was too dangerous for him to bike over to a local park to meet up with a bunch of his buddies. Rather, she felt it would be safer for him to play in their backyard where she could keep an eye on him.
About 45 minutes after she made the call to have him stay home she was dialing 911.
Irony. Oh, what a bitter pill to swallow… especially if you are a parent.
Life’s contradictions are never easy to process. Of course, some are harder to understand than others.
Take for example a study published in the newest issue of Pediatrics which suggests that some playgrounds are to blame for children leading sedentary lifestyles.
Yes, you read correctly. According to the new study, one of the causes of childhood obesity is the installation of safer playground equipment.
Scientists say that due to stricter licensing codes, today’s public playgrounds are far less physically challenging than they were when we were growing up. What’s more, researchers found that a growing number of helicopter parents are requesting that childcare providers limit their son or daughter’s access to outdoor play areas for fear of injury.
“Physical activity is essential for kids in this age group for preventing obesity and for development,” the study’s author Dr. Kristen Copeland, told news reporters. “But the teachers were saying they were pressured by parents and somewhat by state early learning standards to emphasize classroom learning.”
Translation: Because of the influx of Nervous Nellies and sue-happy parents in our world, kids are being forced to spend more time at their desks rather than playing outside.
Granted, some pieces of playground equipment are inherently more dangerous than others – nearly 220,000 kids age 14 and under were sent to the emergency room for playground-equipment injuries in 2009, according to Safe Kids Worldwide. However, from what I observe while keeping an eye on my daughter while she’s playing at our local park, many of the kids getting injured on playgrounds have themselves to blame. From what I see, some children are simply not using the equipment properly. Walking across monkey bars instead of swinging from them; climbing up a slide while others are coming down; and jumping off swings in mid-air are not exactly “safe” decisions regardless of how the equipment is designed.
Do you keep your kids off of some playground equipment because you fear for their safety? Does playing safe mean playing sorry?
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