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Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

nytimes.com

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Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#21

Post by umvi »

You're right - anything that provokes fear or outrage gets instant attention. Everything else doesn't.

North Korea imprisoning a single idiot American who crossed the border = national dialogue because it's outrageous

School shooting where 3 people die = national dialogue on gun control because it's outrageous.

DUI accident that kills a family of 5 = small blurb in local news because it's not outrageous (even if it should be).

Thousands of people dying from obesity-related health issues = crickets because it is not outrageous.

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#22

Post by rags2riches »

function_seven wrote: post #14
fatnoah wrote: post #3

The only anecdote I can share about this comes from the time my family was touring a local day camp. On the tour, they showed us everything: archery, fishing, swimming, ropes, and everything else you could think of. At one point, we came to a massive, 10 foot high pile of dirt. The kids immediately ran for the dirt pile and the parents' reactions were a 50/50 mix of "Awesome" or "What are you building here?" I knew t…

I remember when I was 7 years old and my dad was working on our back yard. Up until that point, the yard was just weeds and dirt. But now we were going to get sod to cover it all. First step was to bring in a mountain of good soil. That soil mountain was piled 6' high for a week, and I spent a lot of time playing on it. (My brother: "You know that pile is half cow shit, right?" ... Me: "Don't care")

The large piles of firewood before it had been stacked were great fun. The hayloft is of course a classic playground. And a gravel pit (the site where gravel is mined) is quite exciting...

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#23

Post by sp332 »

badcede wrote: post #4

"Grown-ups have taken all the fun out of being a kid just to save a few thousand lives." https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/04/06/george-carlin-you-a...

This feels like a really unconvincing argument. A few thousand is a lot of lives. A few lives would feel like a few too many.

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#25

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

fatnoah wrote: post #3

The only anecdote I can share about this comes from the time my family was touring a local day camp. On the tour, they showed us everything: archery, fishing, swimming, ropes, and everything else you could think of. At one point, we came to a massive, 10 foot high pile of dirt. The kids immediately ran for the dirt pile and the parents' reactions were a 50/50 mix of "Awesome" or "What are you building here?" I knew t…

probably my favorite childhood memory: my grandfather ordered a large dumptruck of sand for our tiny hand dug pond in our backyard, in an attempt to make a beach.

needless to say, as a younger boy, seeing a towering (maybe 8-10ft. height) pile of sand was amazing, I put on my swimming trunks, sunscreen and grabbed a bucket and shovel.

i spent hours just digging holes and making sand castles in the hot sun of a kansas summer, I think my parents were relieved that I was off the computer for a significant portion of time.

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#26

Post by lb1lf »

badcede wrote: post #4

"Grown-ups have taken all the fun out of being a kid just to save a few thousand lives." https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/04/06/george-carlin-you-a...

There is more than a grain of truth to this; a couple of years ago it's was brought to my attention that since the 1950s, children being killed in traffic in Norway was down by a couple of orders of magnitude, even though traffic had increased by a couple of orders of magnitude in the same time.

Drowning? Also down by a similar ratio. Generic accidents? Same, same.

Sure, there has never been as safe a time to be a kid as today. Big question is, does being wrapped in cotton throughout your formative years make for a safer life as an adult, or did you miss some lessons in risk assessment which makes you more prone to getting it good and hard later in life?

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#27

Post by bongo662 »

I was lucky growing up in Kentucky, behind my parents house was roughly 20 acres of woods that couldnt be developed due to flooding. Was a great place to play at all ages growing up - playing cowboys and indians, paintball, setting up a ‘bmx’ course. We got hurt a lot of course falling out of trees breaking arms and legs or landing in rocks and needing stitches. But it was a ton of fun!

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#28

Post by function_seven »

rags2riches wrote: post #22
function_seven wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when I was 7 years old and my dad was working on our back yard. Up until that point, the yard was just weeds and dirt. But now we were going to get sod to cover it all. First step was to bring in a mountain of good soil. That soil mountain was piled 6' high for a week, and I spent a lot of time playing on it. (My brother: "You know that pile is half cow shit, right?" ... Me: "Don't care")

The large piles of firewood before it had been stacked were great fun. The hayloft is of course a classic playground. And a gravel pit (the site where gravel is mined) is quite exciting...

Ha. Now you just reminded me of my other favorite playground. The rock quarry by our house. It was private land full of ravines and (in the winter/spring) small streams. In wetter seasons, one of the pits would flood with muddy water.

When we were younger we'd climb the fence and go adventuring. As we got older, it was bolt cutters to get the gate open and ride our ATCs out there. If you saw a truck in the distance, it was time to scatter.

I'm pretty sure the cops/security back then were content with us running away.

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#29

Post by aidos »

trophycase wrote: post #24
aidos wrote: post #7

I’m going to a festival next weekend where they have a building area for the kids. They give them wood, nails hammers and saws and set them free. It’s just awesome.

Do you have a link or a name? I'm interested in hearing more.

Elderflower fields in Sussex (England). There’s not a whole lot of info at the below link, but it’s one of the great many things going on - which is basically kids stomping around in the woods having a lovely time.

https://www.elderflowerfields.co.uk/2019/woodland-tribe/

Edit: better link of the people that organise it https://www.woodlandtribe.org/

Re: Making Playgrounds a Little More Dangerous

#30

Post by stickfigure »

sp332 wrote: post #23
badcede wrote: post #4

"Grown-ups have taken all the fun out of being a kid just to save a few thousand lives." https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/04/06/george-carlin-you-a...

This feels like a really unconvincing argument. A few thousand is a lot of lives. A few lives would feel like a few too many.

A few thousand per month would be a problem, sure. But how about a few thousand per decade? There are four million babies born in the US every year (130 million worldwide).
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