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How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

meghanboilard.substack.com

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Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#51

Post by philliphaydon »

peggmeg wrote: post #47

Hi! This is the author of this piece, and since a lot of you seem to be interested in rise and fall of the ball pit, I wanted to add that there are two exceptions where the ball pit seems to live on (at least in the US): - Here and there, you'll find ball pits that seem to exist for the sole purpose of providing Instagram photo ops and seem to be more for adults than children (The Color Factory chain of museums is a…

In Taiwan and Singapore, ball pits exist in like every single childrens in-door playground.

https://honeykidsasia.com/indoor-play-centres-in-singapore-f...

Few of these have photos.

Here's a couple of local articles about the mum drowning in the ball pit and the response from AirZone.

https://mothership.sg/2018/02/airzone-suspended-playground-s...

https://mothership.sg/2018/02/suspended-playground-net/

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#52

Post by klyrs »

peggmeg wrote: post #47

Hi! This is the author of this piece, and since a lot of you seem to be interested in rise and fall of the ball pit, I wanted to add that there are two exceptions where the ball pit seems to live on (at least in the US): - Here and there, you'll find ball pits that seem to exist for the sole purpose of providing Instagram photo ops and seem to be more for adults than children (The Color Factory chain of museums is a…

FYI, there is a big business of playplaces in Canada, and by and large, they appear to be independently run. Most of the ones I've been to have ball pits. The good ones have pneumatic "cannons" that kids can shoot the same balls out of.

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#53

Post by corrral »

mc32 wrote: post #32
collegeburner wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh Chick-Fil-A is the only fast food restaurant where im like "damn this slaps" not "meh its food ig". Food i actually like eating at fast food prices.

Chicken Fillet is good; but I’d hardly describe it as “fast-food prices.” Although it is fast food. It’s more like a chain restaurant prices (think Olive Garden and such).

No fast food places have "fast food prices" anymore unless you heavily coupon and/or use their apps. Seems to be a method of price discrimination. If you're poor you know about the app and coupons and never pay menu prices. If you're not then you think "god damn, fast food got expensive" and pay menu price anyway, when you happen to go to such an establishment.

Like, they've always done coupons, but menu prices used to also not be a complete rip-off. They are, now.

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#55

Post by corrral »

bhandziuk wrote: post #27
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

laughs in German Go through the pics here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Spielplatz+mit+Kletterspin...

This looks like every new playground I've been to in the US

Yeah, all of our new ones around here seem to use some Dutch or German (I can't remember which) company and look almost exactly like that. All their merry-go-round type things are very different from the old ones we were used to, and IMO less good, but they probably also produce fewer injuries than the old design. They tend to come with notices warning that you probably don't want to let your 4-year-old get on some of the equipment, because it's not extremely safe for all ages. Some have climbing structures like the one in the picture that go up to about 2.5 stories.

Middle of the country, and we're usually like a decade behind trends on the coasts. There was a brief "rip out all the fun stuff" trend but it didn't last long and that was more of an '00s thing.

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#56

Post by bfuller »

richiebful1 wrote: post #38
chomp wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, ball pits are ubiquitous at most indoor play parks here too, the author is extrapolating their disappearance from fast food restaurants, and correlating it to the 90s rumor mill. These rumors were definitely a thing, but more than just ball pits have been removed; most McDonald’s locations have had their entire PlayPlaces removed, due to the fact that people don’t sit down in fast food restaurants anymore, and al…

They've almost entirely eliminated fast food play areas in the Northeast, but I was surprised to see them everywhere in Lexington KY. I wonder why.

A lot of McDonald's are franchised, its probably up to the franchise owner whether or not to build a play area. In the age of covid and monkeypox I doubt many franchisees would shell out the cash.

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#57

Post by roflyear »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #7
noasaservice wrote: post #4

Quoted post unavailable.

laughs in German Go through the pics here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Spielplatz+mit+Kletterspin...

Looks like many playgrounds in the US. I searched for "Best NYC Playgrounds" and these look seriously awesome!

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x89c258ed8c5b1c0d%3A0x...

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#58

Post by thecans7 »

yxwvut wrote: post #45

The article describes the lack of sanitation as a baseless part of the negative mythology, but a dearth of scientific studies (and questions of generalizability of the existing studies) does not mean that their reputation is without merit. When your kid finds turds in the ball pit you don't need a study to know there's a sanitation problem. Anecdotally, as a child I had a near 100% rate of coming down with an infecti…

Exactly! And anecdotally speaking, almost every single one that I entered as a kid smelled like urine. Not that it ever stopped us from playing in it, but even as kids we knew that it wasn't a clean place.

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#59

Post by willcipriano »

chrisco255 wrote: post #25
chomp wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, ball pits are ubiquitous at most indoor play parks here too, the author is extrapolating their disappearance from fast food restaurants, and correlating it to the 90s rumor mill. These rumors were definitely a thing, but more than just ball pits have been removed; most McDonald’s locations have had their entire PlayPlaces removed, due to the fact that people don’t sit down in fast food restaurants anymore, and al…

They're still common in Chick-Fil-A, and they complement the playgrounds with family night activities for kids on certain days of the week. Chick-fil-A prob doing better than ever too.

I've never been to Chick-Fil-A, I'm not a big chicken guy, but now I think about it the one near me does have a spot for play place and none of the other chains do. Guess I'll have to try them out, any business that goes out of their way to make the experience fun for kids will get some of my money.

Re: How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit

#60

Post by memcg »

Pxtl wrote: post #40
noasaservice wrote: post #4

Quoted post unavailable.

The playground nearest my home is brand new and has a merry go round, swings, and metal monkey bars. And I live in Canada, which modern political discourse has decried as a communist dictatorship. If anything, there has been a shift away from the overly-kiddy playgrounds of the late '90s/early-'00s into playgrounds that allow kids to embrace their desire for mayhem. Heights may still be disappointingly low, but other…

The dangerous playgrounds of 1900s through vintage photographs

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31855163

Maybe this explains all the "You Probably Have Less Testosterone Than Your Grandfather (and Grandmother??) Did" claims.

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