I've watched the playground at my old elementary school get stripped of anything resembling "fun" and gradually replaced with safe, rounded edges.

It used to have a huge rope net (suitable for playing spiderman), a tire swing, bridges, wooden spars shooting diagonally off into space 15' off the ground to shimmy out and jump from, metal slides with little or no sidewall, monkey bars, knotted swinging rope (tarzan!), giant tractor tire sunk on its side in the ground, and the whole structure topped out at probably almost 20' tall.

Now the kids who "play" there can get all of 3' off the ground, surrounded by railings, and have a lovely plastic spinning tic-tac-toe game. Woooo. No wonder they prefer to stay inside and play DDR (hey, at least it's exercise). I would too.

I think playgrounds suck too, but mostly because it forces me to co-mingle with mostly icky, cultish, indulging suburban parents.

Yeah, in my day, we got concussions and knocked out teeth and we liked it that way. It builds character!

Honestly, it really doesn't matter. If kids want to play outside, they will, and if the playground equipment isn't sufficiently fun, they can always climb a tree. They haven't passed a zoning ordinance against trees, have they?

Shh, you'll give them ideas.

Shhh, don't give them ideas. Next thing you may know there will be a mandate to have all trees with a barriar around the base so kids can't climb them.

oserus99:

Shhh, don't give them ideas. Next thing you may know there will be a mandate to have all trees with a barriar around the base so kids can't climb them.

That's okay, kids are really good at vandalism and general destructiveness. They'll figure out how to dismantle the base and get up that tree if it kills them. A good double dog dare beats out a municipal statute every time!

Yeah, in my day, we got concussions and knocked out teeth and we liked it that way. It builds character!

I'm only 28. I'm not talking about my dad's generation riding their bikes downtown to the soda fountain in bare feet to buy comic books and have a Green River in 1955, here.

Interestingly, the only injury I ever got on that playground was from slipping off a 4" tall railroad tie that I was balancing on. It knocked the wind out of me. For how "dangerous" those playgrounds were, hardly anyone ever got hurt.

Not all playgrounds suck. There is a great new playground in my area (Roseville, MI, suburb of Detroit). It's huge with a giant structure for older kids and a slightly smaller one for toddlers. Both are metal with lots of slides (plastic, not metal, much cooler in summer), climbing bars, rock walls, spaces to run around and places to hide. There are good old fashioned belt swings and bucket swings for babies on large metal frames. There are several monkey bar and firepole and teeter totter contraptions. There is even a weird kind stucture where the kids swing from one giant angled wheel to the next. It's hard to describe, but it looks really dangerous and fun. It is all on a nice wood chip surface, which my daughter loves to play in, and is surrounded by mature trees. It all makes me wish I was 8 years old again.

Dude, I'm kidding. But seriously, I don't think the safer (and more boring) playground equipment really is the issue. I'm 100% in favor of kids climbing fences and trees and jumping off of the roof and all that stuff. I'm slightly (okay, 15 years) older than you, and I know all about real monkey bars. But I also understand if the people who build parks want to avoid unnecessary injuries. Nobody wants to see kids get hurt. But reasonable people don't try to childproof the world to keep it from ever happening. You just take reasonable precautions and try to teach your kids not to do really stupid stuff. Like the stuff we did, and miraculously lived through.