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When we were kids, my brother and our cousins all went to a horse ranch/camp one summer. They had a pool with a pretty tall slide. My cousin used it, went sailing over the side and landed on the concrete. He ended up being okay, but I don't know how. Everyone else was using it with no problem. Knowing him, though, he might have been doing something crazy, sliding down on his knees or something. I really don't remember.
Our playground in grade school was concrete or asphalt, whatever, but it seems like the jungle gym, monkey bars, etc., were in a huge "sandbox" area.
Has anyone mentioned/remembered those horizontal bars where you hooked your leg over and spun toward the ground and all the way back around? If you were really skilled, you could use both legs. Like these:
The playground near DD's store where I sometimes take my grandsons has a special asphalt covering that is soft on impact...almost like landing on a hard sponge. Still, oldest (4 3/4) refuses to go down the slide. He bumped his mouth last summer sliding down the twisty slide for the first time, and got a fat lip. On the other hand, his little brother (almost 2) would slide all day (on the straight "beginners" slide). I always stay at the bottom to catch him, and follow behind him climbing up. It's nice that they have different size slides for different levels of sliding.
My elementary school (in the 60's) had ONE one-size-fits all slide...a really tall metal sliding board, with poles on either side. Instead of going down the sliding board, we'd play "fireman" and slide down the poles. We started doing this in about first grade. The ground, of course, was gravel.
Remember having the kid on the other side of the see-saw suddenly get off while you were still in the air?
Remember having the kid on the other side of the see-saw suddenly get off while you were still in the air?
That was one of the meanest things you could do as a kid.
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Originally Posted by Mrs. Skeffington
My elementary school (in the 60's) had ONE one-size-fits all slide...a really tall metal sliding board, with poles on either side. Instead of going down the sliding board, we'd play "fireman" and slide down the poles. We started doing this in about first grade. The ground, of course, was gravel.
OH my gosh, you just reminded me that my mom used to call it a "sliding board" instead of just a slide.
I was biggest kid in kindergarten, age 5. Climbed to the top, got scared, backed down the steps, causing all the kids behind me to ****-and-moan. Sort of persona non grata that day. Biggest but not exactly the toughest.
Fast fwd. four years. My 9-year-old buddy went down the sliding board .... standing up .... on roller skates. Fractured a lower leg bone. Bravest but not the smartest.
I was biggest kid in kindergarten, age 5. Climbed to the top, got scared, backed down the steps, causing all the kids behind me to ****-and-moan. Sort of persona non grata that day. Biggest but not exactly the toughest.
Fast fwd. four years. My 9-year-old buddy went down the sliding board .... standing up .... on roller skates. Fractured a lower leg bone. Bravest but not the smartest.
There should be warning signs at EVERY playground in the country. People don't know about this, and it is dangerous! It's not babying or bubble wrapping our children to allow them to slide down the slide themselves - in fact, it's just the opposite! It gives them a thrill that they can go down by themselves.
When my son was about 18 months old, he was being babysat by my parents. They took him to a playground, sent him down the slide by himself. His sneaker caught the edge of the slide, he tumbled and somersaulted on the slide (I think - cause they never told me about it!), and was generally not seriously injured. Of course he wasn't injured. He only weighed about 20 lbs at the time! I only found out when I told a cousin that, since his stay at my parents, he was afraid of the slide. Cousin laughed, and told us what had happened.
There wasn't much force behind that caught foot. Had he been on an adult's lap, with his foot catching up on the slide side, he would surely have sustained a serious injury - ripped tendons in knee and/or hip, broken leg. He could have ruined his knee or hip before he'd even gone to nursery school.
[/b]People don't know about this. Just as we have school crossing signs with no words, just an image of kids crossing, we can and should have the same thing at playgrounds. Two images - one of a parent with child in lap going down slide, with a red circle and slash, and another of a child going down alone, with a green circle.[/b]
Towns should pay to put these up, because some parent whose kid breaks his leg on the slide is going to sue the town, saying that the town is liable for her child's injury.
Of course, the same issue holds for a bunch of kids going down in a "train" together. The first kid in the train has hundreds of pounds of force behind him. That IS a part of independent play in childhood - and kids aren't going to obey a warning sign. For that issue, I side with the let kids be kids mantra, and leave it up to parents to warn their children not to do this, or if they do, to keep their feet away from the sides of the slide.
My daughter broke her knee at 18 months riding down the slide in her dad's lap. As a first-time mom, I had no idea it was more dangerous to ride down on a parent's lap than by herself. The ER Dr. informed us that it is an incredibly common injury for kids in that age bracket. I wish there had been simple signs at the playground, as you suggest.
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[/b]Lots of parents go down the slide with little kids who are afraid to slide down by themselves[/b]. We also did it at the amusement park on the giant slides where you sit on the burlap sack. Probably every kid under 4 was on with an older sibling or a parent. [/b]Most people wouldn't see it as dangerous. So now this lady is letting people know it can be. I don't see the need for judgement[/b].
Yep.
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