How Times Have Changed: The 80s vs Now

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Play on the Jungle Gym or Merry Go Round

Peak Health Pro

If you’ve had the chance to pass by a playground recently, you’ve probably noticed that they’ve changed a lot since you were a kid. While playgrounds and parks are still very much a big and treasured part of childhood, and they are still freely accessible by the community, many playgrounds are dominated by hulking plastic play structures and safety slides that honestly don’t look like they could be much fun. Safety concerns have made a lot of old favorites a rare sight. Jungle gyms for example, are believed to be a great way for kids to take risks and test their limits while spending time outdoors. Others believe that they are unsafe, and those people won the argument all the way to the federal level. Merry-go-rounds on the other hand have figured in several lawsuits, one of which was actually elevated by the appellate court to a jury trial. Schools nowadays just don’t want the hassle of dealing with litigious parents. In fact, when New York’s city playgrounds were being revamped in the 90s, the parks commissioner at the time was quoted as saying, “In today’s litigious world, the children come to the playground with parents, and the parents come with lawyers”. While that may not always be the case, most people don’t want to risk it.