[LispSporks22]

At my old school we had glorious two story high steel monkey bars apparatus. At some point they put rubber shavings under it as a safety thing. Several years later, they cut it down to one story. Later they removed the whole thing.

I know exactly what they mean by fear, excitement and risk. It was fun while it was dangerous yet it was extremely rare for a kid to fall off and be hurt.

I fondly remember those steel bars polished by countless human hands like it was yesterday.

I don’t know what’s there now. Probably a big sign that says “Your parents made you a pussy”

[simonbarker87]

I chuckle when my parents generation call my generation spoiled and thin skinned because of things like this and participation medals. They are the ones that made those changes because of their feelings, standing there in fifth place getting a medal felt stupid to me as a kid, it was just so my parents could feel happy about something.

[mcv]

I loved climbing trees as a kid. I try to get my kids to climb trees, but they refuse. I don't see a lot of kids climbing trees at all anymore.

But I don't think the thing that spoiled them are the safe the playgrounds; it's the constant access to computers, tablets, the internet, Youtube, etc. In my day you had to wait until Wednesday or Saturday to get your cartoon fix. Nowadays there's instant gratification and constant passive entertainment. They're not bored anymore, they have no need to be inventive. I suspect that's a bigger problem than safe playgrounds.

[strken]

People tend to cut the lower limbs off trees in parks for the sake of appearances, and to leave shady areas of lawn underneath. If you want to help kids climb your own trees then you can leave a foot or two of each branch as a handhold and make it easier on them.

[lukan]

"I try to get my kids to climb trees, but they refuse."

Do you yourself still climb trees?

I still do and my small kids do, too.

[xandrius]

Exactly, either you do it in front of them and with them or you're just pointing at an arbitrary activity X and say "do it, it's good"

[antisthenes]

It's not it at all.

I don't remember my father ever climbing a single tree, yet I loved it as a kid and was doing it until late teenagehood.

Leading by example is good, but definitely not necessary in all cases.

[lukan]

Maybe your father showed it to you, when you were small and do not remember it.

But yes, it is leading by example. If other kids climb trees, that is an example as well. If "kids these days" rather play on their devices, but I want my kids to experience something different, then yes, I need to show it to them. (But I also, or mainly do it, because it is fun and training for myself).

If we are with other, wilder kids, which we occasional are, no need to show anything to them. But on the default playground today, it really does seems like it has gotten very rare. A tree is not a certified playelement after all and who to sue if something happens, so best to avoid it, is what most probably think.

[7thaccount]

Good point. It was the same with me. I climbed trees my entire childhood and never saw my father do it. I doubt my daughter will though as there isn't any forest nearby and in the 90s, kids spent all summer outdoors and that isn't even legal anymore (my parents didn't know where I was for hours at a time when I was as young as 5).

[krisoft]

Different people also have different personalities. My brother loved climbing trees. Me? Not at all.

We grown up at the same place with access to the same experiences and trees.

Maybe your kids are just not that into the idea of tree climbing as you were, and maybe this doesn't mean anything about generations?

[mcv]

I used to. But maybe we should go to the park more. We all rarely get out anymore.

[vasco]

It's funny because my grandpa called us pussies for playing in man made safe playgrounds instead of in the woods. Every generation will think the next one is coddled.

[impossiblefork]

Well, if there's a progressive increase in coddling and formalisation of play, certainly.

But perhaps once these practices begin to be reversed, people will feel that it's terrifying that the children are suddenly independent and not incredibly passive and cowardly.

[Tade0]

It's happening already. Many people perceive children as "spoiled" whereas in fact they're simply not as passivated as the previous generation.

[impossiblefork]

That's really good to hear, but I hope you go much further than you have imagined, getting to some kind of Norway or Sweden level, or beyond it, to drive us back to where we ought to be.

[PH95VuimJjqBqy]

well I grew up running around in the woods, your grandfather isn't wrong, but not everyone has access to them.

[jansan]

After my 15yo son when hiking with friends to sleep in caves without a tent I do not call him a pussy anymore. It actually made me feel that I forgot to live properly when I way young.

[superb_dev]

Did you call him a pussy before??

[PH95VuimJjqBqy]

getting called a pussy by your parents is a rite of passage in the US.

/hint: I'm lying.

[aspenmayer]

My school had one of those too. We also had swings with 15’ or more of chain. I remember regularly getting nearly parallel to the top bar of that during recess and bailing out and even doing backflips off of it.

There was a particularly dangerous piece of playground equipment that the kids called the “witch’s hat,” which was a 15’ or so tall round central metal pipe maybe 3-4” in diameter, which had a cap on the top that could freely spin. Attached to the cap were maybe 12 10’ chains attached, which linked to a giant octagon or decagon made out of 1-2” or so straight pipe sections which were fitted together in angle brackets. It was essentially an inverted merry go round which you would need a few kids on opposing sides to operate, all running in the same direction. It would cause a kind of wave as the weight distribution shifted as kids were lifted off the round while hanging on, and then your side would come back down and you would hit the ground running while hanging on for dear life.

Some kid flew off and broke their collarbone and they ended up soft-banning it except when the teachers weren’t looking, and eventually they decommissioned it. It was a sad day on the playground when that happened.

[techdmn]

Can we stop conflating weakness with women and girls in general, and female genitals in particular?

[randomdata]

I assume you are referring to the word "pussy" as one of its definitions is, according to the dictionary, "a woman's genitals"?

But it is also, according to the same dictionary, defined as "a cat" as well as "a timid and cowardly person (typically used of a man)." It turns out that words can have more than one meaning and is pretty clear, given the context, that the last definition is the one at play here.

If there is any kind of conflation happening, it is only you that has done the conflating. If you don't like your behaviour, just don't do it? Seems pretty simple. No need to tell us about it.

[techdmn]

In local parlance where I reside the meaning is quite clear. I can't speak for your part of the world, but I suggest asking the women in your life how they feel about the term.

[randomdata]

> In local parlance where I reside the meaning is quite clear.

Cool, but the dictionary provides record of the prevailing use of words, and it is clear that the original comment was said in the same vein as how most people define it – "a timid and cowardly person (typically used of a man)". There was no association with female body parts (or cats, for that matter) made in the original comment. Whatever pet definition found in your community may be is irrelevant here.

> I suggest asking the women in your life how they feel about the term

I'll be sure to ask the cats in my life while I'm at it...

[valval]

Why? Women are more careful and timid than men for evolutionary reasons that are beyond obvious to anyone over the age of six.

[geraldhh]

it's in line with conflating the meaning of male genitalia and selfish behavior, i see no problem.

[david-gpu]

Agreed. Not to mention that a pussies routinely squeeze out whole human beings. That is how badass they are.

You know what is useless and complains loudly at the first sign of damage? Testicles.

"Are you scared of that, you massive testicle?"

[valval]

Hit me up later to tell me if this comment got you laid. If yes, I’ll pick up your strategy.

[reddalo]

I completely agree. When I was a child, there was a super fun steel monkey bars in a park near my home. I used to play a lot on it. Fear was surely one of the fun factors.

Then they removed it, because the local council was afraid some kid might get hurt.

It's sad.

[bombcar]

They still make and install quite a bit of things that used to be considered "unsafe" (mainly because they make it plastic and brightly colored)

See https://www.americanparkscompany.com/playground-equipment/co... or https://www.gametime.com/playground-equipment/gt-wave for examples.

[daverol]

Ah the good old days: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/dangerous-playgrounds-1900s...

[bombcar]

The brand-new playgrounds around here are not as obviously dangerous as the bad old days, but they're significantly more "dangerous" than ones from even ten years ago. I think a tide is changing, and there's more research into actual danger and what can be done to reduce serious risks (the "solid foam rubber" flooring you see is much much safer than even significantly deep sand, for example).

[UnFleshedOne]

Those black rubber playgrounds (not sure if that's the same) smell like a chemical factory exhaust on a sunny day (you can also fry some industrial-solvent-laden eggs). Not sure about actual health effect, but experience is far from pleasant...

[bombcar]

The ones around here are colored rubber and look like this: https://www.surfaceamerica.com/product/playbound-poured-in-p...

It off gassed for a tiny bit iirc, but once it was open it was fine.

[geraldhh]

looks like a place for toddlers that can barely walk

[geraldhh]

anticipates shift in perception of danger across society, then argues in favor of foam rubber flooring... go ahead, make my day

[alistairSH]

HA! First week of 5h grade at a new school, my son decided to be a "badass" and do a flip off the monkey bars, over the head of a friend. He landed badly and broke his forearm (which required a rod inserted surgically to stabilize).

He learned his lesson!

And we didn't sue, because kids can be dumbasses and will always find ways to hurt themselves. If he wasn't jumping off a 5' tall jungle gym, he'd be doing backflips out of swings or jumping from tree to tree or something else that doesn't make any sense to adults with fully developed brains.

[mlrtime]

> And we didn't sue..

You say this as a virtue, and I get it. But this shouldn't even be a possibility.

A few problems I see:

1) Very few people take personally responsibility for their choices [kudos to you]

2) Someone always has to be at blame, there can't just be accidents

3) Scrupulous lawyers looking for paydays.

4) Local governments pay out somewhat easily for accidents [see NYC]

5) Tort reform is not popular due to lobbying.

[alistairSH]

I get that, but there's definitely a time and place for lawsuits for negligent design.

Like, a two story jungle gym probably shouldn't exist. But a "normal" shoulder height version? Sure, I have no problem with that.

But I also let my son skateboard several miles across town to get to middle school, so I'm obviously crazy and a terrible parent. /s

[mechhacker]

I remember falling off of a tall monkey bar thing like that and getting the wind knocked out of me the first time. And a lot of other equipment that I haven't seen in decades.

[diogenescynic]

I remember this awesome tall metal slide that was in the downtown of a small city I grew up in. It was removed at some point and I was bummed because I remember as a kid going down it before/after going to movies, restaurants, bakeries, etc. Public spaces are now over-optimized for legal liability and to prevent homeless people from camping/loitering, etc. There's no where to go in public that feels safe and comfortable and welcoming anymore in the US. You go to Europe and see all these city spaces that are built to let people just live and exist... It really sucks we're removing all the fun little things that make life worth living.

[neuralRiot]

I grew up on an area were giant eucalyptus trees are common, me and my “gang” when i was 8-10 liked to climb tose trees because they were very difficult as they’re almost like a pole with only thin branches. Worth to mention that I knew how to fell a tree with an axe at that age and that I was given permission to use the axe!

[scoofy]

This is fine to say, but how many dead or permanently maimed kids before you think playgrounds should be neutered?

I mean, it's just a number right? So how many kids does a playground need to kill every year before you'd say "oh, maybe we should nerf the monkey bars"?

Time-and-time again is see the masses have zero idea how many people are getting killed regularly until the stats are put in front of them. We assume it's small, but often non-negligible, like the fact that there are 11 drowning deaths every single day: https://www.cdc.gov/drowning/facts/index.html

[saurik]

I am unsure what the "correct" number is but do you believe it to be "0"? The way you get to 0 is by systematically removing everyone's autonomy "for their own good" :/. Like, are you upset about the 11 daily drownings enough to outlaw swimming pools?

[scoofy]

If we care about this, the way to do it is to move potential death from "accidental" to "negligent." If it's more serious, we need to push deaths from being "negligent" to "criminally negligent."

We can have swimming pools were kids drown. If a bunch of kids are drowning, we can require a locked gate around the pool, so that children cannot enter without supervision. If kids keep drowning, we could require pool covers that need to be removed before use.

The point isn't to remove autonomy, the point is to require everyone to admit that preventable mistakes happen, and we need to take reasonable precautions "for our own good."

The best analogy is ticketing cars that block fire hydrants when "popping into to a store real quick." We know that universalizing that habit will cause fires grow where they wouldn't otherwise, and people could die because of it. However, when the fire truck eventually shows up, the person blocking the hydrant will respond with "what are the odds." We know the odds are low, but non-zero, but the negative payoffs are extreme, that's why we need to always take precautions.