Let Your Kids Romp and Play Safely at Your Local Playgrounds

Playgrounds and outdoor play provide our children with fun, fresh air, and physical activity. It helps them develop social skills, coordination, strength and flexibility.

All of this is wonderful, and I think it's great, but if you're anything like me...and I would guess that in this way you are....Most days, the reason I'll stop whatever I'm doing and take my kids for a quick trip to the local playground is so that they can burn off the excess energy they might otherwise be using to drive me crazy while cooped up at home.

Oh by the way, it's also a FANTASTIC source of free entertainment for your family, especially if you pack a picnic and make an afternoon out of it.

The fresh air, and the great outdoors, where they can run, climb, jump, slide, yell, spin, swing and just be kids...without wrecking the house.

Playground equipment today offers a wider variety of activities, and a certain level of safety that far surpasses the metal monkey bars atop asphalt surfaces from years past.

These days you can find playground equipment that incorporates things like rope swings, rock climbing walls, balance beams, rope bridges, and obstacle courses in their design. They can be made from wood, plastic, or metal. They are usually brightly colored and most are designed with safety in mind.

According to the Nemours Foundation 200,000 kids are treated in Emergency Rooms for playground related injuries each year.

Bumps, scrapes and bruises are all a possibility when you talk about kids on a playground, but you can do some things to minimize the chance of someone getting hurt if you follow a few tips and teach your kids some basic safety rules.

One of the first things I always notice is the playground surface. The nicer playgrounds that we use have a couple of inches of mulch on the ground around the entire area. There are also some that use shredded rubber. It actually looks like gravel but is springy, and when piled to a couple of inches it makes a very nice surface. It's also a great way to recycle old tires. The surface should be soft enough and laid down thick enough to soften any falls from the playground equipment.

Grassy areas are OK, but I prefer not to have my kids climbing too high if the only surface for them to land on is grass. Make sure you keep an eye out for standing water, trash, cigarette butts or broken glass around any area where your kids will be playing.

Definitely make sure you inspect any sandbox for trash, sticks, bugs or other unpleasant stuff before letting your kids play in it. The best sandboxes are the ones that are covered up at night.

If the equipment itself looks old and has visible rust then move on to another location. If not then make sure there are no broken pieces, cracking or splintering wood.

Seesaws and merry-go-rounds can be hazardous if your kids are small and don't know how to use them properly. Make sure your kids know to keep fingers and toes out from underneath the seesaw. They should sit facing each other and should be careful getting on and off, as a child jumping off one side abruptly can cause the child on the other side to free fall to the ground.

Explain that the merry-go-round has to come to a complete stop before anyone tries to get on or off, and make sure the bigger kids don't spin it so fast it looks like it's about to lift off.

Some other things to teach your kids to help keep them safe at the playground:

• Always slide feet first.
• Wear sunscreen, even on cloudy days.
• Don't wear clothes with drawstrings or wear purses or necklaces as they can get caught on equipment and be a strangling hazard.
• During the summer be careful of equipment being too hot to play on, especially metal slides, swing seats, and monkey bars.
• Never climb with flip flops on. They can slip off the feet and cause a fall.
• Stay clear of the swings when other kids are swinging.

Return to "Local Fun" from "Safe Playgrounds"

Return to Home Page