When I was in elementary school, the surface of the school playgrounds that I went to were either asphalt or hard packed dirt. If someone fell down, there were tears, ripped clothing, and often blood. Sometimes a broken tooth or bone would be the result of a hard landing. Even the public parks and playgrounds usually only had hard packed dirt, or sometimes a sandy surface. No body thought twice about making any of the landing surfaces a safer place for children.
By the time that my own children were in elementary school, however, there was a lot more safety awareness going on and people were starting to use a rubber mulch on the playgrounds to make the playgrounds a safer place for the kids. Companies like Rubberrecycle came into the picture and helped to promote the awareness of the need for extra safety precautions on the children’s playgrounds.
When I go to a playground now with my young niece, I am always amazed at how different the playgrounds are from when I was a child. When I was a child, the slides were made of metal and you would climb a ladder to the top of the slide and once you sat down you went straight down. The sides of the slide were only about two or three inches high – not really enough to keep someone from falling off of the side if they leaned too far to one side. Sometimes the metal surface was so hot that it would burn our legs when we sat down on the slide. Now the slides are made of brightly colored material that reminds me of PVC pipes. The slides are twisty and have sides that are so high that you can barely see the head of the child that is using it! The chances of falling off of that slide are much slimmer! I’m glad to see such advances in safety on the children’s playgrounds. I prefer the sounds of cheers to the sounds of tears!
