Ryan ChartrandI love swings. I love getting a running start, pumping my legs back and forth in a steady rhythm and leaning back as far as I can to catch a glimpse of the world upside down. As I flip right-side-up, this is inevitably followed by a head rush as all the blood drains back down from my head.
Throughout my many swinging sessions, I have taught more than a few children the back-and-forth motion that seems so second nature to me. The look on their faces once they start getting some air is classic, but also makes me sad. Why don’t these kids know how to swing?
Well, as a testament to our lawsuit-loving culture, swings are becoming scarcer and scarcer in the playground community.
In fact, lots of the favorites from my childhood, and probably yours, are being taken out of playgrounds. Intricate climbing structures and slides are being replaced by those dime-a-dozen plastic playgrounds with static-y slides and blister-inducing monkey bars. I am not above playing on these – I just miss old-school playgrounds.
The National Program for Playground Safety advocates adult supervision as an important way to improve safety, not taking out certain structures. Parent supervision and teaching kids not to slide right after someone else, run in front of swings, etc. should take away most of playground injuries.
Mass-producing playgrounds may not even solve safety issues.
According to a Newsweek article, “some experts say that new, supposedly safer equipment is actually more dangerous because risk-loving kids will test themselves by, for instance, climbing across the top of a swing set. Other kids sit at home and get fat – and their parents sue McDonald’s.”
Of course, playgrounds represent the tip of the iceberg; there are so many things that have changed since we were kids. Suddenly, technology and fast food have taken over the youngest generation, and introduced new problems that weren’t as prevalent when we were young.
Outdoor games like freeze tag and hide and seek are being replaced by video games, computers and endless hours of TV watching. This combined with the country’s less-than-healthy eating habits has led to unprecedented childhood obesity rates.
Children today are so much more in touch with technology – there are elementary and middle school students who have their own cell phones and computers. There’s nothing like seeing a 12-year-old text message.
In the biological and social sense, kids are getting older earlier. They are reaching puberty earlier than ever. There are 8-year-old girls who are better accessorized than I am, although very few of them are at “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty queen status. For the parents of those select few, the title of Celia Rivenbark’s newest book says it all: “Stop dressing your six-year-old like a skank.”
Now, I don’t claim to have any answers. It’s understandable that parenting techniques may need awhile to catch up with these trends. I just hope that we can relay some of our favorite childhood activities to our kids, even if they seem old-fashioned by then.
To me, “play” will always mean fresh air and human interaction. And, of course, swings.
Giana Magnoli is a journalism sophomore, Mustang Daily staff writer and copy editor.