She was outside today more than she was in front of the screen.
You will want to read that again. OUTSIDE.
out. side.
Not glued to “Mr. Beast” or whatever YouTube video she was usually glued to. That’s not to say we lived a tablet free lifestyle today because we did not. But she was outside at the new park play set a LOT.
Best part of the new playground? They put it closer to the street.
Worst part of the new playground? They put it closer to the street.
Let me explain
The Best Part
This is easy. It’s new, and has four slides and things to climb and spin and it even has a bridge from one part. Instead of a sad little set of monkey bars with a old piping hot metal slide tacked on, the kids now can play on sets from all age groups. The baby slides and things for the fine motor skills and then the big kids will appreciate the built in table to sit at and gossip and laugh.
But the best part is that we can now look out our living room window and see the park. Dad may only have one eye that works well, but he’s watching and he loves that he can watch her at the park without having to be at the park to watch.
Then finally, it’s the kids. I don’t know what happened, but there seems to be kids there almost all the time! Before you would think this neighborhood did not have any kids at all, and now we realize that it does and the children just needed a safe place to play
This brings us to …
The Worst Part
The play set is closer to the street. Now I would guess about 100ft from the new playset to street. Before, with the old play set it was set back a lot further into the park. I would guess about 5 times as more distance from slides to street.
Here’s the problem. This new play set came due to a new neighborhood that propped up at the end of what used to be a dead end. The kids are used to the dead end and the park was at the very end of the dead end so the street and park blurred and sometimes play happened in the dead area at the end of the street, because play does not happen in a straight line.
Now this is where I put on my “old man, get off my lawn” hat and complain about the town:
Kids and Cars are a bad mix. Drivers are distracted due to screens and kids are distracted because…they are kids.
It’s our feeling here that where the dead end was - and is now the entrance to the park - there should be a cross walk with at very least a stop sign. The town did not do this. The stop sign is at the the end of the new street - it needs to be at the start - the area where kids play - speed should slow to a crawl here because: kids play 100 feet away! This is not hard to understand.
The town put up the yellow kids at play/crosswalk warning signs. These do not work. I know this because I see the cars drive by at full speed all day and every day. Warning signs are just that - warning signs - and people don’t stop for warning signs. I don’t want to see anybody get hurt.
I can’t believe that the town got this playground SO RIGHT and yet at the same time SO WRONG.
The kids need both a safe place to play and a safe way to get there and home safely, and our town council only got the first part right. I really, really, really hope I am not right about the 2nd.
Until Next Time,
TH and Co.