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Santa’s Unofficial Public Playground Rule Book

Most of our visitors are kids (from 1 - 92). A little younger, a little older… But all of our visitors are concerned with keeping families safe and healthy. This is where note sharing counts and makes a difference. Subject that we cover are: (For infants, toddlers kids and seniors (those of us returning to childhood): toy safety, A/H1N1 flu vaccine, playground safety, eating well, playground safety, etc.

This article discusses PLAYGROUND SAFETY. I am in charge of creating a playground safety parent-authored set of safety rules that can apply to shared use of public playgrounds. Here are some familiar topics (unofficial rules) that inspired the effort:

• No pushing swings with no one on them
• So sideways swinging or spinning on swings
• No jumping off swings
• No climbing up the slides
• No running on high playground equipment
• No pushing
• No throwing sand, dirt or wood chips
• Wait your turn - or communicate if you want to cut ahead for a reason

But here are also some surprises that are seemingly no-brainers that we somehow never though of. You are invited to contribute as we are all on the same mission. Here are a couple of things to consider for addition to our Unofficial Public Playground Rule Book: Please vote with your comments and help us develop a goodset of rules that will make the playground fun for everybody and safe too!

1. Throwing or rolling toys from slides or high playground equipment:

What we have seen: Parents who let their kids take metal toy trucks on 8-foot high play equipment and freely throw them of and slide them on the slides, sometimes hitting other children in the head and such, and never even considering the possibility of injury.

2. Putting pets on play ground equipment: (Santa Claus LOVES dogs and pets. Santa even talks about gifts for pets! But we want to take care of our pets responsibly!)

What we have seen: Adults and older children who let their dogs run unleashed up and down the playground equipment stairs. Adults who and older children who put their dogs on the slides.

Concerns:

1. Some dogs become frightened and urinate and having the equipment dirtied is not fair to other children. Also in general keeping the play apparatus reasonable clean for young children is difficult with pets allowed to share the equipment. Most people wouldn’t let their family dog sleep in a babies’ bassinets for the same reason. Toddlers will always be putting their hands in their mouths.

2. Some children will be startled if they are surprised by a dog on the climbing toys or high apparatus and my accidentally fall and get injured. Even children who are used to dogs, but some children are not even used to dogs. Children learning challenging climbing skills are easily distracted, bees can distract them enough to cause a fall. We can’t control bees, but we can ask adults to not create additional dangers?

Add your own rules or comment on these. Look forward to hearing from you!