We have a meeting each month where we take a break from our work and practice brainstorming about ways to improve everyday items. We thought an appropriate name for this meeting was "Build a better mousetrap," but as it invariably happens to long titles, we shortened it to "Mousetrap."

This Month's Challenging Topic: Build a Better Playground

Tribester Responses

I'm sure I'm not the only parent who take their little ones to playgrounds and just about ever single time has a moment of panic when one of them runs off or suddenly is out of site.

Your pushing one child on the swing and the other child decides to hide out in the covered part of the slide and next thing you know you are grabbing the first kid off the swing to go and find what is up with the second kid.

I would love a playground that had display monitors that gave me an on-going status of where my kids are at any given moment.

This would allow my kids a bit more freedom within the bounds of the playground and allow me to relax and enjoy the time out with them more.
-- Tony Passero

Most playgrounds have seating benches for parents to sit while the children play. Depending on the configuration it is possible for the child be out of sight at one time or another. My though is that they should add the large convex mirrors (like the shoplifter mirrors from days gone by) on poles so that you can at least get a visual of your child at all times.
-- Joe Kaput

I miss really REALLY tall slides. Shiny, metal, 2 story tall slides. The kind that baked all day in the sun and then burned your calves if you were the first to go down them after school. Maybe they weren't as tall as I remember, but relatively speaking, it seemed like a long way down when I was at the top. There was always that feeling of thrill and exhilaration on your first time. I look at today's modern playgrounds, and while they're pretty and safe, I think they lack the facilities that invoke that sense of "Can I do that? It looks impossible!" in children. I think the tall slides really gave children the ability to overcome a simple fear via the inspiration of their peers. Bring them back.
-- Andy Owens

Am I the only one that looks at the padded playgrounds and staunchly safe playgrounds of the modern youth with contempt? We need to go back to the old-school playgrounds. These days they don't even want merry-go-rounds because they are "too dangerous", the children climb under them and die. I'm sorry, if a child thinks its a good idea to wander underneath a giant moving metal amalgamation - then you are the weakest link, goodbye. Children need to learn and explore, not be coddled. What better encouragement is there to get to the other side of the monkey bars, other than the prospect of a giant slab of concrete awaiting your pernicious confrontation with gravity? Let kids be kids, have fun, and have them figure out how to be safe on their own without the circumspect security afforded to them by the playground itself.
-- Charles Koers

As a child, my playground was the the broom, the rake and the shovel. After a week of that, I got $1.50. Every two weeks I made a trip to the 7-11 and made an investment in a candy bar and a Slurpee. There was a Taco-Bell next to the 7-11. One day I rolled over a plastic packet of hot sauce. Not the foil kind, the one that's square-ish with the roll-back top. I hit it in such a way that the pressure caused by my front tire placed the entire contents of the packet in my left eye. I cried like a baby and cursed like a truck driver.

Were we talking about playgrounds? There was the time I was at my older brother's little league baseball game. I was near the swings and less than ten years old. One of the chain swings was busted and the large iron bolt that would normally attach the plastic seat was completely rusted.

There I was, standing off to the side minding my own business. Off to the side of me was a larger kid who was having a great time swinging the busted chain, and rusted bolt as high and far as he could. Next thing I know, I am face down in pea-gravel with a gaping hole in the back of my head.

My grade-school playground was the parking lot. There were a set of park district baseball fields in the back of the school that were used for gym class. For recess, we hit the asphalt. Genius. Most of the time we played touch football with a Nerf ball. I remember jumping to catch a long pass only to get tangled up with another kid. I don't think he was playing. We fell in such a way that the corner of his glasses embed themselves into the middle of my forehead. No crying this time, and I was moderately upset that my visit with the school nurse resulted in my mom being called in from work to pick me up. The story continues with an infection that made the composition of my eyes and nose hint at a non-existent asian decent. After two weeks of that there was another visit to the ER where i distinctly recall the quack suggesting that the best way to clear the infection was to remove the puss that was collecting in my head. He proceeded to place his thumbs on both sides of my nose and his fingers on my forehead. He squeezed. I cried like a baby. My mom dragged me out and cursed like a truck driver.

Anyway... Playgrounds? Love 'em. Wouldn't change a thing.
-- Mike Chorvat

My favorite things on the playground growing up were the swings and "wavy" bridge. We used to play a game on the swings to see who could go the highest and jump off. It probably wouldn't be very safe to encourage kids to jump off the swings, but since they'll probably do it anyways it would be cool to have a ball pit (or some kind of soft landing area below) that would be safe for the kids to fall in. For the bridges, it was fun to jump on the side of it because it would launch the person on the other side higher into the air... So based on that it would be fun to create other type of bridges... Maybe a trampoline bridge, rope bridge, bridge obstacle course etc.

I think the most important thing to remember when building a playground would be that kids go to play on what's there, but more so they go to play their own made up games and the things in the playground are used as hiding places, obstacles, and tools to come up with creative new games. You may design an element in the park to be used for one thing, but kids will always come up with at least 50 other ways to play with them. So things that allow for the most uses are always best.
-- Lauren Okura

As a mother, I have to say that I'm pleased with some of the safety precautions that are now part of the playground landscape (for example, using rubber or mulch instead of the rocks of yester-year). But did they have to take away all the fun? What happened to merry-go-rounds that would whirl you around at top speed till you lost your lunch? And, what are those things that are supposed to be a replacement for the teeter-totter? Back in the day, the only way I could get back at my bullying big-brother was to hop off quickly and watch him crash to the ground with a big thud. I'm sorry that my daughter will never have the joy of doing that to her brother. But, I regress.

Truly, if we want to build a better playground, the best thing to do would be to make it so that it can be used year-round. Perhaps the entire playground could be enclosed in some kind of giant bubble during the winter months that would regulate the temperature. There's nothing worse than seeing a playground that is not being used by children - kinda like a toy that's not being loved by a child. Hey! There's a new concept for you, Pixar!
-- Shannon Kemp