Toddler Playground Safety

As an urban family who lives in a two-bedroom apartment with no outdoor space of our own, we spend most of our afternoons at the playground. Over the past few months, it’s been so amazing to see my son develop his motor skills on the equipment. From slowly taking steps, to now running and trying to climb on anything he can! I fully attribute the playground for teaching him how to go up and down steps, run up and down ramps, and learning how to play with other kids. Although with all this mobility, I have begun to think about playground safety and wonder how safe these spaces really are?

First, there are the obvious dangers of tripping on the cement or falling off equipment. My son got a huge boo boo by falling in the dirt, basically a casualty of new-walker syndrome. Which is to be expected! In our local parks, the apparatus is either labeled for kids 2 and up, or for kids 5 and up. So being that my son is still under 18 months old, I stay close to him, always within reach. He is still too small to climb and play by himself.

For kids of all ages, an important playground safety concern is getting burned. I don’t understand why at the playground, the rubber mats under the play equipment, designed to pad against falls, are black. A few weeks back, the temperature here in NYC was around 90 degrees. I was letting my child play in the sprinklers, barefoot, because I had not purchased water sandals yet. He went running over towards the playground and all of a sudden started screaming bloody murder. I picked him up and realized that the black rubber mats were SO HOT!

Why are they black? That makes zero sense to me. And on that note, why are the slides made out aluminum reflective material? Not only are you blinded when the sun is beating on them, they also get REALLY HOT! I wonder why the mats and slides are made of materials that get so hot? Note: I now always feel the slides before letting my son slide down, some days they are scorching! And we never play barefoot.

Besides the heat, another unavoidable toddler danger is older kids. I am a member of an online message forum in my neighborhood, and recently this issue has been discussed at length. Parents seem to have issue with trash left behind by older kids (specifically deflated water balloons) and older kids riding bikes or scooters (which is technically prohibited).

My feeling is that as a parent of a toddler, you have to watch what they try to pick up and put in their mouth. Be it water balloons, rocks, leaves, etc. Toddlers cannot be left unmonitored. I also think its okay to ask a bigger kid to “watch out” or stop riding a bike or scooter. Or to stay out of a designated toddler area (if there is one).

What are the dangers at your playground? What are your tips for keeping toddlers safe in this environment?

Click HERE for a 2008 NY Times article on heat & playground safety… the NY Times did a study one hot summer day and they found mats that had reached a temperature of 160 degrees!  And according to the article, lighter color mats wouldn’t do the trick…

thumbnail photo from: NYC Dads