Monday, July 21, 2008

Sue the sun?

This story made me laugh:

New York Parents Say Hot Playgrounds Burning Kids

"Parents in New York City said their children are getting their feet burned while playing on blistering hot playgrounds."

As they say in seventh grade, "No sh*t, Sherlock!" How about putting some shoes on, dummies. Look, I'm all in favor of safety. It honestly scares me to think of some of the stuff that we were allowed to do just 25 years ago. And it makes me sad to think of the freedom we had to roam our neighborhoods unsupervised all day long, and how we can't let our own kids out of our sight these days. But come on now... complaining about hot playgrounds??? What are you gonna do, sue the sun?

You wanna talk about getting burned? When we were kids, the McDonald's playgrounds were all metal, and they were outdoors. Try sliding down the Hamburglar or climbing up inside of police chief Big Mac's head. And this was in 100-degree Texas heat, not New York. But did the hot weather keep us inside? Of course not! Just slide faster so you get to the ground before you develop second degree burns on your rear end (and your thighs, remember those short shorts, even for boys?) Some people are just so whiny these days.

2 comments:

MommaLlama said...

Man, when I ran out to snap some pictures of the monster plane flying over our house... I thought the skin on my feet would be permanantly attached to the ground! At noon it had already reached 97 freakin' degrees. Thankfully the boys were wearing socks as they chased after me... so their sweet little feet were protected.

But you are so right... if these parents are so bound and determined for their kids to be playing outside in the heat of the day... PUT SOME SHOES ON!

Elizabeth said...

We would often run around barefoot in the heat of the summer but the blisters on our feet turned to hard callouses soon enough. I remember having a blast on the old playground equipment. So much fun is lost for the sake of safety these days when it comes to playground equipment. Of course, these days you may not have to worry about hot metal (did we worry about that growing up?) but I hate the static electricity in these fiberglass tunnels and slides now.