I'm much more worried about the road to the playground than the risks on the playground themselves. Below 18, about 3/8 of the deaths are from traffic.
I grew up in 80's the time where almost everybody played in parks and fields. But I can't give that to my own son of 7.
He has to cross 3 streets to reach a playground 200m from here,the worst of the crossings a street with 50km/h limitsand 1 car every 10 seconds. Not much, except just enough people drive like idiots, 90km/h or more on a road not even 500m long.
We've been teaching him good pedestrian behaviour since he could walk. We've done a few tests where he walked to the baker, thinking he was unsupervised. He probably can do it most of the time. Except, 1 distraction while an idiot drives by will kill him.
So I bring him to the playground and let him play as unsupervised as possible for an adult on the side of a playground. Of course, he knows I am there.
I start working with him with more dangerous tools like a soldering iron. He can deal well enough with these risks. But not the streets.
I grew up in 80's the time where almost everybody played in parks and fields. But I can't give that to my own son of 7.
He has to cross 3 streets to reach a playground 200m from here,the worst of the crossings a street with 50km/h limitsand 1 car every 10 seconds. Not much, except just enough people drive like idiots, 90km/h or more on a road not even 500m long.
We've been teaching him good pedestrian behaviour since he could walk. We've done a few tests where he walked to the baker, thinking he was unsupervised. He probably can do it most of the time. Except, 1 distraction while an idiot drives by will kill him.
So I bring him to the playground and let him play as unsupervised as possible for an adult on the side of a playground. Of course, he knows I am there.
I start working with him with more dangerous tools like a soldering iron. He can deal well enough with these risks. But not the streets.