Teenagers and Playgrounds
I was thinking the other day, look at the playgrounds around here. All the best pieces in the bigger kid’s areas have been removed, so they are left with a few swings, something that no-one knows what it is, a post and not forgetting the other pieces that will remind them of when they were five.
Now, this kind of equipment seems to be used as a kind of message board, peoples names or tags, whatever you want to call them, sprayed on them, a note to some one telling them they are a faggot, or something else, that was probably written before, by their parents, on a park bench somewhere. The only difference being, the parents only wrote it once, and then forgot about it, it was not then plastered on everything they could see within the park or playground area.
So now with nothing else to do, the teenager is pulled by some unknown force to the toddlers playground, otherwise known as the under fifteens area. Now I personally do not understand why it is cool to rock back and forth, on a wooden or plastic pink elephant, with a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, just to smash my nose on the playground floor, because I’m far too big for it in the first place.
Now seeing as though most teenagers are a lump of pubescence and their minds aren’t where normal people’s are, they precede to kick the living daylights out of the poor inanimate defenseless creature, leaving just the spring, standing out of the playground floor, waiting for a child to come and try playing with what is left. This also makes the teenagers feel they are kings of all the playgrounds in the area, so they go round the whole area spraying and leaving messages for each other, dropping litter and making a mess.
Now I know all the degradation of our playgrounds is not down to teenagers. We are also responsible for our children’s play areas and should let the local authorities know of our displeasure with the park’s use. Or even better do something ourselves and try to keep them more clean, tell people who are doing something they shouldn’t, to stop, or even call the police. Badger the local authority for better equipment and make your local playground safe.
At least make there is a soft landing for any falls, that a child or teenager, may have – by ensuring that the playground has a good ground surface. Rubberecycle springs to mind!
