I'm remembering the time I was in second grade and some of my friends got hurt (not badly) when our tire swing collapsed with them on it. The reason? Too man kids on it at once. There was never any talk of suing anybody and at least one kid's parents apologized to the principal for their kid having a hand in breaking the damn thing. And we, too had jumping contests on the swings. I landed on my hands and knees more often than not (on solid dirt, no less) and somehow managed to live to tell the tale.

I'm from before all the hardcore childproofing of playgrounds and I remember hating when the big new safety measure was putting those wood chips on the ground to cushion our falls. It was hard to run on. This one was changed for good reason, but I'm sure many people my age remember when you knew it was almost summer (and the end of the school year) the first time you burned the backs of your legs on the metal slide.

The truth is you could coat every playground surface in memory foam and your kid would still find a way to hurt himself. That's what kids do: they have big ideas that don't work out so well in reality. Wouldn't you rather have a kid that loved to try things even if he got scraped up now and again rather than one who was too afraid? I was afraid of the monkey bars because I had short arms and I couldn't make it across without falling. But I kept at it and I excitedly told my parents the first time I could swing across without stopping. It was a big day for me.

not to mention the chance to touch the sky with their toes

What a sweet turn of phrase. This woman understands kids.

We're well on our way to raising generations of complete sissies.

What the heck is "safety surface"? You mean those damned chopped up tires that cover your kid in black?

Oh, and you're kid doesn't need a bike helmet to ride a frigging tricycle up and down the driveway at 100 feet per hour -- damn panty-waists.

You know what you get when parents are too frightened to let their children climb trees, jump bicycles over poorly conceived ramps, wander off into the woods to build a nice tall treehouse, and otherwise take lots and lots of risks? You get a very safe kid whose pale skin, fat ass, and nonexistent social skills make him an excellent video game player.

What is so bad about breaking an arm? If you're so worried about it, feed your kid more milk, douche bag.

Parents these days are pussies and they're raising a generation of pussies. It makes me sick.

Almost every day I pick up my kids from kindergarten, they'll show me how brave they are, jumping from the swings. See, I have this rule - it's ok to get a little hurt, as long as you've had a lot of fun first.

We can't really blame the kids for spending their time in front of the computers. At least there, they can feel a bit of thrill every now again. All those damn "nothing can be the least bit dangerous for my kids EVER"-moms have taken all the fun out of the real world for so many of them. Kids should feel the world and find the magic in it, feel the cold of the water in the streams when they go in to deep, they should bruise their knees and no adult should be without that little scar on their chin that says "yes, I too once fell running too fast or cycling beyond my ability".

I was passing by my old elementary school a few months ago and it's in a really sorry state compared to what used to be there. No more teeter totters or swings, just dumb stuff like a playhouse and tires on the ground. Not much else.

I broke lots of bones growing up as well as torn tendons and ligaments during my competitive gymnastics days. Nobody thought much of it and no one ever considered suing when I fell off equipment or landed wrong to cause my injuries. It was just a small, acceptable risk. My mom never tried to restrict my risk taking at play either.

Apparently, if you can't win the lottery, having your kid get hurt is the next best thing.

That kid's stupid parents are probably now, justifiably, the most hated parents in the county.

Might as well wrap your kid in bubble wrap before you send them outside.

Don't know the details here, but it's also possible that it's their insurers who sued. A child I know broke his wrist playing at a friend's house and his parents received a great deal of pressure from their insurance company to give the name of the family who were hosting the child. They finally had to have a lawyer write a cease and desist letter to the insurers to get them to back off.

Insurers want to be able to recoup their costs and pass the buck, hadn't considered it might not be the parents directly filing suit, could be either way.

Bottom line though...either or both are fucking assholes.

Robert: Insurers want to be able to recoup their costs and pass the buck, hadn't considered it might not be the parents directly filing suit, could be either way.

Which is why insurance should not be privatized. Your premiums are income to an insurer. Paying out is called a loss. If they can avoid paying out, however they can, they're going to. They're not interested in seeing you get the possible care. They're interested in doing things the least expensive way possible.

The new American motto: Take away joy, freedom, adventure, civil liberties, free speech -- take away everything that makes life worth living, but pleeeeeeze make me saaaaaaafe!

God damn them all to hell for ruining the world.

The use of insurance also ensures that the medical field continues to draw people into difficult areas of medical practice. If you use a public pay system, you get price controls and access limits and bureaucracy...which means shortages as medical professionals leave in disgust, meaning more limited and less quality care.

If you use a private system, the insurer has an incentive to find somewhere to recoup the cost of care, remember that the people who seldom need any care at all, are essentially funding the care of the ill fated and ill fortuned when those hard times come. Because payment is rapid and free of interference, even with reductions, it ensures the field is staffed with medical professionals for all stripes of care.

If every person were having to pay solely for themselves, it is unlikely anyone but the wealthy could afford to live through a crisis, and there would be to few practitioners of vital medical arts to support the needs of the whole population, thus driving the cost of treatment up far more through supply and demand.

Some neighborhoods have responded to this trifecta of trouble by organizing their own neighborhood medical associations, where the community pays solely for its own. I've read that some churches are doing the same thing.

No solution is perfect, insurance has done a better job thus far, even with its incentive to recoup costs, but the community self support system may change things for the better...until the government gets involved in it.

I'm with Gail. Fuck them.

This is one of those times when I wish I'd had a kid so by now I'd have a grandkid so I could tell them how much more fun the "old days" were, as opposed to telling them how hard life was back then.

We tore all over town on Halloween. We were gone for the day once we got on our bikes. We made it to school or wherever we wanted to go without an escort. And yeah, we got hurt. That's where the best stories come from!

I remember when my grade school had these "stilts" (closest thing I can think to call them) that consisted of big coffee cans and twine. You turn the cans upside down. Use a hammer and nail to punch a hole on each side. Run a couple of feet of twine through the hole and tie a knot in it.

Then you step up on the can bottoms, hold on to the twine handle and clomp around like a robot, til the can gets caught on something and makes you fall, or you just get bored.

I'm betting they don't do that anymore.

We've been sanitized for our protection.

That happened to my son last summer, except it was the monkey bars. He started 1st grade with a cast and we all lived through it. Although I'm not too happy about the $600 doctor bill I got but he's the one who fell off the monkey bars. The monkey bars didn't suddenly crumble around him!
That seems crazy they even won that case! How? It was user error not a MFG error...

"What is so bad about breaking an arm?" -jonQpublic

Umm.. it fucking SUCKS! I broke my wrist rollerblading in July, and being one-handed for two months (my dominant hand too, of course!) blows.

"We're well on our way to raising generations of complete sissies."

Oh I think we've been there for awhile now. Perhaps not the entirety of generations already, but large swaths at least.

"Umm.. it fucking SUCKS! I broke my wrist rollerblading in July"

Yeah but you're old (or you wouldn't be on rollerblades in 2010). To a kid, injuries are street capital. If I were a juror I would be trying to figure out how to back that value out of the damages award. This kid gets the right girl to sign that thing and he's golden. Remember that movie, money can't buy me love? It just snowballs.

Once again, I'm reminded of a passage from Walter Miller's great novel A Canticle for Leibowitz:

"To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law—a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security."

That seems crazy they even won that case! How? It was user error not a MFG error...

Posted by: CM

Doesnt matter if they win/won or not, city removed them to prevent any lawsuits in the future

"Doesnt matter if they win/won or not, city removed them to prevent any lawsuits in the future"

Sounds like the issue is insufficient spinal rigidity on the part of community leaders. If you have more than $5, you will get a threatened suit these days.

I dont know why these things dont go to trial.

I mean imagine sitting in a jury box in your towns local courthouse and being asked to triple your taxes because some childs parnets couldnt be bothered to teach there child to tumble.

I can just hear the city attorny's closing statement. "So I ask you folks, does Johnnies parents really need five million dollors worth of your property taxes for their sons 600 dollar hospital visit? Do they even need one cent of your property taxes when little Johny shouldnt have been jumping off the swing like that in the first place? Why should you have to fork over MORE of your hard earned cash because these people couldnt be bothered to properly parent their child?"

Sad thing is most people are too fucking stupid to realize that judgements against cites arent paid by the people working for the city but by them, the tax payers living in the city.

Yes, private insurance companies can be messed up. Govt insurance would be much, much worse. Think painful layers of beauracracy, with incentives in the govt to increase this. No real incentive to help the customer.

This is part and parcel of busybodies everywhere, who think that what you're doing is wrong, and should be criminally punished - and what they are doing is right. And they don't ever think of others.

"Yeah but you're old (or you wouldn't be on rollerblades in 2010)." -smurfy

Yeah, I guess I'm old if you compare me to a kid on a playground, but since I just turned 25 in July, I don't think I'm THAT old. And how, may I ask, does my being on rollerblades in 2010 make me old? I'd hate to jump to conclusions and think you were trying to insult me or something.