Parks

I love being outside. I acquired this love for nature when I was very little. Even in a snow storm I would talk my mom into letting me play outside on the front porch. Right now I have a schedule to where I can do anything during the day and just have night classes, this way I could stay home with the kids. It's finally Spring and the weather is mostly beautiful everyday. On the super nice days I like to take my kids on a walk to the park and let my 3 year old run around for a couple of hours playing on the equipment they have for kids. The only problem I noticed is that the parks in Carthage are not up to code on safety requirements. I understand that being in a recession cities don't have as much money to put toward leisure things, but I really want just one nice and safe park to bring my children. Schools here have good playgrounds, but by the time school is out I'm getting ready to leave for school myself. One estimate I found interesting is that 57 percent of injuries that occur on playgrounds are at parks or schools. Here's some more Playground safety facts. I wish I won the lottery so I could buy some safe equipment for the Carthage area. I'm constantly finding myself following close behind my son when he plays on the equipment out of fear something might happen. Not only that, but it seems to me most of the parks in Carthage are also rusted over, which if a child gets cut on the equipment it could cause them to get tetanus. I was looking online if there was any advice on how to get your city to make improvements on local parks and this is a very good site with so much information that was very helpful. Build A Park  I think I might actually take this project of improving our parks on.  This subject is very near and dear to my heart because I believe that play was the one thing that kept me happy as a child. Here is some play research that shows that play is vital to a child's happiness and health. Play Research I just really believe that communities need to start coming together to benefit our children.