I grew up in a small town in Ohio.  We had one park.  Or rather, one park where kids actually wanted to play.  There was a second place with park in the name, but it was a simple triangle of land with a small monument near one side.  The fun park though was excellent.  It had all kinds of toys I’d be awfully nervous to let my kids play on today.  There were big monkey bars right on the grass and the kind of teeter-totters where someone always got dropped.  The merry-go-round had few places to get a good grip and would spin so fast it made you sick, or at least it made me sick.  There was even one of those metal slides that could take the skin right off your legs on really hot days.  I remember one day my friends and I ran laps between the slide and the drinking fountain cupping water in our hands to try to make the slide usable.  Mostly we just got really good at keeping our legs up and our shorts under us. 

The point is that I feel pretty spoiled around here.  There are quite a few playgrounds we visit regularly and we love the options.  I think the only downside is that my son has trouble remembering the names.  He makes suggestions by asking to go to “the one with the green tunnel” or “the one where we saw the caterpillar” and I have to guess from there.  Fortunately, I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what he means.  Kelley Road Park is one of our favorites, but it’s nearly impossible to keep track of more than one kid at a time there so I usually won’t go unless I have back-up.  He’s more likely to talk me into Morrisville Community Park.  It has one of the biggest play structures around and he feels like a big kid, but I can see him from the little kid side where I need to stick close to my two-year-old.  If I get to decide, we usually head to either the tiny White Oak Park or Sears Farm Road.  These are the parks where I can sit on a bench and read or otherwise entertain myself and still keep one eye or ear on the kids.   

It’s too bad we’re in the middle of an uncomfortable heat wave.  We probably won’t get to visit any parks this week.  If the kids get too stir-crazy we may head to one of the restaurants in the area with a nice indoor playground, which is something else I didn’t get to enjoy much as a kid.  How did I ever survive?  Or actually, how did my mother?