The Coddling Movie

The Coddling Movie

How Boring Playgrounds Stifle Play

Nature is more fun than plastic

Lenore Skenazy's avatar
Lenore Skenazy
Jan 14, 2025
∙ Paid
A playground with a slide and a play structure
Photo by Emanuel Haas on Unsplash

I live in New York City. It’s green enough for me.

But when I saw the work of Sharon Danks, CEO/founder of Green Schoolyards America, it became obvious that most playgrounds reflect how much we value — or don’t — kids’ playtime.

We sure do give them a lot of boring plastic.

We also give them a bizarrely short sliver of tim…

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Lenore Skenazy's avatar
A guest post by
Lenore Skenazy
President and co-founder of Let Grow (LetGrow.org), the nonprofit promoting childhood independence. Founder of the Free-Range Kids movement. For more info, Google "America's Worst Mom." Really
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