Yeah, I’m sure it hurt at the time. But the cast was a special mark of honor for that kid later, and y the end of the year, even the teachers were laughing at these incidents.

Even with all the safety improvements made over the last 40 years, kids will still have accidents. Last summer my son fell off a swing, and landed just unluckily enough to snap his wrist. So be it; I sure hope the schools aren’t considering banning swing sets. There was already an issue of making sure kids get enough “swing time” during recess, but after teachers tried to step into to regulate it (with alarm clocks!), they discover, at least at his school, that the intervention was worse than the problem, so they learned to step away and let the kids negotiate it themselves. At other schools, I wouldn’t be surprised if the “swing time conflict” was leading to considerations to banning swing sets on school grounds.

We are indeed creating a milquetoast society, if these trends continue.