Pahiatua a good old fashioned park!

Back in my day going to the park was a bit dangerous, the OSH laws hadn't kicked in and the play equipment was meant to thrill. My brother broke his arm on a slide and Gail had a nasty fall onto her head from a slide (probably explains a lot)  during their childhoods. My kids are lucky to get 2 feet of the ground at the local parks.
Thats why I love stopping at the Pahiatua Park when passing through. They have super high slides, a spinning wheel and one of those beam things that you stand on each end and swing it back and forth. I had a ride on the beam swing this time, poor Glen and Grace had to do the hard work while I sat in the middle. It was fun cause once you get the momentum going it goes quite high.

Tried to get a good photo but Western insisted on saying smell my armpit! The joy of boys.

Some times I think the world has gone to far with protecting children's safety, when do they get to feel fear in a safe environment, they get a real sense of achievement once they have conquered something like a high slide. Neil is always lamenting on how scared our children are to try new things and he is right, it took Western a good 20 mins to climb off the jet boat last night. It was parked on the trailer on the driveway and he was too scared to climb down and was almost in tears before he got down. I tried to lift him down but he was too scared for that even so I left him to it and told him Harry Potter was starting soon and eventually  he made it inside.
Maybe this means they won't go out and do dangerous things when they are adults and will stay safe for me, but it could also mean they never get to experience anything fun and stay in their comfort zones. With Neil as their Dad its hard to imagine the boys not going hunting, fishing, diving, driving fast cars, jetboats or motorbikes. I wish I had a crystal ball sometimes.