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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Can we have our swings back

30 replies

Bvop · 22/10/2020 17:53

During lockdown, someone from the council went round removing every other swing from the kids’ playgrounds.

Now, as a result, the children are crowding on the remaining play equipment. Outdoors is low risk for transmission, and under 11s are low risk for transmission. I am not convinced that anyone has actually done a mathematical model of how infection could happen on a swing (the fluid dynamics of breath dispersal would be quite interesting). AIBU to campaign to get the swings back? The kids have enough to be miserable about without this on top.

OP posts:
LaBellina · 22/10/2020 17:56

YANBU but maybe they removed them because there wouldn't be anybody to do maintenance or repair on them during a (potential) lockdown? They're easy to cause accidents once the equipment is a bit damaged, I imagine.

LittleMissLockdown · 22/10/2020 17:58

Owww I wonder if we are in the same area or if this os a wide spread issue. Where we are they took every other swing even if there were only 1 child swing and the other was a baby swing. In some of our parks we have no swings at all and they took the zipwire rope away. I have actually emailed our Local MP who says they have no odea when they will be returned. Sad

BritWifeinUSA · 22/10/2020 18:03

An open-air pool in our county has been closed since March with the owners saying that they will re-open “when it is safe to do so”. We have had the grand total of 10 deaths in our county, which is half the size of Northern Ireland. I am wondering what evidence they have that an outdoor chlorinated pool is “dangerous” when it remains open throughout flu season, etc every year.

picklemewalnuts · 22/10/2020 18:15

Contact the local council responsible. It could be the parish council, if you have one, or the borough/district council.

It's possible with all the other distractions that they haven't remembered to address it. They'll have acted after an initial risk assessment and will now need to do another one.

Peace43 · 22/10/2020 18:37

We lost every other swing too!

RonObvious · 22/10/2020 18:41

We lost ever other swing and all zip wires as well. Now I’m wondering if we’re all neighbours...

Original poster
Bvop · 22/10/2020 18:42

How the hell is a zipwire a coronavirus risk??

OP posts:
Aroundtheworldin80moves · 22/10/2020 18:45

If only there was a way to close off every second hole on a golf course...

bloomety · 22/10/2020 19:01

We’ve lost our zipwires and swings too. I’m furious. I bet if it made money they wouldn’t have done it, or if it was men that mostly took their kids to the park. It’s completely illogical.

GameSetMatch · 22/10/2020 19:19

We lost our zip wire but not our swings, I wonder who made these silly decisions.

pandarific · 22/10/2020 19:29

And ours! Bastard swing thieves.

WeCameToDance · 22/10/2020 19:32

Same! It took a while for the penny to drop that every other swing in the several parks near me hadn’t been damaged coincidentally.
I think the zip wire remains, although mores the pity because that thing is most certainly a death trap..

CheshireDing · 22/10/2020 19:35

We still have the zip wire and roundabout (so the children can face each other) but only have every other swing (where the children are facing forwards)

I bet they don’t put them back until at least early summer.

TriSkiRun99 · 22/10/2020 19:36

They took ALL the swings and the zip wire out of our park which ironically backs onto the council depot 🙄 so all the kids just crowd onto the slide instead!

Jem57 · 22/10/2020 19:42

You are lucky,our play parks are all sealed off where we live,soft play all shut on Friday.Happy days not!!

Original poster
Bvop · 22/10/2020 20:06

The thing is, there doesn’t seem to be an evidence base to justify it. I admit I have only got degree-level understanding of fluid dynamics, but breath dispersal on adjacent swings must be lower risk than on climbing frames where you have children crowded
together and slower moving.

OP posts:
Laughingcrow · 22/10/2020 20:09

Same here for social distancing when I queried it but the virus doesn't exist on the climbing frame or slide or round about apparently. It likes to hang around the swings...Hmm

Goosefoot · 22/10/2020 20:37

@BritWifeinUSA

An open-air pool in our county has been closed since March with the owners saying that they will re-open “when it is safe to do so”. We have had the grand total of 10 deaths in our county, which is half the size of Northern Ireland. I am wondering what evidence they have that an outdoor chlorinated pool is “dangerous” when it remains open throughout flu season, etc every year.
Ugh. I feel like this about a lot of things where I am. We also have had few deaths and over the past three months only ever one or two active cases, most often none.

But a lot of things are still closed. I've recently moved into a new area and it's almost impossible to meet anyone because nothing is going on - it's rural so it tends to be things like the historical society or firehall that run events.

My youngest is now the only child I have at home so I wanted to try and find a local playgroup, but that is also difficult. There is a forest school type meet up which seemed ideal, but they have totally stopped meeting too, which seems especially crazy.

Goosefoot · 22/10/2020 20:39

I think that back at the beginning, people were essentially brainstorming anything that could possibly be dangerous, based on the ideas of someone with no experience at disease control. And then they came up with these things people are still doing.

Some of the places with directional arrows make no sense for example.

bloomety · 22/10/2020 20:40

I’ve just found this www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-playgrounds-and-outdoor-gyms/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-playgrounds-and-outdoor-gyms

Annoying, not all councils are doing it. The next one to us haven’t removed any of their swings.

KitKatastrophe · 22/10/2020 20:41

@LaBellina

YANBU but maybe they removed them because there wouldn't be anybody to do maintenance or repair on them during a (potential) lockdown? They're easy to cause accidents once the equipment is a bit damaged, I imagine.
It's only every other swing. Hard to believe they have enough staff to maintain 2 swings but not 3.
D4rwin · 22/10/2020 20:48

It's so the adults pushing aren't side by side isn't it?

Bimbleboo · 22/10/2020 21:17

I feel like such a grinch for kind of wishing our council had done this Blush. I’ve finally been challenging my mental health struggles and was so proud of myself for taking my baby into the park and really enjoying having her out somewhere. But people insisting on lumping their kid in the swing beside her and shouting/laughing etc within touching distance has happened every time we go, meaning I freak out inside and have to take her back out and try to awkwardly leave without offending the person, or seeming like a complete Covid-anxious wreck (which is hard. Because that is exactly what I am Grin) and it’s getting harder and harder to brave going back. (Ps I do know I’m probably very unreasonable for caring, and I’m sure these parents are feeling more confident than me having gone back to work/nurseries etc but I’m still very much mentally stuck in March and it horrifies me when people can’t just leave the middle swing empty so there’s at least an attempt at distancing. God I sound such a monster Sad) I just keep wondering why they don’t just wait a few precious little minutes to let me have a turn without someone standing so close we could hold hands.

picklemewalnuts · 22/10/2020 22:05

Councils are inevitably risk averse. They have nothing to gain by opening up.

Businesses are open to slightly more risk because they can make money.

AragonsGirl · 22/10/2020 22:08

Zip wires seen to be missing from national trust/forestry commission places round here...I’m not sure why they are higher risk than swings though?