My wife was out of town on business and our nanny was sick, so I took the day off from work to take care of our two kids: Livia, who is two, and Augustus, who is three and a half. I thought that going to the playground would be a good thing to do, but it turned out to be an accident waiting to happen.
When we got to the playground, the kids jumped out of the car. Livia got onto the merry-go-round, pushing it as hard as she could. The trouble was, there were a couple of toddlers playing on it and they fell backwards, getting the wind knocked out of them.
Augustus, on the other hand, ran straight for the swing set and almost got decapitated! Then he went over to the see-saw and almost got smashed when he tried to run under it! He ran out of my grasp and onto the jungle gym. He started hanging off the monkey bars. I caught him just in time as he fell!
When I turned around, I saw that Livia had got onto the slide and slid head first into the sandbox! Good thing she wasn’t hurt.
By this time, I realized my mistake. Far from a safe place to play, for two lively kids and one father, the playground was a deathtrap!
Script by Dr. Lucy Tse
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