[HN Gopher] How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit
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How Urban Legend Destroyed the Ball Pit
Author : bcohen123
Score : 82 points
Date : 2022-07-18 13:08 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (meghanboilard.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (meghanboilard.substack.com)
| xwdv wrote:
| I've forgotten what it's like to be in ball pits. Are they even
| swimmable or do you just sink straight down? What if there was a
| very deep ball pit, think 12 feet or so. Could it be escaped by
| swimming back up?
| 9991 wrote:
| I don't know for sure, but I don't think so. The balls are very
| light, so there's almost no buoyancy. The only way to support
| yourself is if the balls are locked in place from the force of
| your foot stepping on it, which might work for a stack 2~3
| balls in height at the most before it becomes unstable and
| slips out from underneath you.
| rootsudo wrote:
| I came here thinking it was the infamous tumblr Ball Pit.
| https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/dashcon
| darkstar999 wrote:
| The Rise & Fall of The Ball Pit - Theme Park Crazy
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uahX7iEl_fI
| pupppet wrote:
| I just assumed they were removed because they were too hard to
| clean.
| yxwvut wrote:
| The article describes the lack of sanitation as a baseless part
| of the negative mythology, but a dearth of scientific studies
| (and questions of generalizability of the existing studies) does
| not mean that their reputation is without merit. When your kid
| finds turds in the ball pit you don't need a study to know
| there's a sanitation problem. Anecdotally, as a child I had a
| near 100% rate of coming down with an infection after visiting
| the local ball pit and witnessed the discovery of fecal matter by
| another child, which, combined with the repeated illness, led to
| a ban on further visits.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Based on the frequency of my kids getting infected at daycare,
| I assume any activity where toddlers or even a little older get
| together has a near certain chance of transmission. Although, I
| still would not take my chances with a ball pit that I doubt is
| ever thoroughly cleaned.
| hgomersall wrote:
| Except, strangely enough, according to my anecdata, not
| COVID-19. For nearly 2 years there were, AFAICT, almost no
| cases of COVID transmission through our nursery. I'd love
| this to be followed up properly. I have a theory that not
| only are the kids more resistant, but the parents are too due
| to the circulation of the other coronaviruses in pre-school
| children, along with all the other various infections.
|
| It's all changed somewhat with Omicron, but then it has
| everywhere.
| Dennip wrote:
| But could this simply be down to the fact that people were
| actively managing/combatting COVID-19?
| hgomersall wrote:
| Maybe, but have you tried actively managing infection
| control policy in a group of 0 to 5 year olds?
| littlestymaar wrote:
| That could be said until this year, but in France all
| restrictions where lifted before the presidential
| elections in April this year (for real) and weren't
| reintroduced ever since (even though we've had 2 Covid
| waves and 27k death in the meantime).
|
| Yet, there's still no covid outbreak at my sons'
| daycare...
| spacemanmatt wrote:
| SAME. We learned fast that other parents gambled with diapers
| in public/shared places.
| romwell wrote:
| As an adult who grew up in country where ball pits simply
| weren't a thing:
|
| My own ball pit? Hell yeah!
|
| A public ball pit _for adults_? Depends on the crowd.
|
| A ball pit for _children_? Haha no, there 's no way someone
| didn't pee their pants in there, or dropped some food or snot.
|
| It's surprising just how much mess a single chocolate bar can
| create.
|
| I'd say actual junk playgrounds sound more sanitary.
| x0x0 wrote:
| And ignores all the people saying that cleaning them is the
| problem.
|
| I'm yet another person who worked at a place with a ballpit as
| a teen. I loathed it. One Karen lets her brat with diarrhea in,
| and it's closed for 2+ hours as someone making minimum wage
| loads every single ball, some with shit on them, into a net bag
| and runs it through the commercial dishwasher. Then hand wipes
| every tube.
|
| Meanwhile, a line of other Karens are taking out their rage at
| not having the ballpit available to them Right. This. Instant!
| on a bunch of minimum wage coworkers.
|
| At least three times a month during summer, btw.
| plasma_beam wrote:
| Is there any other term than "Karen" you can use here? It's
| pretty offensive to anyone with a Karen in their life.
| [deleted]
| thecans7 wrote:
| Exactly! And anecdotally speaking, almost every single one that
| I entered as a kid smelled like urine. Not that it ever stopped
| us from playing in it, but even as kids we knew that it wasn't
| a clean place.
| noasaservice wrote:
| bluGill wrote:
| The playground my city just opened (new suburb: was a corn
| field 2 years ago) has several merry-go-round things. They are
| speed limited unlike the ones of the past, but they exist. I've
| seen park catalogs with them - the tic-tac-toe game is a cheap
| option for a playground, the good stuff is expensive. (several
| companies have their prices online if you google - don't
| confuse park with home playgrounds though when you search)
| InefficientRed wrote:
| I just enumerated the playgrounds our exurb and ALL except 1
| have at least one of the things you mentioned. Most have both
| monkey bars and swings.
|
| The exception is a splash pad playground, so not really
| indicative of any sort of trend (except perhaps that our
| summers got a lot hotter over the last 20 years).
|
| There are parks that do not have any playground, but those are
| mostly either dedicated sports fields, "adult-oriented parks"
| (eg the city commons), or nature-oriented parks (with trails,
| trees, and water). So not the sort of parks that ever had
| playgrounds in the first place.
|
| Additionally, we now have some parks with natural climbing
| walls that you need to bring ropes to use, which is quite a bit
| less safe than marry-go-rounds and what-not. (I've never seen
| them used without adult involvement, but TBF a fall from the
| top would probably actually kill/seriously harm a kid).
| scohesc wrote:
| I've noticed this too compared to when I was younger there's a
| lot more mental games in playgrounds, replacing the physical,
| more "risky" activities.
|
| I guess it's easier for schools/cities to eliminate any
| possible risk of getting sued at the expense of childhood
| development.
| bombcar wrote:
| If it makes you feel better, the kids usually end up
| scampering around/on top of the play areas anyway, sometimes
| a good 20 feet off the ground (the equivalent of jumping from
| roof to roof on something like
| https://www.playgroundequipment.com/figgs-landing/ ).
| scohesc wrote:
| Ah heck, maybe the kids will be fine then lol
| seabea wrote:
| Yeah, as a parent of a young child, all those things are still
| extremely common (at least at all the playgrounds I've see
| constructed in the past 5 years). Many even have 10ft+ rope
| structures and 15ft tall slides.
|
| Sure there are more "thought games" and the merry-go-rounds
| won't pin and drag a child across the ground.
|
| I mostly take my child to metroparks in my area. I wouldn't be
| surprised if school playgrounds have been made _safer_ due to
| less individual supervision and liability for the school.
| xattt wrote:
| I've gone to a recently constructed playground with my child
| over the last few years, and I was able to observe the risk
| assessment strategies they took as they developed.
|
| The playground in question has a truss ladder leading up to a
| playground platform that's about two storeys off the ground.
| Dangerous stuff for a toddler just getting the hang of the
| playground, and they would self-select themselves out of it.
| However, as they grew, so did their abilities and they
| climbed higher and higher.
|
| Yes, overly risk-managed playgrounds were a thing late 90s
| and 2000s, but risky play structures are making a comeback.
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| _laughs in German_
|
| Go through the pics here:
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/place/Spielplatz+mit+Kletterspin...
| roflyear wrote:
| Looks like many playgrounds in the US. I searched for "Best
| NYC Playgrounds" and these look seriously awesome!
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x89c258ed8c5b1c0d%3A0x.
| ..
| Cockbrand wrote:
| But... the children! Won't somebody think of the children!
| Oh, they did, you say? I see :)
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| To be honest, that thing is scary even for me as fit adult
| male. One little mistake and I could seriously hurt myself.
| Same for the children. I would be very uncomfortable
| letting my own child climb around on this to be honest. I
| would probably let it, but feel bad the whole time.
| Cockbrand wrote:
| I used to play on that kind of thing in my childhood. A
| child can (and probably at some point will) fall down,
| but usually not from the highest point, but rather while
| climbing. Also, there's sand underneath, so the landing
| is somewhat softened. That said, it's still easy to
| seriously hurt oneself on that, but I was aware of that
| as a child and acted accordingly.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| Those rope structures are harder to fall off than you
| think. Ropes are easy to grab and don't get slippery or
| hot.
| bhandziuk wrote:
| This looks like every new playground I've been to in the US
| corrral wrote:
| Yeah, all of our new ones around here seem to use some
| Dutch or German (I can't remember which) company and look
| almost exactly like that. All their merry-go-round type
| things _are_ very different from the old ones we were used
| to, and IMO less good, but they probably also produce fewer
| injuries than the old design. They tend to come with
| notices warning that you probably don 't want to let your
| 4-year-old get on some of the equipment, because it's _not_
| extremely safe for all ages. Some have climbing structures
| like the one in the picture that go up to about 2.5
| stories.
|
| Middle of the country, and we're usually like a decade
| behind trends on the coasts. There was a brief "rip out all
| the fun stuff" trend but it didn't last long and that was
| more of an '00s thing.
| seabea wrote:
| Yeah, it seems that a lot of folks haven't seen a new
| playground in the last 25 years.
| ehutch79 wrote:
| It sucks that tic-tac-toe is not mentally stimulating enough
| for you.
|
| But... Just what are you doing at those playgrounds?
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| I like the monkey bars :-)
| [deleted]
| bluGill wrote:
| I'm watching my kids play with all the other kids. tic-tac-
| toe is an indoor game and you rarely see kids finish a game
| before running off to do something else. Once in a while a
| kid will move something, but I've only once seen a complete
| game.
|
| Parks need more swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, and lots
| more interesting obstacles to run over/under/around. (run is
| key: if you can't navigate it without getting caught in a
| game of tag it is too slow and won't be used much) The other
| stuff isn't what kids go to a playground for.
| clintonb wrote:
| That's just wrong.
|
| My favorite park in Sacramento, McKinley Park [0], has a merry-
| go-round with spinning cages, swings, and multiple places to
| climb.
|
| Jean Sweeney [1], in Alameda, has one of the coolest slides,
| and a zip line!
|
| Emeryville [2] I'll has a vertical playground!
|
| I'm jealous of the fun my kid has at these parks, and try to
| join in on the fun as often as I can.
|
| [0] http://www.raebear.net/2016/07/mckinley-park-in-east-
| sacrame...
|
| [1] https://www.alamedaca.gov/Departments/Recreation-
| Parks/Jean-...
|
| [2] https://www.510families.com/eccls-vertical-playground/
| djbusby wrote:
| Jean Sweeney is very new, and not completed yet either. Has a
| fun tower to climb (tight for those over 180cm) that wide
| slide and the zipline is pretty good. When the rest is
| finished it should be even cooler. Also, if you're around
| there check out the Pinball Museum on Webster (used to be the
| record store)
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| This is anecdotal "in my day" knee-jerk stuff... I've seen new
| playgrounds go up in my city and they've got monkey bars,
| swings, and merry-go-rounds with nets that kids can climb on.
|
| AFAIK Kompan is the most popular playground equipment company
| around, and you can see all sorts of the stuff you list in
| their catalog: https://www.kompan.us
| youngNed wrote:
| Facebook is leaking.
| midasuni wrote:
| Certainly not my experience, I can't think of a single
| playground I've been to recently that didn't have at least 3 of
| swing, monkey bar, see saw and slide
| Pxtl wrote:
| The playground nearest my home is brand new and has a merry go
| round, swings, and metal monkey bars.
|
| And I live in Canada, which modern political discourse has
| decried as a communist dictatorship.
|
| If anything, there has been a shift away from the overly-kiddy
| playgrounds of the late '90s/early-'00s into playgrounds that
| allow kids to embrace their desire for mayhem. Heights may
| still be disappointingly low, but otherwise there's plenty of
| tools for kids to spin themselves sick. One of the larger
| playgrounds in my city has a gigantic teeter totter that
| support a dozen kids crammed onto the platforms on each side,
| which is AFAIK a new invention. It also sports a pump track for
| adventurous kids on bikes.
| memcg wrote:
| The dangerous playgrounds of 1900s through vintage
| photographs
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31855163
|
| Maybe this explains all the "You Probably Have Less
| Testosterone Than Your Grandfather (and Grandmother??) Did"
| claims.
| wnevets wrote:
| When was the last time you were at a playground? You're
| sounding like a facebook parody post.
| cbanek wrote:
| Here I thought this would be about dashcon and the beloved ball
| pit. Extra time in the ball pit for all.
| peggmeg wrote:
| Hi! This is the author of this piece, and since a lot of you seem
| to be interested in rise and fall of the ball pit, I wanted to
| add that there are two exceptions where the ball pit seems to
| live on (at least in the US):
|
| - Here and there, you'll find ball pits that seem to exist for
| the sole purpose of providing Instagram photo ops and seem to be
| more for adults than children (The Color Factory chain of museums
| is a notable example)
|
| - There also seems to be a growing demand for private ball pit
| rentals in the same vein of the rental bouncy houses you'll find
| sometimes at children's parties
|
| I couldn't find a ton of up-to-date information concerning ball
| pits outside of North America, so it's interesting to hear that
| they're still alive and well in Europe! I suspected they might be
| thriving elsewhere based on this sort of silly article about a
| woman getting stuck in a ball pit in Singapore
|
| https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/desperate-mum-drown...
|
| Anyway, thanks for reading!
| klyrs wrote:
| FYI, there is a big business of playplaces in Canada, and by
| and large, they appear to be independently run. Most of the
| ones I've been to have ball pits. The _good_ ones have
| pneumatic "cannons" that kids can shoot the same balls out of.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _Here and there, you 'll find ball pits that seem to exist for
| the sole purpose of providing Instagram photo ops and seem to
| be more for adults than children_
|
| Come to think of it, the last time I saw a ball pit was at a
| party where Lipton was promoting sparkling iced tea (so there
| was a general bubble theme). You jumped into a ball pit and
| they took a video so you could post it to Instagram, or
| whatever.
| philliphaydon wrote:
| In Taiwan and Singapore, ball pits exist in like every single
| childrens in-door playground.
|
| https://honeykidsasia.com/indoor-play-centres-in-singapore-f...
|
| Few of these have photos.
|
| Here's a couple of local articles about the mum drowning in the
| ball pit and the response from AirZone.
|
| https://mothership.sg/2018/02/airzone-suspended-playground-s...
|
| https://mothership.sg/2018/02/suspended-playground-net/
| post_break wrote:
| I can't help but think of the Dashcon ball pit meme whenever ball
| pits are mentioned. See at about 3:40
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZgxeX2dCnQ
| dgaaaaaaaaaa wrote:
| An almost hour long Dashcon video:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPwgSXZJcok
| sn0w_crash wrote:
| JUMP IN THE PIT
| ta988 wrote:
| For those that don't want or can't watch a video:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DashCon
| dosman33 wrote:
| Heh, before the internet rumor mill existed, I had friends who
| worked at fast food joints with ball pits. They ALWAYS complained
| about kids pissing in the ball pits. That scared me off from ever
| messing with them as a young adult (and they didn't have them
| around my area when I was the right age/size to play in one).
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| I really hope the adventure playgrounds mentioned are still a
| thing.
|
| The ones in Germany were a bit more organized than just a pile of
| junk, but you basically went there, maybe parents paid some
| (nominal) fee or deposit, and you got a toolbox with basic hand
| tools like a saw, hammer and nails and there was plenty of wood
| to build with.
|
| Larger structures were clearly built with some guidance and
| probably a civil engineer because there were multi-story
| buildings.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Yeah, I don't think we're giving kids saws and nails to play
| with.
|
| Saying that where I grew up there were a lot of homes being
| built so there were piles of scrap wood, etc all over and we'd
| raid them and build forts using saws and nails from our dads'
| workshops. So maybe we are overprotective today.
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| The nice thing about such basic hand tools is that you
| usually get to learn from mistakes without permanent
| consequences. Will a child hurt themselves at least once with
| a saw and a hammer? Probably. Will they _seriously_ hurt
| themselves? Probably not. Will they learn to not hurt
| themselves? Almost certainly.
|
| I also don't remember how exactly supervision works, but it
| definitely isn't just dumping a bunch of kids at some
| unattended construction site. Parents and/or the team
| managing the place are at the very least nearby.
| secondcoming wrote:
| TLDR: They got rid of them due to a hoax originating from South
| Africa that a child got spiked with a heroin needle and died from
| an overdose.
| namdnay wrote:
| I guess this is limited to the US? Ball pits are going strong
| here in Europe, they're a staple of every indoor playpark.
|
| There's a special machine for cleaning them, it looks a bit like
| the robot from teletubbies
| chomp wrote:
| No, ball pits are ubiquitous at most indoor play parks here
| too, the author is extrapolating their disappearance from fast
| food restaurants, and correlating it to the 90s rumor mill.
| These rumors were definitely a thing, but more than just ball
| pits have been removed; most McDonald's locations have had
| their entire PlayPlaces removed, due to the fact that people
| don't sit down in fast food restaurants anymore, and also a
| general race to the bottom in terms of economics to remain
| competitive.
| richiebful1 wrote:
| They've almost entirely eliminated fast food play areas in
| the Northeast, but I was surprised to see them everywhere in
| Lexington KY. I wonder why.
| bfuller wrote:
| A lot of McDonald's are franchised, its probably up to the
| franchise owner whether or not to build a play area. In the
| age of covid and monkeypox I doubt many franchisees would
| shell out the cash.
| tinus_hn wrote:
| And of course they have been closed for COVID for a few
| years.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| They're still common in Chick-Fil-A, and they complement the
| playgrounds with family night activities for kids on certain
| days of the week. Chick-fil-A prob doing better than ever
| too.
| bpodgursky wrote:
| Chick-Fil-A's core demographic is somewhat wealthier than
| McDonalds (the food is somewhat more expensive), and I
| think that helps keep the play areas clean and organized.
|
| (fewer parents trying to use it as free daycare...)
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| They require the franchisee to be a full time manager so
| they are more invested in the cleanliness of the store.
| willcipriano wrote:
| I've never been to Chick-Fil-A, I'm not a big chicken guy,
| but now I think about it the one near me does have a spot
| for play place and none of the other chains do. Guess I'll
| have to try them out, any business that goes out of their
| way to make the experience fun for kids will get some of my
| money.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| Research their political donations first before deciding
| to patronize them.
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| given that they're closed on sunday you don't really have
| to do any research to know they're a christian
| organization
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| That isn't the issue. Lobbying the government to strip
| people of their liberty is.
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| yea, like i said, christian organization
| dole wrote:
| From what I've noticed, the Chik-Fil-A playplaces are
| considerably smaller than the McD's and BK places of
| yore, just fair warning, YMMV.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I did not even know chick fil a had play areas (between
| west coast and north east). I thought all the play areas in
| McDonalds and Burger King had closed down due to liability
| reasons.
| bombcar wrote:
| I haven't seen a _new_ play area in years, but some of
| the older franchise locations continue to run the ones
| they have.
| collegeburner wrote:
| Tbh Chick-Fil-A is the only fast food restaurant where im
| like "damn this slaps" not "meh its food ig". Food i
| actually like eating at fast food prices.
| mc32 wrote:
| Chicken Fillet is good; but I'd hardly describe it as
| "fast-food prices." Although it is fast food. It's more
| like a chain restaurant prices (think Olive Garden and
| such).
| corrral wrote:
| No fast food places have "fast food prices" anymore
| unless you heavily coupon and/or use their apps. Seems to
| be a method of price discrimination. If you're poor you
| know about the app and coupons and never pay menu prices.
| If you're not then you think "god damn, fast food got
| expensive" and pay menu price anyway, when you happen to
| go to such an establishment.
|
| Like, they've always done coupons, but menu prices used
| to also not be a complete rip-off. They are, now.
| aerostable_slug wrote:
| In-N-Out is a nice exception. I don't think I've ever
| even seen an In-N-Out coupon.
| [deleted]
| mlyle wrote:
| Yah, and to be honest-- good riddance. PlayPlace was
| definitely non-core, not-well maintained, etc.
| foolfoolz wrote:
| because they used to market to kids. the whole place was
| kid oriented. fast food switched their demographic to
| adults about 15 years ago with great success
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| I'm glad you have a machine for cleaning them. One thing I
| noticed in the US, even as a child, was that ball pits were
| filthy and musty. I don't think they were ever cleaned.
| jaclaz wrote:
| Video of the "Ball Washing Machine" (this is actually from
| the US):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrHvFiePokI
|
| This is UK:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8VjIJuMyiE
| Baeocystin wrote:
| Huh. That goes a lot slower than I would have expected. I
| wonder at their procedure for getting all the dirty ones
| out before the freshly-cleaned ones start piling back in.
|
| Not complaining, glad to see them taking hygiene seriously.
| asdff wrote:
| Playgrounds in restaurants take staff time to clean. You have to
| do the windows since they get all fingerprinted. You have to
| sweep and mop the floors. Usually you send someone into the
| structure itself with a pack of sanitizer wipes and hope for the
| best. At a busy fast food place like chickfila, where they staff
| 15 people on a closing shift, they can afford to have an area
| like this. At a mcdonalds with a staff of 2, no chance.
| dhosek wrote:
| My kids' school has actually retained some elements of the junk
| playground. In the courtyard play area, there is a wealth of
| scrap wood that the kids use for building projects. When we did
| the tour before enrolling our kids, the older kids had just built
| a shed which I thought was appropriate because the school is
| based on John Dewey's progressive education ideals, with his
| central example he returned to many times in his writings being,
| building a shed.
|
| Amusingly, the director of the school, didn't know this.
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(page generated 2022-07-18 23:01 UTC)