Children no longer can be allowed to play on their own, according to most authorities, and parents risk being criminally charged if they permit such outlandish behavior.

In this post I review, in cartoon form, the history of playgrounds as I have observed it (drawings by Laura Larocca).

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The Stanton Peele Addiction Website, March 19, 2009. This blog post also appeared on Stanton's Addiction in Society blog at PsychologyToday.com.

The History of Playgrounds in Cartoons

Previously, I described the lives of today's children, where our fears and overprotectiveness have turned them into household pets.  Since that post, I have been alerted to the case of a mother in a small Mississippi town whose 10-year-old son was picked up by police as he walked to nearby soccer practice.  The cops said many people had called the authorities in alarm, and they threatened to charge the mother with child endangerment.

And so allowing children out on their own is being criminalized.  This post describes the changes in childhood in relation to my own life and times through the history of playgrounds.

(Cartoons by Laura Larocca)