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Well, more accurately, their parents face the fines if their kids kick their Crocs off their feet. Parents have been complaining how the playground mats heat up so much that their kids' bare feet literally burn, so now the Parks Department is more aggressively enforcing a "Wear Shoes at All Times" policy. A Parks Dept. spokeswoman told the Daily News, "It would be possible to write a summons, but no summonses have been issued." But one parks worker said the crackdown is simply due to the threat of lawsuits from parents. NYC Parks Advocates' Geoffrey Croft scoffed at the tickets, "That would be absurd. Are they going to have the kids sign their names in crayon?" Hey, you never know.
Barefoot Kids at City Playgrounds Face Fines!
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"...their parents face the fines if their kids kick their Crocs off their feet"
Their parents should be fined for letting their children wear Crocs to begin with.
I can NOT wait for the video footage of a Parks Department official cross-checking a kid who's running barefoot in the playground.
they should be fined. it's just bad parenting: burned feet, dirt, germs, broken glass. make sure your kids keep their sneakers on.
Whatever middle eastern desert hellhole the parents of Kian Mehran-Lodge came from, no one knows - but those parents should know better.
Let me spell it out for them - Hot Sun Burn Ground. Hot Ground Burn Feet.
yes, children should have their shoes on in public parks, but does this also mean that they can't sit on the ground and have to wear gloves to do a handstand or a cartwheel or even to push themselves up when they fall?
yes, children should have their shoes on in public parks, but the bigger problem is that the parks department feels that these surfaces are acceptable.
The surfaces ARE acceptable. The problem here is whiny idiots that have kids and then don't know how to take care of them. I mean, really, who lets their children run around in an NYC playground without shoes on?!?!
regardless of whether or not kids should be wearing their shoes (i think they should), isn't the issue at hand the simple fact that the black rubber material is getting so hot it burns the skin? what if a kid falls down and puts his or her hand or arm down as a reaction, and gets burns from that? are we going to dole out fines for falling?
Those playground mats in some shape and form have been around for decades, and even I remember when I was a wee brat NEVER to touch those mats on a hot day with bare skin. Those parents were negligent.
Take away the mats, and one brat will inevitably fall and crack their skull.
When and where I grew up, we only had gravel, sand, grass and asphalt. Does anyone know how long those synthetic surfaces have been around and how long they've been used in NYC?
The parents are up against the law of unintended consequences. If you complain, something will get done, but not necessarily what you want. Be careful what you wish for, because you might get... well, something.
One thing is to keep shoes on toddlers and kids, another is to restrain a crawling kid from moving around because he does not know how to walk, and crawling is impossible at the playground. That leaves the kid and parents with few options, especially if there is an older brother/sister around.
So, before you cite negligence on the parents side, I would cite negligence on the product designers who did not take into account environmental factors and who would be using the mats. Babies, toddlers, kids and adults.
Maybe gloves should also be enforced on crawling infants...
Certainly parents should be looking out for the welfare of their children, but we should be able to rely on the city to purchase protective materials that do no harm to our children, or at least rely on the city to purchase protective materials that won't harm children in easily foreseeable/predictable conditions, such as NYC getting hot and sunny in the summertime?
And yes, I know already that many of the city's bureaucratic decisions are made by numskulls and that no, we can't always count on them. My point is simply that we should be able to and not simply jump to slamming parents.
Back in my day, the playground was mud and stones. we used to jump off the swings to see how much air we could get. The slide was hot and we dealt with it.
Kids today are metaphorically chained to the couch with their game consoles and eyes wide open, it's a wonder at all how their skin and eyes can adapt to the sun at all, never mind their feet.
Bad parenting all around.
Just what we need more Nanny State bull$hit for Idiots who have no common sense and now we all have to suffer for the incompetent parenting of a few.
Our misguided Govt. never ceases to amaze how they can make criminals out of anyone.
Now little children with no shoes are subject to fines. Possibly choke holds, handcuffing, and maybe a baton to the head. Super.
Soon there will be no parks because of all the litigious asses who have no common sense and blame every cut and scratch on "someone else"
There is no sense of personal responsibility at all anymore.
Every thing now has to be dumbed down for the people with an IQ below 80
So as a child growing up in NYC in the 80s I was never allowed to run around barefoot in the park... commonsense. If you don't think that asphalt(which is what all parks were when i was growing up) gets hot you are wrong, so parks have always been "dangerous" then. Metal slides were mad hot... so we poured water from the water fountains on them to cool them down. In 90 degree weather any surface is going to be too hot to run around on BAREFOOT... maybe not concrete but then we'd have people complaining that the surface was too hard.
It is a shame that this happened, but it isn't the parks fault. The parents should have known better. I wonder if they will sue mothernature when they burn their feet on hot sand at the beach.
What about when the playground has one of those sprinklers.
Shoes or no shoes?
Shoes! My kid never goes anywhere in the playground without shoes. He has cheap sandals that he wears when he goes in the sprinkler. A lot of people are idiots who think that the government can and should protect them from things like weather. And you shouldn't be barefoot in playgrounds even when it's not hot outside. Stupid.
Twenty years ago, the parks surfaces were asphalt. I remember distinctly when my little brother jumped off the swing and cracked his head on the ground. My dad did not sue the City. We took my brother to the hospital and my dad told him never do that again. He learned his leason. End of story.
It's ridiculous to let your offspring walk around barefoot in a playground! Parents should not only be given tickets and fines, they ought to be forced to take a course in safe parenting. They obviously haven't got a clue.
I see these parents lying down in the grass in parks with their kids, doing the family idyll in nature scenario -- but you know what they're lying down in? They're lying down on the rat's bathroom! Rat, bird, and squirrel urine, human loogies (and worse), pesticides, all sorts of other crap is in the grass in parks. It's a total germfest. And that's how it should be, that's life! You're just not supposed to roll around in it like there's no danger in life.
People have the illusion that nature is benevolent and pure, but it's not! Nature is nasty! Go lie in the grass in the country and when you get up you'll be covered in ticks! Walk through the tall grass and surprise! Chiggers will be all over your legs! We're not in Eden, kids!
The parents need to be told this: "Your kids should be playing on grass. You need to move to Jersey or Westchester. I know the loss of your social status in your own mind be destroyed, but for the sake of your young ones, and the people who live beneath you, its time to go."