As a former downtown dad, I'm also a bit of a playground aficionado. My general observation is that many of them are built for extremely small children, and that it's much harder to find something with the level of "excitement" that my kid wanted once he got past first or second grade. We "graduated" from the Esplanade playground closer to Mass Ave (bonus there was running into Giselle and the kids a couple times) to the one closer to the Hatch Shell. That one checked the boxes of fun & danger. I'm sure mini-me would have loved the new slide at Government Center.
Regarding adjustments, pretty much any piece of equipment can be dangerous. Consider the photo below. While I've seen injuries resulting from use of 3 of 4 of those pieces of equipment, you might be surprised at which caused the most gruesome one. Here's a catalog of what I've seen:
Sit Down Spinner (left)
Multiple ways to fall off, including head injury from trying to kneel/stand while spinning and falling and striking the wall behind it. Also, lots of legs hanging over the side and striking a nearby child, especially heads of younger ones that wander too close.
Climbing Structure (rear)
Falls galore here. Due to the rope åwork, reaching the ground in a fall was generally only possible after the fall being mostly arrested. Lots of wrenched limbs, ropeburn, and a bloody nose or two though.
Stand Up Spinner (right)
I don't recall seeing anyone being injured by this, but it was also the least popular option for all but the youngest children.
Swing (foreground)
This one is the grand-prize winner for injuries. There's the obvious circumstance of a kid running in front and getting a headshot from the swing itself, but worst injury was caused when a child was being aggressively pushed by friends while gripping one of the support ropes. Somehow the swing flipped, causing the ropes to twist, resulting in an audible snap and a full break of both forearm bones of a child.
One will note that nearly all of these are easily preventable through parental supervision, but as all parents know, parenting is a balance of letting kids learn life lessons and avoiding permanent or severe harm.
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