Being a dad, I want to protect my baby girl and make life better for her.  With that being said, there are some things I’m not sure I’m glad she will never get to experience.  Old fashioned Merry-Go-Rounds and monkey bars that are either set in asphalt or gravel, no soft mulch.  That’s when you learned the need to really hang on.  Swings with straight seats so you can easily jump out as the swing is reaching it’s highest point in the forward motion right before it goes backwards.  And one more thing, metal slides.  You remember the ones, right?  They were silver, aluminum, tall, metal things that felt like they were hot enough to turn into molten lava on a bright hot summer day.  But we didn’t care because they joy of climbing up the ladder to the top, using that little medal loop at the top that masqueraded as a handle for safety was in reality just a launcher you would use to swing your body full force landing on your butt, legs out down the hot at Hades slide getting third degree burns as you went just to laugh at the bottom saying you can go even faster next time and proving it.  Those are some of the things I wish my baby girl could get to experience.  Of course I would be right there to make sure she didn’t fall, get too burned or whatever else might keep her from running wide open.  And I’m the one talking about putting a big soft layer of mulch down around her slide and swing at home but still, there are some things about the “good ole days” you just know are wrong now that they are gone.

Fletch