I am fortunate to live in a city with many amazing local playgrounds.
Melbourne held the title for being the world’s most livable city in the world from 2011 to 2017. Alas it came in second in 2018. If you’re a family person with young kids, I reckon playgrounds would be one of the things that would attract you to Melbourne – and perhaps even where you choose to live.
Playgrounds are wonderful spaces for creative play as well as parent-child connections and bonding. They also make for many photo ops and treasured memories in years to come – especially given the capabilities of smart phones today. Smart phones were not even invented when playgrounds and such spaces could captivate my eldest daughter’s fascination for hours. It would now be about 20 years since our first visit to a playground.
Playgrounds have come a long way since that time. We would have counted ourselves lucky then if there were a selection of swings, rocking koalas or climbing frames. These days, there are more interesting play equipment in a variety of colours and designs to occupy and satisfy every young heart, imagination and energetic soul.
When my kids were little and we went on holidays, finding a suitable playground to break up the journey or the day was a chief consideration. That factor ranked quite highly for how much we were likely to enjoy our family holiday or not. There is nothing quite like cranky under-exercised over-energized kids strapped into car seats for hours on end to turn a would-be pleasant holiday into a nightmare. So believe me, playgrounds are important.
I will never forget how even when the car was whizzing past a small town at 70km/hr my then three young old son would be able to spot a playground and announce it excitedly to everyone in the car.
Even though my children are now past that stage, I still can’t help but feel rather excited whenever I find yet another interesting playground in my travel and exploration. I seek to document its features and present an accurate account and view of the play equipment through my photos and reviews – I guess it’s truly a case of been-there-done-that, now-I-know-how-it-feels and also what other parents would find important for the perfect outing with their child/ren.
I started putting together a list of pretty ‘awesome playgrounds’ for my local area not long ago. I envisage this to be a growing list as our local council continues to improve local amenities for the community.
Apart from play equipment, other things I like to take into consideration include parking (for the able bodied as well as disabled), toilet facilities (for the able bodied and also disabled) and if there is a water fountain nearby or a rubbish bin. I get particularly excited when I see one of the new design drinking water fountain that is mindful of pets’ needs with the tippable and refillable water ‘trough’ at the bottom that collects the run-off water from what we don’t drink. I also take into consideration its proximity to roads and whether it is fenced in or enclosed in some way. Other things I pay attention to include seating facilities, landscaping and BBQ facilities and shelter. Whether I write about it or take its photo, those are the main things that I bear in mind.
So if you happen to go on holiday or a walk with me and we pass a playground, my local guide instinct usually kicks in, so do excuse me if I take a few moments to document what it has to offer. (wink)
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Hi! @TraciC I’ve just made a boo boo. I posted this article under Photographs instead of Local stories. I had gone back to an old post and clicked on reload, and I did not notice where it was posted until it was too late. Would you be able to move this post for me to Local Stories? It’s part of my submission. Thanks heaps!
Maria
Hi @MariaNgo ,
Just wanted to let you know that I relabeled your post, as requested, and it now appears in the Local Stories board.
If you have any other questions or issues, please feel free to reach out to me or any other Google Moderator listed in this post, so that we can further assist you. 
O, and another thing, thank you for this post. As a parent I sometimes struggle finding playgrounds when I travel with my daughter, so this post is right up my alley.
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Hi @MariaNgo , love your post!
It seems that we have something in common
Bye,
David
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@MariaNgo playgrounds bring back find memories of my kids playing before they started becoming independent people. I’m sure many people with small children appreciate that you do your write ups and post photos.
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@davidhyno Yes, it would seem that we do! When did you take these? Where are they?
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@Twister411 Yes they grow up way too fast. But though ‘independent’ they will always need us in one way or another.
@davidhyno On another note, I’ve noticed the ‘tag line’ at the bottom of yours and other people’s comments. How/where do I go to do that?
Maria
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Hi @MariaNgo !
This playground are in my town and other from places I visited!
These playgrounds are mandatory stops during travel: having a seven-year-old child it is right that there is also a prize for him after a long walk!
We rest, he pulls the last energy to have fun (so then he sleeps in the car!).
For the “tag line” read these posts that I find here on Connect:
Add a personal signature
Making Signature Tab More Special
How I created my signature
If you need further help, ask without problems!
Bye,
David
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@davidhyno Yes most certainly a “reward” of a play time at a playground is quite a fair deal. We used that too with our kids. 
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@davidhyno thank you also for the link to making personal signatures. I’ll give it a go when I’m next in my laptop.
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@davidhyno As you probably can’t tell, trying to write this reply is taking longer than it should because the post keeps posting itself before I’m finished. It won’t seem to allow me to go back to make edits.
Have you experienced this problem also?
Thank you for the links.
Which country are you from can I ask? The playgrounds look rather like Australian one’s… But perhaps other countries also make similar looking ones.
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Hi @MariaNgo !
I’m in Italy and this playground are from my city and other places around Italy during my travels!
"As you probably can’t tell, trying to write this reply is taking longer than it should because the post keeps posting itself before I’m finished. It won’t seem to allow me to go back to make edits.
Have you experienced this problem also?"
No, but maybe because I mainly use the desktop to answer.
Can I ask you if you used your smartphone to write these posts or a tablet?
Often in the settings of the Keyboard in the settings menu there are settings to customize the use of the keyboard: try to check that by accident by pressing the “Enter” key to go to line does not mean it as “Enter” to send the post!
A function here present on Connect is the self-saving of posts: when you create a post or write a Connect answer automatically every few minutes it creates a copy of what you’ve written.
You can find the list of these drafts here:
So if it happens that after writing something, for some reason you update the browser or close the window, try to check if the drafts contain what you wrote previously.
Bye,
David
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@davidhyno sorry for the late reply. I think it was another example of wanting to wait to reply on my desktop and then being to busy at the time and then it slipped my mind later.
In answer to your question, I am using my phone.
And thanks for that tip about looking up my profile for my drafts. Neat thing to know.
Maria
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