We started taking the kids to a new playground with a lot of climbing structures, and even though the ground is made of that soft rubber surfacing... there have been a number of serious accidents there recently. Today while we were there, a seven-year-old girl fell from some monkey bars and broke her arm! She was screaming and her arm was going out at a crazy angle. They called 911, and paramedics took her to the hospital.

There was another serious injury there last week, and I"m pretty sure it was from the same structure. The whole thing got me thinking about how closely we're supposed to watch our kids at the playground. Seven years old is pretty old! But that particular structure is pretty dangerous, and I see younger kids on it all the time.

I'm a big believer in letting kids take chances at the playground, and I don't think injuries are the end of the world. But I try to keep an eye on the kids, so that they stay off the most dangerous equipment. Sometimes I worry that I'm coddling the kids, and other times I feel like I'm making the right call. Our son is not yet 5, so I feel fine about limiting his play on that particular set of monkey bars... but the girl who fell today was 7! I had kind of thought that by the time kids were that old, they would have the run of any playground. I guess different playgrounds are appropriate for different ages.

How closely do you watch your kids at the playground? At what age are kids old enough that you don't have to monitor their play on any playground?