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Face It"?uYou Want to Swing with Your Kids Too04-23-15 | News

Face It"?uYou Want to Swing with Your Kids Too

The music of Duke Ellington and lyrics of Irving Mills maybe said it best: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." GameTimes' new play piece swings for two

Generations of parents have been relegated to standing behind their kids on a swing set and pushing, and pushing"?(R)?and pushing.

When I was on the playground while my kids were swinging, I used to stand in front of the swing. As they would naturally stretch out and stiffen their legs on the upswing, I would give their shoe soles a two-handed push. This was my interaction with them, and I enjoyed seeing their expressions.

GameTime of course is a leading manufacturer of commercial playground equipment, and always creating fun play pieces that has us elders asking, "Where were you when I was little?" Well, GameTime's design and engineering teams have come up an improvement in parental swing pushing. It's called the "Expression Swing' and allows mom or dad to swing with their little ones, and have face time.

Perfect, right? No more back pushing or sitting with the little one on your lap while swinging, which is not exactly safe.

The new swing's ergonomic designed has a platform seat for the adult, and a bucket seat for the youngster, with the seats facing each other and positioned at eye level.

During the development of the face-to-face swing, GameTime studied the research of Dr. Stuart Brown, M.D., the founder of the National Institute for Play and author of Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Dr. Brown's research includes the study of "play attunement," a phrase descriptive of how the human brain is "stimulated" when parent and child make eye contact during play.

The Expression Swing, naturally, meets all ASTM and CPSC guidelines for children's playgrounds. Swing on.