Back in the day, the most traumatic moments from recess were probably waiting in line for the monkey bars on a cold day or having to share the sandbox with the class nerd. For the “sophisticated toddlers” of the Upper East side, however, all that is a thing of the past.
The New York Times recently featured a piece on this city’s growing trend of luxury playgrounds- reconverted spaces in apartment complexes that hold indoor play spaces of up to 1,200 square feet. Themes include treehouses with adjoined balconies, nautical varieties with lighthouses and mini-tugboats, and urban scenes with some kickass-looking ball pits.
What happens when the inevitable happens and, *gasp*, children grow up? Toy structures are replaced with table tennis, chess and Xbox consoles. Because it just wouldn’t be fair if tweens got shafted by a bunch of three-year-olds.
Now let me just crawl back to my 90-square-foot Bushwick bedroom and cry over some cold noodles.
Featured cover image: New York Times