A commercial playground set should always display clear, concise rules to keep children safe and help protect them from liability. While most children and parents who come to your commercial playground will happily play and not cause any problems, having a posted rule list is important should an incident occur.

But what should those rules cover? The main goal of a commercial playground is to provide a space for children to play safely, make friends, and burn off some energy. The rules should back up this purpose.

Below is a list of suggested rules that every playground should post. We will explore each rule individually to help you understand its importance in keeping children safe on your commercial playground equipment.

Essential Safety Rules for Your Commercial Playground

• Adult Supervision Required.
• Age Guidelines
• Clothing Restrictions
• No Food or Drink
• No Shoving, Pushing, or Rough Play
• Equipment Must be Used as Intended
• No Glass or Bottles in the Playground
• Hours
• Use At Your Own Risk
• Clean Up After Yourself

Adult Supervision Required

A commercial playground does not replace a babysitter or guardian. As the manager or owner, you do not want parents leaving their children unsupervised on the playground. While clearly stating this rule on your playground doesn’t mean parents won’t disobey, it does help remind them and protect you and your property.

Age Guidelines

Properly displaying the appropriate ages for the commercial playground set helps parents understand for whom the playground is intended. It helps protect little children from climbing up a commercial playground meant for much older children and getting stuck at the top. It always helps prevent older kids from overrunning a playground meant for younger children.

Clothing Restrictions

The specifics may vary depending on your location, but the rule should state that loose clothing, helmets, or long hair should be removed or tied up. Loose clothing, such as costumes, capes, or baggy coats, and even long hair can get hung up on playground equipment and cause injury.

No Food or Drink

You don’t want children running around your commercial playground with food in their mouths. That is not safe. Besides the obvious safety concerns, Cheeto hands make a mess of any playground, so this rule helps keep your commercial playground equipment clean and helps keep animals such as raccoons from looking for scraps on your playground.

No Shoving, Pushing, or Rough Play

Kids love running and playing games all over commercial playgrounds, but sometimes, the games escalate too far. Pushing and shoving can lead to an accidental tumble from a tower, and rough play leads to most children not having fun on your commercial playground equipment.

Equipment must be Used as Intended.

Commercial playgrounds are designed to be safe yet fun. If you engineered all the risks out of the playground, it simply would not be fun. The slides, climbers, and other items on commercial playground equipment are built to be safe when used properly. It can be dangerous if children start climbing on the outside of tube slides, scaling roofs, or doing other dangerous actions. Parents are responsible for making their children obey and use the equipment as intended.

No Glass or Bottles

The last thing parents want to worry about when their children are happily playing on a commercial playground set is getting a shard of glass in their feet. For this reason, banning glass and bottles is important for keeping children safe.

Commercial Playground Hours

While not a rule, posting the hours helps local authorities to know when they need to start keeping an eye on the playground. Posting the hours the commercial playground is open for play helps protect you from incidents occurring after hours.

Use At Your Own Risk

Posting “Use at Your Own Risk” is not a magic bullet that protects you from liability. You must do regular maintenance and do due diligence. However, parents must understand that they accept the risk if their children play on the playground.

Clean Up After Yourself

If coupled with convenient trash cans, reminding people to clean up after themselves and to respect the playground can help keep the commercial playground clean, inviting, and fun to use.

Final Thoughts

While posting playground rules will not solve all your problems, it is an important part of keeping the children who use the commercial playground safe. Rules also help protect your investment by keeping the playground clean and free from debris. They also help protect you from liability if an incident occurs on your playground.

King Swings Commercial has been crafting swing sets for 35+ years. As a family-owned business, we care about using safe products for our children to play barefoot on, have water fights, and even have a picnic. King Swings Commercial comes from that rich tradition. We know and understand how parents think and their concerns, and we build our commercial playgrounds in light of those worries. We hand-make every swing set, and our crews deliver and install it on your site.

Our FAQ page is full of common questions regarding vinyl commercial playgrounds. You can also contact our commercial playground sales team with any questions! We understand that vinyl commercial playgrounds are new to this space, and many of you have never heard of such a thing. Feel free to ask us as many questions as you like. That is what we are here for!