Playground Tour 2021: Boundless
Boundless is the name of an all-ability playground just up the hill from the bridge to the National Carillon (and yes, you can hear the carillon from the Playground without it being loud enough to be annoying). You have to approach the playground from the correct side of the Kings Ave bridge (heading northeast). Parking for the playground has been expanded and we easily found a spot (a disabled spot).
Boundless is very popular, but also very large. When Tim, Lizzie and I arrived around 11:30 there were probably 100 people there, but it wasn’t crowded. There are only two toilets, but they’re centrally located and since a lot of the kids were young enough to be in nappies the toilets were sufficient. By 12:30 about half the people had gone and it was a lot easier to scan those that were there when I was trying to keep track of my own kids. Most of Boundless has reasonable line of sight, which is handy, and the whole playground is fenced which is GREAT.
There’s a reasonable amount of seating and shade (and lots of picnic tables and even some bbq facilities just outside the fence), but at 11:30 the seating and shade didn’t align so a lot of people were sitting on the (wet) grass in order to be out of the sun.
In our original playground tour, this was #6, after the art gallery as #5, but our scheduled visit to the gallery yesterday was switched to Saturday so Boundless became #5. Savvy?
We’ll also leave out Questacon this time, as the Mini-Q section is closed due to covid until further notice.
I once again struck the issue that it’s difficult to take photos of a crowded playground without accidentally including other people’s kids. Ah well.
As usual, the roundabout (ie the fastest and most dangerous thing in the whole playground) was a favourite for my kids.
This whole playground tour is touched with melancholy, as I am witnessing the end of the ‘playground’ era for my children. Even Boundless didn’t hold them for long (as mentioned elsewhere, climbing frames and flying foxes are what it’s all about at the moment playground-wise).
Tim was very clingy as a baby and I distinctly remember that when he was nine months old he was interested in actually exploring playgrounds for the first time—starting with Boundless.
Yep, that’s my 6 year-old spurning the playground to read a book. A beautiful sight, but a little heartbreaking at the same time.
As usual, Lizzie is more open to enjoying what’s placed in front of her (in this case, a playground) and she made some friends while we were there. As a girl on the spectrum, she often struggles to make friends but tends to instantly connect with kids younger or older than herself. Another shot of melancholy as I remember how easily she made friends as a preschooler (and a baby and toddler). Things were simpler then. At nine years old, she’s on the brink of hitting puberty. A wonderful and terrifying moment. She is so very eager to please and willing to do anything to spend time with me. That is about to change.
In conclusion, this is definitely our last playground tour—and not just because I’m allergic to the outside world. My little ones aren’t little any more.
Those five fingers might as well be waving goodbye.
Felicity Banks 
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