--- title: "Parents Are Sending Their Kids to a Playground Where They’re Given Saws and Hammers to Ward Off Brainrot" description: "Parents wary of smartphones and too much screen time are sending their kids to a junkyard playground where they're free to wreak havoc." date: "2026-10-04" modified: "2026-10-04" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/parents-sending-kids-playground-saws-hammers" categories: - "Brain" - "Health & Medicine" - "Mental Health" --- # Parents Are Sending Their Kids to a Playground Where They’re Given Saws and Hammers to Ward Off Brainrot ![A photo of children playing at The Yard in New York City.]() *play:groundNYC* Are kids getting too soft these days, coddled by iPads and AI chatbots? In New York City, the [*Wall Street Journal* reports](), some parents are sending their children to the ultimate screen-free experience: a junkyard playground called "The Yard" where they're let off the leash and free to do proper adolescent activities like roll around in mud, scrape their knees — and, of course, screw around with random bits of scrap. They're not punching digital trees or vegging out to vertical videos, but playing with actual saws and hammers and knives, just as God — or adults whose conception of childhood is shaped by repeat viewings of "Stand By Me," "The Sandlot," and "The Goonies" — intended. Adult "playworkers" supervise the youth from a distance, but otherwise try not to butt in. This is "unstructured playtime." Let kids do what they want so they can start building some of the independence that'll carry them through life, the thinking goes. Parents bring them here to save their offspring from the perils of screen time. (Kids succumbing to a tech dominated world is clearly an anxiety shared by many NYC parents; the *WSJ* notes another "microschool" that offers parents "worried about AI" a place where their children "can get away from the sensory overload.) In a typical scene, some kids ziplined, one climbed a ladder while clutching a fistful of nails, and another pushed around a wheelbarrow asking if anyone needed a shovel saw or hammer, per the reporting. (Families sign a waiver before letting their kids in, and The Yard carries liability insurance.) Cofounder and head playworker Yoni Kallai begins the day by asking kids what their names are and what they're excited to do. "I like to destroy stuff," one boy said. "I also like to destroy stuff," his friend next to him agreed, per the *WSJ*. Decades ago, this kind of random — and let's be real, a little dangerous — outdoor play was normal for kids. You had to get creative to entertain yourself before video games did it for you. Nowadays it's rare, and maybe kids are losing a little something by not finding stupid ways to kill time with each other outside of a virtual environment designed to drip out addictive dopamine hits. **More on mental health:** [*Horrifying Research Finds What Happens to 12-Year-Olds Who Get Smart Phones*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()