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->''"One swing set, well worn but structurally sound, seeks new home. Make memories with your kid or kids so that someday he or she or they will look into the backyard and feel the ache of sentimentality as desperately as I did this afternoon. It's all fragile and fleeting, dear reader..."''
-->-- '''Free Catch All ad''' placed by Hazel and Augustus, ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars''

A popular way to illustrate that someone suffers from a trauma of some sort is showing them sitting alone at a children's playground, usually on the swing, [[AbandonedPlayground often at dusk or night]]. In most cases, the trauma in question is related to a childhood experience, although the person in question can be of any age (child or adult).

If the person is a child, it may imply ParentalAbuse or other family troubles, or simply [[IJustWantToHaveFriends having no friends]]; if done with adults, it can show how they still suffer from said childhood experiences.

It's common for another character to come out and offer some words of consolation while sitting on the other swing.

Not strictly related to SwingLowSweetHarriet, which usually occurs during positive times.

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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': After running away from home in embarrassment over Rentarou witnessing her family's antics, Karane is found sitting on a swing in a deserted park.
* ''Anime/AngelTales Chu!'': After running away in embarrassment when everyone makes a big deal over [[FirstPeriodPanic her first period]], Momo is found sitting alone on a swing.
* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheBirthOfJapan'': After Nobita's repeated attempts at [[TheRunaway running away from home backfires]] and nobody, not even Doraemon, wanted to have anything to do with him, he's shown sitting alone on a swing looking rather forlorn. And then Gian, Suneo, and Shizuka suddenly show up, ''all'' of them having their own problems and intending to leave their homes too, and asking Nobita if they could join him.
* ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion The End of Evangelion]]'': Came up in flashbacks of Shinji's childhood. It is also used in a scene during Asuka's extended MindRape sequence in the Director's Cut version of episode 22. Asuka is sitting naked in the TroubledFetalPosition in front of a swing set and is confronted by a younger version of herself clutching a CreepyDoll (which she has a phobia of).
** The swing motif in the film is a little more bizarre than that: it shows up repeatedly during several of the more psychedelic sequences, and the [[MindScrew jury is still out on what exactly it means]].
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' sometimes uses a swing to illustrate Naruto's lonely childhood, especially when he sits on it, watching all the graduates get congratulated by their parents while he was the only one who failed. Naruto's swing became a meme within the fandom due to the anime's frequent use of it as StockFootage. Gaara is also shown sitting on a swing in his childhood.
** [[WebVideo/NarutoTheAbridgedSeries "Then, when I was slightly older, I had a bear. And I hung out on swing sets. Cause that's apparently what you do when you're a depressed child in Naruto, you hang out on swing sets."]]
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': After being conclusively rejected by [[WholesomeCrossdresser Ukyou]], [[WholesomeCrossdresser Tsubasa]] [[MasterOfDisguise Kurenai]] is found on a swing, disguised as/''inside'' a trash can for good measure. [[GenderBender Female Ranma]] tries to comfort Tsubasa, saying that there'll be someone else... an act of kindness that makes Tsubasa fall for Ranma instead.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'': After his father goes to prison, Tomoya and Nagisa sit on the swings while Tomoya vents about his hatred for his father and for his home.
* ''Anime/MyHime'': Mai does this after she discovers [[spoiler:she's destined to fight and kill her friends in order to save the world, has a fight with her best friend, ''and'' finds out that the sickly brother she has worked so hard to take care of has realised how dependent he is on her and doesn't want that anymore.]] On top of all that, while she's sitting on the TraumaSwing, [[spoiler:the boy she likes and the ClingyJealousGirl walk by and kiss in front of her (although he does not know she is watching).]] The end of the episode shows her lying in bed, realizing, "I've lost everything." And things still found room to go downhill from there.
* There's a shot of ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' as a child sitting on a swing while she is telling Kyon in the present day why she acts [[BlitheSpirit how she does]].
* In ''Manga/SlamDunk'', Sakuragi and Ryota are seen sitting on swings in an empty playground at night, discussing their love problems.
* In ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'', Shimbo finds Takako Shimizu sitting on a swing, lonely and desolate after her husband has locked her out of their house.
* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'':
** Young Hinagiku is shown to be alone on a swing in an image after her parents have abandoned her.
** Although he's not on the swing in the scene, Wataru is shown to be standing in front of a swing set when receiving the papers that will allow him to skip grades with his friends from Sakuya.
* [[BreakTheCutie Kotonoha]] has one of these towards the end of the ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'' anime.
* Hino does this in episode 16 of the ''Videogame/LaCordaDOro'' anime.
* One of the Dark Spore children is first shown alone on a swing, while other children play nearby, in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02''. Archnemon and Mummymon are also shown hanging out on a swing set when they begin questioning Oikawa's motives and their own existence since Oikawa created them using his own DNA ("I can't help but remember that conversation with [=BlackWarGreymon=]. He's a Digimon, and Oikawa's a human, so what are we supposed to be?")
* ''Manga/NatsumesBookOfFriends'': Natsume does this in one of his flashbacks. The loneliness and isolation of being the only one to see Youkai and being dismissed as a CreepyChild and passed around from family to family, none of whom really want him...
* In ''Manga/DailyLivesOfHighSchoolBoys'', [[ButtMonkey Mitsuo]] did this in ''High School Boys and Mitsuo-kun's Worries'' when he has a BSOD after his parents discovered his PornStash.
* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'': Minmay is shown swinging in a playground at night shortly after Kaifun deserted her.
* In Manga/CardCaptorSakura, Sakura tells Syaoran [[spoiler:about Yukito rejecting her LoveConfession]] when she's sitting on a swing. She then says that even when she does ''not'' regret [[spoiler:wishing Yukito well [[ShipperOnDeck and encouraging]] his feelings for her brother Touya]], the whole deal ''still'' [[LoveHurts stings]], and then she starts crying...
* In ''Anime/SailorMoon R'', episode 84, Chibiusa is sitting on a swing in a battle-damaged playground and reflecting on traumatic memories of the attack on Crystal Tokyo by the Black Moon Clan when she's approached by Wiseman.
** Minako broods by herself on a swing in an S episode when thinking of quitting her life as a Senshi
* In ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'', Yai sits in one after she loses her fortune. When her friends try to console her by giving her her favorite yogurt drink, she drinks it...and immediately [[MoodWhiplash spits it out from her nose and gags]] because [[SkewedPriorities it's not the expensive one she likes]].
* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': At the end of her date with Fuutarou, [[GenkiGirl Yotsuba]] takes him to an AbandonedPlayground with a couple of swings, revealing that she usually comes here when she feels lonely or sad. [[spoiler:In Chapter 90, she's shown using the swing as she muses to herself how her sisters recognize Fuutarou's good-hearted nature and that she will support them, despite her feelings for him. It is evident that as a StepfordSmiler, Yotsuba is using the swing as a coping mechanism to hide her own uncertainties about her self-imposed role in helping her sisters at her own expense]].
* ''Literature/IHadThatSameDreamAgain'': Nanoka sees a forlorn-looking man sitting on a swing in a local park on a couple of occasions, then learns that it's Kiryu's father when she runs into the two of them together.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/MiraculousThePhoenixRises'': Morgan goes to one while reflecting on life before Moof arrives as well and the two have a heart-to-heart on they both have a DarkAndTroubledPast.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' has Big Baby sitting upon the playground swing [[MelancholyMoon staring at the moon]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Americana (1981): A vagrant war veteran, who supposedly suffers from some kind of PTSD, wanders from town to town to come across an abandoned playground in some rural area. He sets his mind to fix the merry-go-round there, it is old, completely broken and people around him do not understand why he is so determined to repair the thing. There can be many interpretations but one thing is known for certain - there is a trauma, and there is a playground, and perhaps fixing the playground will eventually fix the trauma.
* ''Film/ChasingAmy'': Holden is seen alone on a swing set following a huge argument with Alyssa. (The same swing set they had the "what is sex" discussion on earlier in the film.)
* ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'': Kee, about to have the first baby after all women have become sterile, uses the swing on an AbandonedPlayground, not knowing whether her baby will survive or how it might change things after she gives birth.
* ''Film/TheGameChanger'': The female lead is shown on an ornate swing and humming a lullaby her father used to sing for her as a kid, after her father's funeral. [[spoiler:Even though he only faked his death]].
* Inverted in ''Film/{{Ikiru}}'': Watanabe dies at night, in the rain, sitting on a child's swing set. But the mood of the scene is peaceful and even a little bit triumphant: he is enjoying being in the park he dedicated his last days to building.
* ''Film/ItFollows'': Jay discovers that the titular killer entity which Hugh said he's attached her to is real when she sees it pursuing her in her own house, while she's still dealing with the fallout of Hugh engaging in sex of questionable consent with her before he tied her up and revealed he wasn't who he told her he was, no less. Running away from her house and the entity to a nearby playground at night, Jay is reduced to sitting on and quietly using the swing. On top of Jay's trauma relating to the entity and to what Hugh did to her, the film drops some hints that her home life with her alcoholic mother and now-dead father wasn't idyllic when she was growing up.
* ''Film/LittleChildren'': Ronald [=McGorvey=] (Creator/JackieEarleHaley) does this at the end.
* The poster for the 2018 Iranian film ''Film/TheLostStrait'' has a soldier in a gas mask sitting on a swing.
* In ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' Scott sadly sits on the swing set he and Ramona visited on their first date.
* An eerie variation appears in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', in which the staging of a scene shows River framed by a swing engulfed in flames.
* ''Film/TheSixthSense'': The surviving daughter of the Munchausen's-Syndrome-by-Proxy mother is shown on a swing during the funeral.
* ''Film/{{Super 8}}'' opens with the kid hero sitting alone on a swing mourning his mother's death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'': After an argument with the Dursleys, Harry retreats to one, brooding on his PTSD-driven nightmares, scar pains, and the lack of anyone to talk to or real information from his friends. (The [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix film version]] starts with Harry on the swing, looking forlornly at children who still have parents.)
* ''Literature/TheSugarSkull'': Scout is rather perky while visiting the local playground and spending some time on the swings, but her backstory gives the visit elements of this. She tells Eve that she remembers her mom pushing her and her younger brother on the swings, but also admits that it might have been a scene on television instead. Considering she spent most of her time [[spoiler:caring for her younger brother, who had an unspecified developmental disability, then ran away after years of rape at the hands of her mother's boyfriend, it probably wasn't an accurate recollection of her childhood.]]
* In ''Literature/BattleRoyale'', Mitsuko sits on a swing after disposing of her mother's dead body.
* In ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'', Gus is [[GenreSavvy so attuned to the traumatic symbolism]] of Hazel's depressing old swing set that he helps her sell it on the internet.
* In ''Literature/TheStand'', Larry Underwood eats his supper while sitting on a swing in an AbandonedPlayground.
* In the anthology Whispers in the Dark, published by Rowanwood Publishing, there appears a short story, "The Girl", featuring a picture of the character sitting on a swing looking forlorn.
* The plot of ''Literature/TheAngelNextDoorSpoilsMeRotten'' starts when protagonist Amane Fujimiya encounters his schools [[SchoolIdol prettiest, smartest, and most athletic student]] Mahiru Shiina sitting on a swing set alone in the rain crying to herself and he offers her his umbrella to keep. Mahiru is actually masking feelings of deep loneliness and she presents a [[StepfordSmiler social and personable front at school]] to mask her issues with her emotionally distant parents.
* ''Literature/DiggingToAustralia'': Thirteen-year-old Jennifer discovers a disused playground near her home, and often retreats to it for solitude. A key moment she does this is when she sits on the swing, and reads an important letter from her mother Jacqueline, who disappeared when Jennifer was born, leaving Jennifer to be brought up by her grandparents.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' had a depressed Buster and GOB sitting on swings at the local playground. Then GOB started half-heartedly pushing Buster on the swing and Buster got really into it.
* ''Series/Batwoman2019'': In "[[Recap/Batwoman2019S1E11AnUnBirthdayPresent An Un-Birthday Present]]", a sane Beth from an alternate universe somehow survives the collapse of TheMultiverse, only to find no one on this Earth knows who she is, including her twin sister Kate Kane who attacks her [[MistakenForAnImposter under the belief that she's Beth's insane evil alternate self, Alice]]. Kate eventually realizes her mistake and tracks Beth down to a park they used to go to as children, where Beth is sitting on a swing trying to cope with how she's been {{unperson}}ed.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': A flashback shows a young Bella sitting on a swing set after being molested by her father. A demon in child form exploits this low moment to offer her a DealWithTheDevil.
* ''Series/InTreatment'': Oliver does this after running away from the therapist's office, and asks the therapist if he can come live with him instead of his parents.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E11Ted Ted]]": Buffy is seen sitting on a swing set after her problems with [[ParentWithNewParamour mother's new boyfriend]].
** "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E15IWasMadeToLoveYou I Was Made to Love You]]": Warren's {{Sexbot}} ''dies'' while sitting on swing. Just about as sad as it gets.
*** Oddly, both of these are in episodes involving Human-like robots.
** A different take on this trope occurs after Dawn finds all her memories of the past are false. Walking through a playground at night, she has a memory of her sister pushing her on the swing.
* ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'': The episode "Standing In The Dark" has Darcy [[spoiler:break down and tell Manny about being raped]] on a swing.
* About once a month, someone angsting in ''Series/EastEnders'' chills out at the playground to sulk until they're found.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51nxUv95-Jg This]] PSA against child abuse shows scenes of a playground while a narrator talks, and at the end, a child is shown on a swing.
* In a ''Creator/ComedyCentral Presents'' stand-up special, one comedian mentioned a woman had approached him at a bar because she said he looked like the loneliest person she'd ever seen. He incredulously asked the audience, "What, was I sitting alone on a swing set?"
* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' series 1 " Warrior of Kudlak" after thinking he caused a classmate to run away Luke runs off Clyde finds him later sitting on a swing
* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': In the Season 4 finale "Always", Kate Beckett is seen sitting on a swing in the rain [[spoiler:after surviving an attempt on her life and being suspended/resigning from the force]]
** This same swing is featured in the Season 4 premiere "Rise", where Beckett explains to Castle the wall she had placed around her heart after her mother died, making this a [[{{Bookends}} bookend]], as the scene in "Always" is when the wall finally comes crashing down.
** The swing is revisited in the Season 5 finale "Watershed" and the Season 6 premiere "Valkyrie", as the site where [[spoiler:Castle and Beckett become engaged]].
** The swing has become a favorite spot for Castle and Beckett; they are seen on the swing again in the Season 7 finale "Hollander's Woods", [[spoiler:when Beckett tells Castle that she had aced her captain's exam, but Keith Kaufman wants her to run for the State Senate.]]
* Inverted in ''Series/KamenRiderExAid''. The de facto leader of [[MonsterOfTheWeek Bugsters]], [[PsychopathicManchild Parado]], is standing on a swing while dealing the trauma to [[AllLovingHero Emu]]. Namely, that [[spoiler:he is the pediatrician's EnemyWithout and among other things killed people because he knew Emu won't ignore him anymore after that.]]
* ''Series/UchuSentaiKyuranger'': Balance/Tenbing Gold is sitting on a swing while mulling over the earlier events, mainly [[spoiler:his best friend Naga betraying the team for the dark side and the fact he (Balance) needs to nearly kill him if he wants to get him back.]] The scene wouldn't be any sadder if he was crying his heart out instead of just sitting there in silence, utterly defeated.
* ''Series/KaitouSentaiLupinrangerVsKeisatsuSentaiPatranger'': Good Striker is seen sitting on a swing (being a tiny plane-shaped machine, he pushes himself on the swing with his thrusters) while mulling over the promise he made to his creator, Literature/ArseneLupin, to protect his collection. He had previously stormed out on the Lupinrangers when they called his commitment to retrieve the Lupin Collection into question.
* ''Series/KikaiSentaiZenkaiger'': [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Kaito]] sits on a swing during his HeroicBSOD in #26. Then he is joined by [[TeamDad Juran]] and they discuss his inability to fight [[ArchEnemy Stacy]] seriously. Kaito wished that their earlier fight had ended in DefeatEqualsFriendship and tried to appeal to the HiddenHeartOfGold he knows Stacy has due to his earlier [[PetTheDog slip ups]]. Unfortunately, Stacy is hell-bent on opposing Kaito just to spite him and simply doubled his efforts to kill him.
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': In s05e15 Michael visits a playground and sits sadly on a swing after being traumatized by the roast from his co-workers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The video for the Music/BlueOysterCult's "Joan Crawford Has Risen From the Grave" uses imagery derived from Christina Crawford's autobiography about living with her allegedly psychotic mother, ''Mommie Dearest''. The video ends on a teenage girl playing the Christina role, sitting crying and despondent by the swimming pool; the scene is shot in muted washed-out light with autumn leaves swirling around and landing in the water, conveying the idea that summer is gone, it is cold, she is alone, innocence is dead and symbolic of emotional and physical abuse: this visual image conveys exactly the mood of the Trauma Swing using a different analogy.
* In the Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Hocus Pocus" by shikemoku, Gumi finds Miku sitting on the swings and realizes that she's been abused by her parents, and subsequently brings the younger girl home.
* If you want to include photos, there is a truly ''haunting'' shot of Music/FairportConvention's Richard Thompson looking lost on a swing, holding a mug of tea for dear life. And seeing as that shot was taken, just a few months after the M1 minibus crash that took the life of his girlfriend and also the drummer of the band, who can blame him for looking and WordOfGod feeling lost and lonely at that time?
* Music/{{Korn}}: The cover for the band's [[Music/KornAlbum debut album]] depicts a little girl on a swing with a sinister humanoid shadow looming over her, alluding to the album's themes of childhood trauma, particularly that of frontman and child sexual abuse survivor Jonathan Davis.
* Music/{{Steps}}: Faye sits on a swing during the sad song ''One for Sorrow''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''Comicstrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', Calvin once did this at school recess after the bully made him give up his toy truck. There's some LampshadeHanging from another boy next to him: "Hey, kid, are you going to use that swing or what?"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
%%* ''VideoGame/ButThatWasYesterday''. This happens to the guy after his girlfriend leaves him.
%%* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.2]]'': We see [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Alma]] do this.
* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': One of Nahida’s idle animations has her conjure up a swing for her to sit on. [[spoiler:It represents how she spent five centuries of her life in isolation because of how the Sages of the Akedemiya refused to acknowledge her as Sumeru’s Archon after Rukkhadevata‘s death.]]
%%* ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories''' cover has an odd example where Cheryl is not only shown on a swing but literally ''frozen''.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia'' has this happen to Alvin, with Elize coming to cheer him up. [[spoiler:It was likely the very same swing he used to play on as a kid, considering the location.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/LuxPain'' has Yayoi Kamishiro in this classic pose when the protagonist finds her again in episode 7, her mind having succumbed to a [[TheCorruption Silent infection]]. She was actually going to kill herself there if Atsuki hadn't shown up in time.
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'', when Shiki meets Arcueid for the second time (the first one involved killing her and dismembering her body), she sits on a swing at an empty playground. Later on, it becomes apparent that despite being ReallySevenHundredYearsOld (and a vampire, to boot), Arcueid is more or less a child at heart, plagued by [[spoiler:the fact that the game's BigBad corrupted her and made her kill the entire rest of her vampiric race]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', during Ellen's [[FlashSideways Second Life dreams]], Ellen [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2004-09-13 notices]] Tedd sitting alone and when she [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2004-09-15 invites]] him to play with her and her friends, he tells her he is "no good".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/OneHundredYardStare'': Episode three has a scene with a trauma swing.
* ''WebVideo/AskThatGuyWithTheGlasses'' has done this twice, once when he was miserable over his marriage to the GPS falling apart, and the second time was when he mourned his pipe that snapped in half.
* Since the location that came along with her to ''Roleplay/InkCity'' includes a swing, [[VideoGame/KatamariDamacy Ichigo]] has done this a few times, such as after [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} her best friend Dot]] suddenly vanished from the city.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Showed up in a few ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episodes.
* ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'': Whenever Ginger was troubled over something, or just lost in her thoughts she would sit on the swing set in her backyard.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In an episode, Homer visits Heaven and meets God who gives him a tour of the place. At some point, they pass by Jesus, who is shown sitting on a lonely swing with a ThousandYardStare on his face. God mentions that he has been like that ever since he visited Earth.
** In an earlier episode, Homer and Ned sit on the backyard swings and talk about how Ned NeverGotToSayGoodbye to his recently-deceased wife.
** Subverted, a new girl comes to school, and everyone is already doting on her that she won't fit in. She is then sitting on the swings alone, Lisa comes in and offers to be friends with her, then the girl slugs her!
** Variation: when Luann Van Houten forbids Millhouse from playing with Bart, whom she thinks is a bad influence, we get a quick scene of Millhouse in his backyard, sitting alone on one end of a see-saw, dejectedly pushing himself up and dropping back down.
** In the episode "Lost Verizon," Marge uses Bart's new cell phone to track his movements around town and is able to prevent all his mischief before it starts. After several days of this, Homer, monitoring the screen, wonders aloud why Bart seems to just be spinning in place, while outside the window Bart is miserably riding in a tire swing.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' episode "Epilogue": Ace is shown like this. [[spoiler:She's dying of a brain aneurysm due to her powers evolving.]] Batman then sits down on the swing next to her to comfort her [[spoiler:[[StayWithMeUntilIDie until she passes away]]; his presence calms her enough to die peacefully, which prevents a massive psychic backlash.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': in "Dye! Dye! My Darling" [[spoiler:Jane and Tom's breakup scene]] takes place on a swing set.
* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': in “Dreamscaperers”, a broken swing set can be seen outside the Mystery Shack of Grunkle Stan’s mind. As the last shot of “Not What He Seems” reveals, it symbolizes [[spoiler:the loss of his estranged twin brother.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': In "Bonky Fever," Mikey regresses to kindergarten-age behavior over the stress of his [[GrowingUpSucks upcoming tenth birthday]]. After his disastrous party, he retreats to his backyard swing set, and his mother comes out to comfort him. They have a heart-to-heart about Mikey's fears while sitting on the swings, which helps him feel better.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Truth in television. Children who're bullied, [[AloneInACrowd ostracized]], etc. will commonly be found by the swings because it's an activity on the playground that doesn't require a playmate.
[[/folder]]

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