Trampolines in your backyard?

[2littleprincesses]

Thinking about getting one of these for our backyard. We do not have a fence. Tell me the good and the bad. Thanks!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Well, the first thing I would do is call your home owner's insurance agent. Many policies will not cover you if they find out you have a trampoline. Be sure you have a policy which covers it.

 

[bucket o' butter]

We have had a trampoline for about 3 years and we love it. We do not have a fence in our yard either. We do have a net that closes with a zipper and we put a tiny lock on it when we are not using it. This keeps the neighborhood kids off of it while we are gone. We didn't do that until we were gone one day and came home to find them on it. They ran as soon as they saw our car pull in the driveway, but decided to do something about it so it wouldn't happen again. We keep the key in our garage and the kids know where to get if they want to get on the trampoline. We figured this would be safer for everyone - physical safety and lawsuit safety. You can buy those luggage locks and Walmart and they work great. My kids are out there a lot and so far (knock on wood) no one has had even the slightest injury. It has caused hours of enjoyment for our kids so I definitely recommend it!

 

[2littleprincesses]

THanks for your responses. I have emailed our insurance agent. Can you tell me where you got your trampoline and how much it was? THanks!!

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

Our kids are always out on the trampoline in nice weather! It even gets my couch potato 12yo out!

The kids used their b'day money on it a year and a half ago. We got it from Walmart. I think it was around $350 for a 14-15' with enclosure. I run a home daycare, so one of the rules I must follow for that is that it must be locked at all times during daycare hours. This might be helpful if you do not have a fence.

I do make sure that I monitor who is on when friends are over, and all friends must have permission. Also, a friend of mine who is a dr. said to try to keep kids around the same size, and of course, not too many at a time. I limit them to 3 at a time, but our trampoline is fairly large. And no wild stuff or it gets locked. We've had no issues with anyone pushing the limits!

I was skeptical at first, but I love how all four of our kids will go out and do something together, which doesn't happen often anymore.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Double check your homeowner's insurance first.

 

[Isi]

I had to take mine down..I received a letter from my insurance company telling me to take it down or they will cancel my insurance..

 

[SandrA9810]

A friend of mine growing up had one... I used to love that thing. Of course he was a couple years older and bigger than me, so he could bounce me pretty high. We never did anything too crazy on it, and never got hurt. Well besides the time a friend of mine was pulling on my arm when i was sitting on the edge and fell off. That was nice of her...

 

[tinkarooni]

We have had one for about 5 years. Actually, we're on our second one, the first one blew away. Yep. If you are in a wind prone area I highly recommend pouring some concrete anchors and bolting that sucker down. Lucky for us we live pretty rural, I would hate to see what that could have done to the side of somebody's house, or worse, somebody.

Other than the wind we haven't had any problem with ours, the kids are on it more than the swingset. They make up games and stuff on it, and sometimes I just see them out there sitting underneath it. We don't let groups of kids on it. When we have parties it's off limits. We have found big groups of kids can't remain under control and I spent the whole time trying to crowd control. So now it's off limits for big groups.

 

[StephMK]

I'm actually surprised to see all of the positive replies and no negative responses yet. We've had one for 3 yrs & love it too but I always see people talk about the dangers. I know that there are, but for our family, it has been a great purchase!

Ours is a 12' from Walmart w/enclosure. The outer pad where they get on is looking pretty ratty, the trampoline & enclosure have held up well. I only let friends on if I know it's ok w/their parents & limit it to 2 kids or my 3 max. They don't do many flips but bounce, play games on it, lounge around, etc. When we first got, my kids were on it constantly, in their PJs first thing in the am, lol. They don't go on it as often as before but protested when I suggested taking it down. They're still on it a few times a week.

 

[heartsy77]

Love ours! We just replaced our old one of 5 years! ( around 300 with enclosure at SAMS CLUB. I do in home daycare and my kids are allowed on it with parental consent; my insurance company is fine with it.

 

[vicki_c]

We have had one for about 5 years. Actually, we're on our second one, the first one blew away. Yep. If you are in a wind prone area I highly recommend pouring some concrete anchors and bolting that sucker down. Lucky for us we live pretty rural, I would hate to see what that could have done to the side of somebody's house, or worse, somebody.

My neighbor's trampoline hit our roof and tore off part of our roof vent during Hurricane Wilma. Now how stupid you have to be to leave your trampoline in the yard during a hurricane in Florida, I don't know, but they did. My husband and son were running out into the street picking up those big heavy springs from the trampoline just as the storm was rolling in to make sure they didn't break anyone's windows.

Personally, I don't like them - I think they're too dangerous. When they use them at gymnastics or in schools, they have spotters exactly for that reason. So I definitely don't want one in my yard, but we do have friends that have them and enjoy them.

To each their own.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

My sister had to switch insurance due to being dropped (from the hurricanes). Her original company didn't know about the trampoline. When the new one came to her house to inspect it, they saw the trampoline and told her the could not cover her unless it was removed.. and they did a follow up to see if it was truly removed...

Without a fence, that is like an open invitation for a law suite.. I would not advise doing that...

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

I asked SIL about them. My niece's doctor is very, very laid back, and the one thing he said was "no trampolines!"

My boss never let his kids on their neighbor's tramploine, but the kids kept begging since they were the only ones on the street not allowed. He finally gave in and first time his DD went on... she broke her leg!

 

[Aristomommy]

We had one for 2 years and did not put it up when we moved, as our new yard is very hilly. We enforced a rule that only one child jump at a time. Most accidents happen when multiple children jump at the same time. I also had the net and padding over the springs so a person could not hurt themselves by jumping onto the springs. It's great exercise and my kids really enjoyed it. I wouldn't worry about a lock. Our trampoline was big and so high that my kids had to be lifted up onto it. A child old enough to climb up would have to know not to trespass.

During the time I worked at a children's hospital, I saw more injuries from bike, skateboards, scooters, 4-wheelers etc. than trampolines. Every activity has it's risks, but can be minimized with common sense.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

We've never owned a trampoline but I know two cases where they caused property damage.

One of my neighbors had one and during a heavy wind storm it blew into another neighbor's screened-in porch and caused alot of damage. A co-worker had one of her house's windows broken out when her neighbor's trampoline blew into her house during a storm.

Our next door neighbors - that moved away several years ago - had a trampoline and I hated it, as did the other moms that lived around them. Our kids wanted to jump on it but none of us let them. We didn't think it was worth the risk.

 

[Pixieflip]

My daughter the gymnast, a trained athlete, just blew out her knee on Tuesday on the neighbor's trampoline. No fracture, but after 5 days still can't put weight on it so needs an MRI this week. I can only imagine how long she'll be out of the gym needing rehab and who knows what else. And at what cost.

People do not respect the trampoline like they respect the pool. They are very fun, but unbelievably dangerous. The pp who has it in a yard that has no flat spot...you are asking for trouble. You cannot argue the laws of physics. And to the pp who said that anyone who is tall enough to climb up on their own should know better...have ya spent any time with middle schoolers or high schoolers??!! Their middle names are often "bad decisions!"

We are responsible for what happens in our yard, whether we are home or not, whether there is a lock on it or not or a fence or not. I vote NO WAY to the backyard trampoline.

I'm curious what your insurance company says...

 

[Laurie Disney]

We've never owned a trampoline but I know two cases where they caused property damage.

One of my neighbors had one and during a heavy wind storm it blew into another neighbor's screened-in porch and caused alot of damage. A co-worker had one of her house's windows broken out when her neighbor's trampoline blew into her house during a storm.

Our next door neighbors - that moved away several years ago - had a trampoline and I hated it, as did the other moms that lived around them. Our kids wanted to jump on it but none of us let them. We didn't think it was worth the risk.

We had neighbors that lived diagonal from us who had a trampoline. They did not have it securely planted where it would not move. One day we had a bad storm and their trampoline flew into my neighbors house next to me, then into my backyard. I watched this trampoline jump over 2 fences. It came into my yard and distroy everything in our backyard, but our swimming pool. It rolled across my patio and damaged both sets of patio furniture, both sides of my fence and took off my back door light and wires were left hanging. I don't want to think about if it would of touch our pool. I was horrified by all the damage that this thing did. I was also surprised that my neighbor who owned the trampoline wanted all the pieces to his trampoline back that we found so he can rebuild it. So far, he has not rebuilt it. Thank goodness the trqampoline rolled across my backyard tat it got caught up on my fence, becasue it was headed right to my elderly neighbors deck which is connected to their glass doors to their family room.

I am not saying that you should not get one, but please make sure it is securely fastened so it does not move just in case of severe weather that your or no other properties are damaged because of it.

Good Luck.

 

[clori]

Last summer we were at dh's coworkers party. He asked ahead of time if we were okay with the kids using a trampoline they just got about two weeks ago for their kid's birthday. My reaction was it sounded like fun. While there were a lot of kids it was supervised etc. Yep my dd managed to get her arm caught on the safety netting while getting off and broke her arm. Initially my health insurance wanted to go after the home owner's insurance etc. I told them I really thought it was a fluke accident and the health insurance did pay.

Just the other day I added up all the costs (based on what the hospital actually billed the insurance company not what was paid). It came to just under $84,000. That includes 2 emergency rooms, ambulance between the two, 2 surgeries, 1 overnight stay, xrays, anestesia, surgeon, brace etc. Fortunately my out of pocket expense was about $400 total. Oh when my brother was talking to his insurance company (he is friends with the owner) he was told they use google earth to check things like backyard trampolines for policies we they aren't allowed.

While I do think my dd's broken arm was a fluke thing I won't allow my kids to use backyard trampoline's anymore. For us though we live in a hilly area and don't know anyone that has one so it isn't like we really think about it.

 

[Serling126]

My neighbor across the street has one and her 4 year old ended up breaking her wrist on it. She just put her arms down to catch herself as she came down sideways from a jump, so its not like she was being dangerous or anything.

My sis in law had to take hers down because her insurance company said she had to.

They can be alot of fun, but kids can easily get out of control on them... I would not get one for my own yard, but some people really like them. You can definitely get into trouble if you have one in your yard and kids sneak in to use it and then get hurt. It doesn't matter if you have a fence or not, or if they do not have permission to be on the trampoline, you can still get sued. My sister warned us when we got our playset that there is some law that allows you to be sued if you have something in your yard that attracts kids so they come into your yard and get hurt (playset, trampoline, pool, etc). I don't know the specifics, just repeating what she told me.