trampoline or no trampoline

[goofy!]

Haven't read all the posts yet, so I apologize if this has already been mentioned.

A more subtle injury with a tramp is Osgood-Schlatters disease.

We have a tramp that has not been used for at least two years now. Before that, our son and his two best friends (12, 12, 14) would use it daily.

They were having horrible knee/shin problems during football, with the oldest having a very severe case. The Ortho diagnosed Osgood-Schlatters and said that tramps are a huge cause of Osgoods Schlatters in adolescent boys. He said that the cases are always so much more severe in boys that jump on tramps than the ones who do not. He went into the whole physical explanation of why and after that, no more tramp for our guys.

Now my oldest (sophomore in college) uses it as a star gazing platform with his girlfriend when he is home.

 

[HerdOHuds]

As others have said, we have a very good friend who is a flight nurse/fireman and he said he would never have one so we decided against it. We had been really considering it since it looked, with the net, like a giant Pack and Play. I was for anything the kids liked and would keep them contained.

Then we had a couple of big storms blow through our town. We HAD 3 neighbors who all had trampolines. 2 weren't staked down at all and one had a few sandbags on the bottom legs. All 3 blew around enough that I got to watch one tumble end over end into an unoccupied house 2 doors down. It barely missed my backdoor neighbor's back porch. One took out a fence.

So everyone either got rid of theirs or staked them down really really well. Then we got another big storm. And these are just thunderstorms. We don't have hurricanes much in Southern Illinois (unless you believe some reports from this past spring!) and high winds really are not the norm. Anyway, even with serious staking all the trampolines left in the neighborhood again took out fences and blew into houses.

For the cost, it seemed we didn't know anyone that could keep it for more than a few months without it blowing away, even with proper restraints.

So to keep good relations with the neighbors AND to protect my children, I won't have a home trampoline. Really just watching that thing tumble end over end through my backyard was enough.

Good luck with your decision. They can be fun, but there are too many risks for my comfort.