Trampoline question

[Wendy]

We've had a trampoline for 4 years now with no injuries. (knock on wood!) We have very strict safety rules, and the kids know they follow those or they don't get to play on it. It also has a safety net. The trampoline gets them outside all the time and personally, I would rather my kids be outside exercising and have a slightly greater risk of injury than be inside playing video games or watching TV, but that's just me.

 

[Pam]

We've had trampolines for 8 years and no injuries to date.

There are safety rules, which are enforced. They wore out the first trampoline and we had to buy another one last year.

Pam

 

[Lucky4me]

We have one that is coming down before anyone has a chance to jump again.

We made it 7 years with no injuries.

Our rules were only 1 jumping at a time if the kids were under 8. An adult had to be there next to the trampoline.

Over 8, 2 jumpers at a time and they needed someone to 'spot' next to the trampoline. I was always close by watching.

My dd 7, and her friends were very respectful of my rules for the most part. if they weren't I made them get off.

2 weeks ago when I wasn't home, three neighbor girls got on. One fell off and broke her arm. While her Mother is saying she won't sue, who knows? She has a year to decide. We will be worrying about it until then.

If they do sue, our insurance company will cancel us and we'll pay top dollar somewhere else. Our lesson?

TAKE DOWN THE TRAMPOLINE! THEY ARE NOT SAFE!

How about a foosball table or skeeball? A pool? A swing set? Ping pong table? I'd get them anything BUT a trampoline.....

 

[preshi]

One thing I've seen alot of people doing... is digging a hole in the ground so the trampoline is flush with the grass and doing it that way! Thats how I would do it.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

We bought our boys a badminton set, croquet set, and volleyball set (all on clearance) and they love them all! I am another one that will never allow a trampoline on our property. For many of the same reasons, we put our hot tub INSIDE in the basement.

How about an outdoor dog? There are responsibilities of course, but they can play fetch for hours..... or an ATEC pitching machine if your kids like baseball... it pitches foam balls and the kids can hit forever..... There are all kinds of options that are much safer than a trampoline, IMO!

 

[JasonLyons]

get one, America is making sissy of there kids with all the protection, my wife tried to make or daughter rider her bike with a helemt and knee pads, i stopped that junk ---- a mans view

 

[julie_yet]

[color=0066ff]I actually saved up and bought a trampoline when I was 15. And none of our friends or neighbors that played on it got hurt. It can be dangerous if you a don't use it correctly though.[/color]

 

[Tiggerkeeper]

We've had a trampoline for years and have been very fortunate with no injuries. Believe me with teenage males around we have had guardian angels watching over the trampoline because they have tried the laws of averages over and over. There have to be rules...enforced rules. When the kids got older we slept out on the trampoline under the stars. We loved it but they do eventually get bored with it the older they get.

 

[Tiggerkeeper]

We've had a trampoline for years and have been very fortunate with no injuries. Believe me with teenage males around we have had guardian angels watching over the trampoline because they have tried the laws of averages over and over. There have to be rules...enforced rules. When the kids got older we slept out on the trampoline under the stars. We loved it but they do eventually get bored with it the older they get.

 

[julie_yet]

[color=0066ff]We did the same thing when we were younger. My brother and me and our friends would take all the comforters and sleeping bags out onto the trampoline and camp out every winter.[/color]

 

[Olaf]

We won't have one for so many reasons, insurance, safety, fear of lawsuits, etc.

After reading these posts, I feel the need to point something out. DS was in gymnastics and his gym had several tramps. I used to help out and was trained on them.

1. There should only be one child at a time on a trampoline. This is because if the children get bouncing out of sync, the trampoline comes up as one comes down. We were informed that that can be like hitting the pavement for child. Not to mention that they can bump into each other. My brother shattered his wrist in high school by jumping double on a tramp. Twenty years later, he has bad arthritis.

2. They need to be taught to stay/land dead center.

3. Flips are to be discourged unless there is a spotter nearby. We watched a film and it showed a child coming down in his head. His neck was broken, he's quadriplegic now.

Have I scared you? Good.

 

[bumcat]

This is kind of gross: I had to take my dd to the er some yrs ago (her wonderful but not so bright softball coach) busted her cheek to the bone and she had to have stitches. He forgot they were 10 yr old girls and hit the ball like they were big teens.

There was another boy her age also getting stitches in his cheek. The reason: When he was jumping on the trampoline somehow as he landed the springs stayed opened and tore up his cheek. It was pretty bad.

 

[Serena]

We don't have one, but love to play on them.

 

[froglady]

I think anyone who owns a trampoline, or is thinking about buying one, should go to this site www.tortslaw.com/trampoline.htm just to get an idea of who might be gunning for you if someone is hurt, and what some consider to be the standard of care that an owner might be held to!

I also will add that my DH saw, himself alone, 155 tamp injuries last year, and EVERY parent professed to have all of the safety rules for usage listed!! It was always the ONLY time the children had broken them.

70% of the injuries involved damage to the growth plates, which means long term orthopedic damage.

Most were involving more than one user, but not all. If there was more than one child, it was almost always the younger who was injured.

There were two deaths in the same time period. One was a 30something INSTRUCTOR who landed incorrectly.

Way back when, Ralph Nader wrote a book entitled "Unsafe at Any Speed" I think, with a little change of wording, it can be applied in this instance..."Unsafe Under any Circumstances."

BTW...my mother raised 5 children without seat belts, child seats, helmets, and placed all of us on our stomach to sleep. She didn't know any better, but we all survived, by the grace of God. Many children did not. I, and anyone reading this thread, now "know better" (or should) as concerns trampolines.

 

[Kitty 34]

We've had one for 8 years and no injuries with three boys......KNOCK ON WOOD!

My sister who has four kids has had theirs longer than us with no injuries either.