Trampoline - Yay? or Nay?

[Snoozan]

For those of you that have trampolines, are you glad you do? Do you worry about injuries to your own family or others? How much did the coverage add to your homeowner's insurance?

My (future) DDIL is saying they're getting a trampoline for Christmas as a family gift. They have a 2yo and 8yo DS's. Both are extremely lightweight and I doubt they'd even get the trampoline to move. I know it's none of my business, but I am so fearful that this is not the best gift for my DS's family. What are your experiences as to why you did or did NOT get a trampoline?

P.S. We live in Mass and my DDIL thinks my DS will set this thing up every year and take it down every winter. I'm thinking that's not very practical? Also, they don't have a really flat area in their yard.

 

[Bluestars]

We used to have one. Nobody ever got hurt on it. After about a year they seemed to get bored and it rarely got used, so we sold it. It seems like the ones with the nets surrounding them would at least add some safety.

If I had it to do over again, I don't think we would have purchased it. I don't think it's worth the risk of an injury or the liability if a friend gets hurt.

 

[gator75]

We have had our trampoline since ds was in kindergarten he is now a freshman in hs. Ww like ours it really dosen't get used much ds isn't really into it. I like it for the exercise. we haven't had any accidents on it

As far as our home owners they saw it but i don't beleive we have aded any coverage just for that. i wouild probly buy one again.

 

[Patience]

We have never had one and never will. The daughter of a friend of ours ripped out her two front teeth on the net enclosure around the trampoline. She was 7 or 8 at the time. They were able to save the teeth by placing them in milk and rushing to the dentist but trampolines in the backyard are just not something I was interested in having after that. In the interest of full disclosure, the incident I am talking about happened about ten years ago. Maybe the nets have been redesigned since then to make them safer. I don't really know.

 

[DisneySarah80]

Would you like to see the x-rays from my nieces 2 arms that were broken (in multiple areas) while she tried to do a handstand on the tramp at her fathers house? Or the scar that is on her arm from where the bone came out? Fun memories.....

 

[KerriSue]

We had one for years. It was the highlight of the neighborhood. The one thing I hated about it was it killed my grass. Even though I would rotate the thing around the yard. I am kind of a yard snob, so this was important. I was so thankful when I decided to sell it but noticed the trampoline started to get a small snag in it. To the dump it went!!!!

 

[Southernmiss]

Flame suit on...

Call me living dangerously, but my kids saved up their Toys foR Us gift cards and bought one about 10 years ago, without the enclosure. Kids are now 17, 14, 12 and 10.

Knock on wood, but the only memorable injury was a friend's son whose nose was cut when his sister jumped on him because she was being mean to him.

I know there are dangers and injuries with trampolines and many other children's toys, but heck are we going to ban trees too because a kid can climb one and fall out and get hurt.

So much is in the media about how overweight our kids are becoming, I have to wonder if some of it is because we don't let them go outside and play and be kids. We all have stories about "When I was a kid..." and it often leads to something dangerous we did.

Let kids be kids and enjoy themselves and burn off energy in a fun way.

Let me say that when the kids were much younger I did supervise them much more than I do now when they are outside--and we had rules about the number of kids on the trampoline.

One of my favorite memories of my kids being kids is from about 8 years ago when we had a snow/sleet mix on Christmas (very unusual for our area) and our kids were bundled up jumping on the trampoline in the slippery mix... Just pure fun and joy in playing in "snow" on Christmas.

 

[andersonsc]

we got a trampoline last year. Have 4 boys - 6,12,12,14. Being a former ER nurse I really had my doubts but I'm now really glad we got it. The boys still enjoy it. Rules were put in place from the start - NO FLIPS - just jumping up and down. No one EVER goes under it. Only one friend so far is allowed on it. Just don't know other parents well enough. So my vote would be Yes, as long as rules are in place.

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

We recently gave ours away, but we all used to have a fantastic time on our trampoline! As far as I can remember no one ever got hurt on it, and my parents had a few rules when we were jumping with younger kids on it.

 

[MzDiz]

I dislocated my knee on ours. Good times...

 

[herdtoDisney]

We got one, with the enclosure, 2 summers ago. My kids loved it! Even the now-19 yo Like the PP said-our rules were NO FLIPS. We had no injuries. It did not increase our insurance at all-I notified them and they said it does not cause any increase with ours.

The kids got tons of good excersize on it. Even dh and I enjoyed it! I say this all in past tense because the crazy Oct snowstorm we had caused our two apple trees to topple on it . We had tied it to them, like we did during storm Irene, to keep it from blowing away. Oh the irony Anyhow, we did not take it down in winter. But you probably should-this past heavy winter, the neighbors one tore from the weight of the snow.

I will probably get another one next spring.

 

[CEMinnie]

We've had one for 22 years. Our seven kids have spent hours on it. In the summer it seems like they live on it... All the kids have had gymnastics our oldest daughter was a gymnast and gymnastics team coach. I don't know if that has anything to do with it but we have never had any injuries.

 

[Moodyzblu]

We have one and it's just about the only way I can get my 7yr olds out of the house ! They absolutely love it.

 

[castmember19]

I never had one but I had an aunt who did and a friend who did. The friends was the best because it had a net around it. I did get hurt at my aunts once, but not seriously, when a bigger cousin jumped down and I flew up- I think I landed on the edge or something... It was too long ago to remember the exact details but I was really just sore for awhile, no broken bones or anything.

So, I'd encourage one with a net if anything.

 

[Happy Mom2]

I love trampolines, but we will never own one. They are just too dangerous. Have you seen AFV?!!

 

[StephMK]

We had one for 4 years until the kids got tired of it. The net was in front of the springs and the net and padding around the edges was starting to fray. I do not miss the mud puddle underneath that my dogs always ran through but the kids had a blast when they were younger.

I have pics of them outside in their pjs, jumping away happily! As much as I loved sending them out to bounce off their energy, I am also glad we never had a serious accident and am glad not to have that worry anymore. We would only let friends on if it was ok w/their parents first.

We never took ours down but we did unlatch the net so it was flat on the tramp. Then when it snowed, we'd just brush it off and never had a problem.

 

[Kitty 34]

We went through two of them as did my sister next store. We were fortunate because all our kids, cousins and friends never ever got hurt on them.

 

[honeydiane1953]

Growing up my brother looved his. When I had a son he was such a daredevil we would end up in the ER all the time. I won't buy one again.

 

[elizke]

We used to have one, and the kids and their friends DID have so much fun on it. But when we were changing homeowner's insurance and they asked whether we had one, when the answer was yes they refused to cover us. So if we had kept it, if a friend were ever injured we could be ruined. It was a real shame. It's such a fun thing, and we used rules for it, but the liability risk was too great.

You run the risk of being an interfering MIL, but if I were you I'd just mention they might want to check with insurance if they plan to let their kids' friends jump. After that you really need to butt out.

 

[clori]

My dd then 10 was using one at a party (following safety rules and with my permission). She had a fluke accident with the safety netting and broke two bones in her left forearm. She ended up needing two surgeries and now has a big scar on her. I had no desire to sue the homeowners not did I have a clue what insurance they had or if it even covered trampolines. The owners had just put it up two weeks before for their youngest child and didn't even know about insurance issues.

My health insurance called me to get the homeowner's insurance. I told them the homeowner's didn't do anything wrong that it was a fluke accident and that dd had my permission. I also told them I would need to find out since it wasn't something I had asked. The next day or so later when I talked to my health insurance company again I was told I was all set so they never went after the homeowners insurance.