Would you have a trampoline in your yard for your kids?

Sure, they’re highly recommended by Orthopedic surgeons.

Sure I’d have one. The ones they sell these days have nets around the edge to keep kids safer.

Kids are going to hurt themselves no matter what. If there’s no trampoline, they’ll do something crazy on their bikes, or skateboards, or climb up on the roof, or something.

Wow, they still make lawn darts? I thought that those things were outlawed years ago.

As for trampolines, sure, I’d have one. if I had the room. I grew up with one and survived. However, I would definitely have a round one with the safety netting rather than the old school rectangular one with the exposed springs like the one I used to have.

Bottom line… life isn’t safe and eventually your children are going to have to learn how to take a fall.

Actually, come to think of it, there was one injury on our trampoline (after I had already gone off to seek my fortune).

A kid showed up uninvited to a party my sister was having and had obviously been drinking. He was asked to leave, but instead snuck off to the part of the yard with the trampoline where he fell off and broke his arm.

His parents threatened to sue. However, they backed off pretty darned quickly when they found out that they would be held accountable for their underage child cruising the city while drunk and then engaging in criminal trespass when he opted to continue being an ass rather than leave the party.

We’ve had a trampoline in the garden for years, not one solitary accident. They have safety nets built on anyway, common sense you know :¬P

Yeah, sure. I had a trampoline growing up (we still have it actually) and no one was ever injured on it that I can remember. It’s one of those ones with the netting around it, though.

No. Not the way everyone is so eager to sue each other these days. I worry enough about having people over as it is. God forbid someone trip on my steps and get hurt… and they would be even more up in arms if it was their child.

If it has a net tented around it, no problem.

I just did a quick search on Youtube for trampoline accidents.
If your kids ever got hurt they would not be the first ones.

I’ve always wanted one, and would still like one, but sadly, we’ve never had a trampoline :(

But sure, if there was a net around it, I’d get one if I had kids. I’ve used ones like that, and the nets are pretty sturdy, so there’s a minimal risk of falling off.

We have one and are fairly strict with anyone who uses it. Meaning no more than 3 people at a time; we reserve the right as adults to remove anyone who is getting too out of hand; no flips unless an adult is present… etc. We have a net around it, and have never had any injuries.

Also, it’s illegal to produce or sell lawn darts (jarts) in the United States, and has been so since 1998.

I work with a girl who used to be a British Trampoline champion and she hates the garden trampolines. She had years of training for safety as well as technique which someone with just a garden trampoline is unlikely to get. She claims to see a lot of injuries due to them.

Of course they’re dangerous, and of course people hurt themselves using trampolines. Same goes for bikes, swing sets, skateboards, swimming pools… It’s all in how thoroughly parents and kids are trained in proper safety. I also like the idea that @noelleptc mentioned of partially submerging the trampoline to minimize the distance to the ground.

Trampolines are not allowed by most insurance companies. If you have one they will not insure you.

Regarding submerged trampolines, I had a friend who had one and there are a couple of things to consider:

1) There is some maintenance involved to keep stuff from collecting underneath. Even if it is well sealed just the shifting of the soil can make the pit more shallow over the years and it is not fun to hit bottom when jumping.

2) Toys and other stuff can wind up in the pit without your knowing about it and just as hitting bottom, it is not fun to hit any solid object that might be hiding underneath.

3) Just as objects can wind up in the pit, so can younger siblings and it is not fun (at least for the younger sibling) to be bounced upon.

4) Oddly enough, there is an extra bit of safety by having a gap for your legs or torso to flail around in if you hit the edge. Take, for example, a back flip gone awry. If you are on a traditional above ground model and don’t have a net to catch you your body might hit the pad and your legs swing under the gap. If there is no gap, your legs go SLAP on the cold hard ground.

Regarding Lawn Darts…yes, they are illegal now. My comment in the detailswas referring to when they DID sell them, in the late 80’s, and my husband wanted to get some, and I said “No.”

I understand the safety net makes things safer, but what I envision are kids moving at higher speeds than they can propel themselves on their own, in a very confined area, and colliding heads. I envision a kid trying to do flips, misjudging and coming down on their head and neck. When you get more than one kid on the tramp, neither of them have full control over their jumps. One kid can be jumping to a particular rhythm, but you throw another kid in and he’s throwing off the rhythm of the tramp so it isn’t doing what the first kid expects when he comes back down, and they lose control. Surely you’ve all jumped in the Moonwalk…that was the funnest part! Coming down just as a big air bubble was being made by another kid..you hit it and go flying off in another direction. Same with a tramp, with one big difference: velocity. The Moonwalk doesn’t have as much tension, plus any one over about 80 pounds can’t use it! (I know this from experience…it doesn’t have the tension to throw that much weight back up. It kills your legs! “You’re 18 years old Val! Git off the Moonwalk!!”) I see head and spinal injuries when I think of trampolines.

@Adirondackwannabe You said Insurance won’t cover those tramp injuries…what reason do they give?

@Dutchess_III It isn’t they will not cover the injuries if you have insurance. It’s they will not write an insurance policy if they see a trampoline when they inspect the property.

Wow…do you have a link to that information, that lists the reason? Although, the reason is quite obvious to me!

@Dutchess_III I had an insurance license for awhile and was working with a brokerage and doing the preliminary underwriting. The second item on the inspection sheet checklist was trampoline. I’ll see if I can find a link.

@Seelix and @all others: I feel there is one major difference between a tramp and “bikes, swing sets, skateboards, swimming pools” The only way you could compare, say a bike to a tramp is if you have several kids heedlessly ramping their bikes with only a few feet of clearance between each kid, in a confined space. Swing sets…same thing. Rather than having swing sets side by side, the comparison to a tramp would be having several swings facing several directions and kids swinging on swings at random. As a parent, would you really set up a bike or swing set scenario like I mentioned above?
Swimming pools….yes, we learn early to try not to jump on other kids when we’re jumping in the pool, but the difference is we have control of our jumps. You can too easily lose control of your jumps on a tramp, when there is more than one kid at a time jumping.

only if I hated kids.