Flips on the trampoline- reality check please

[Anonymous]

No do not land your helicopter. Trampolines are dangerous. I have a friend who almost DIED as a result of a severed artery from a broken leg on a trampoline. Ask any doctor or your insurance company about trampolines. My neighbor is a radiologist and he said he’d never get one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've also taken trampoline classes from a professional and I wouldn't feel comfortable with my kid doing flips like this on a regular backyard trampoline unsupervised. Maybe a little safer if the trampoline has one of those guards around it so it's harder for him to fall off or get caught in the springs, but I'd still worry about him landing awkwardly on the trampoline.

I'd sign him up for a weekly trampoline class (you can take them at gymnastics places) with a real instructor on a pro trampoline (they are very different than the recreational ones people buy) but say no flips on the trampoline outside of class -- just jumping. I'd also explain to him what the danger of a fall or a bad landing could be.

Get the instructor to re-enforce this. My high school trampoline coach explained that his competitive gymnastics career ended when he destroyed his leg landing wrong on a trampoline and that was why he was so strict with us about safety protocols. Made a big impact and when I never go to trampoline parks.

[Anonymous]

OP- your trampoline isn’t much if anymore safer than the above ground kind.

My kids are competitive gymnasts- no trampolines. They’re too dangerous.

[Anonymous]

My kids aren’t allowed to do trampolines at anyone’s house. A lot of kids have them and honestly I am not that comfortable sending my kids over to other people’s house much anyway.

[Anonymous]

If he gets hurt you could probably sue the pants off the family, assuming you get this post deleted first.

[Anonymous]

My kid is on a trampolining team. Do it. Trampolining outside of class becomes like doing math outside of school: uninteresting

[Anonymous]

We had a trampoline at our old house no problems. It doesn’t take much skill to flip on a trampoline. Your son sounds like he isn’t that coordinated so it’s good of you to get him some help. Most parents wouldn’t bother.

For everyone fretting about the dangers, most physical activities have some risk. Skiing, football, gymnastics, hockey. I broke my arm sledding on a hill. My arm came out of its socket just playing in the playground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a trampoline at our old house no problems. It doesn’t take much skill to flip on a trampoline. Your son sounds like he isn’t that coordinated so it’s good of you to get him some help. Most parents wouldn’t bother.

For everyone fretting about the dangers, most physical activities have some risk. Skiing, football, gymnastics, hockey. I broke my arm sledding on a hill. My arm came out of its socket just playing in the playground.

This is the same as the "we didn't wear seat belts and we're just fine" crowd. Surgical intervention is twice as likely with trampoline accidents. Not all activities are the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a trampoline at our old house no problems. It doesn’t take much skill to flip on a trampoline. Your son sounds like he isn’t that coordinated so it’s good of you to get him some help. Most parents wouldn’t bother.

For everyone fretting about the dangers, most physical activities have some risk. Skiing, football, gymnastics, hockey. I broke my arm sledding on a hill. My arm came out of its socket just playing in the playground.

You just listed four pretty high risk sports that many parents don't let their kids participate in!

And in any case, while I would allow my kid to do both skiing and gymnastics, I would not allow them to do either in an unsupervised environment using equipment I couldn't be confident was safe. Like I might sign my kid up for ski school or gymnastics classes after vetting the gym and feeling confident that steps had been taken to reduce risk and ensure proper instruction. My kid would wear a helmet and correctly sized skis/boots for skiing. I would make sure the gymnastics classes had properly rated mats and foam pits and that the instructors knew how to spot correctly and followed an appropriate skills progression.

I would not say "yeah have fun" if my kid was invited to go skiing in his friend's backyard with no limited adult supervision and using god knows what equipment they have on hand. I would not be cool with my child playing on someone's home gymnastics bar, doing random tricks they taught each other and using some thin tumbling mat the parents bought, figuring it was good enough.

Also, serious injuries in childhood make chronic pain and injury in adulthood more likely. While you can't avoid all risk, there's simply no good reason to expose your kids to high risk of injury at a very young age, if you want them to live long and healthy lives. Just take classes and learn to use a trampoline properly, with an instructor. It's also fun with the added benefit of being a lot safer.

[Anonymous]

Your kid is an idiot. We don't do trampolines because my sister works in a pediatric ER and has seen a lot of broken bones and even spinal injuries from kids who landed wrong or collided with one another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he gets hurt you could probably sue the pants off the family, assuming you get this post deleted first.

Your insurance will make you sue if you want insurance to pay.

[Anonymous]

I mean, my friends and I used to jump together and simultaneously to forward and backward flips on a trampoline pretty much every day after school for 5 years. My friend's record was 54 flips in a row without stopping (like land and immediately launch into another flip). Both my brother and I could do double backflips without touching the ground. We also played dodge ball where one person would stand off the trampoline and try to hit everyone on the trampoline who would have to jump and flip out of the way. Yes we fell off many many times (no nets back then). Nobody was ever injured.

That said I do not allow my kids to jump on trampolines without nets.

[Anonymous]

For those with family in ER who ban trampolines on account on seeing trampoline-related injuries, do you think that their sample is skewed? I mean if I was an STD doctor and saw nothing but syphilis all day, I too would be tempted to ban my kids from having sex.

[Anonymous]

My neighbors put in a trampoline and I’m so glad that my kids are older and not interested. I can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would have one. They are so dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- your trampoline isn’t much if anymore safer than the above ground kind.

My kids are competitive gymnasts- no trampolines. They’re too dangerous.

It doesn’t make sense that someone who owns a trampoline would be anxious about this in other places.