Bunk beds in the 70s/80s didn't have guard rails - fight me

[Anonymous]

The ones we had at camp and in college definitely did not. I had one at home in the 70s. It had a rail that went only half way across the top bunk.

[Anonymous]

My bunk bed in the 80s had a guard rail as part of a ladder that attached to the upper bed's frame. We didn't use it. I do recall rolling off the top bunk once.

[Anonymous]

The bunkbed at home had guardrails. The ones at camp, did not.

The reason guardrails are removable are so that you can get the mattress off the top (to change sheets or whatever).

[Anonymous]

Mine had guardrails and I was born in 1970.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ones we had at camp and in college definitely did not. I had one at home in the 70s. It had a rail that went only half way across the top bunk.

Right. My cousin's bunkbed in the 1970's definitely had a guard rail but it only went partway down to the foot of the bed. It did not have a ladder. Bunkbeds at camp had neither a guard rail nor a ladder.

[Anonymous]

I leaned over the edge of my cousins bunk bed to say something to him and the ceiling fan clocked me in the head and I fell out. Dunno if there was a guard rail or not. ~‘86.

[Anonymous]

My kids go to a sports camp at a boarding school and I was surprised that the bunks don't have guard rails. Very high!

FWIW my 70's bunk bed had low flimsy guardrails (but at least had them!).

[Anonymous]

My drunk and high friend rolled out of top bunk in 1980 at college.

He landed face down and split his lip and knocked out a tooth.

In morning we hear all this groaning and mumbling. The blood had dried and his face was stuck in the shag green carpeting.

EMS cut him out and he had these crazy green pieces of shag carpet stuck to face!! He was ok.

Emergency room stitched his mouth but was inside of lip healed up and just need a cap.

So funny. Afterwards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids go to a sports camp at a boarding school and I was surprised that the bunks don't have guard rails. Very high!

FWIW my 70's bunk bed had low flimsy guardrails (but at least had them!).

You might want to refer back to the earlier posts in this thread about the kid who fell from a top bunk on travel for Little League. Picture your own kids falling from that height.

I would actually make a stink about this with a camp, and would cite the case of the Little League player's severe (possibly lifetime) injury. It's pretty appalling that there are still bunk beds without guardrails anywhere at all, including colleges. Basically injuries (and lawsuits) waiting to happen.

Especially since a kid who is not used to a bunk bed, but is using a top bunk for camp, sports travel, family trip, etc., is not going to be accustomed to realizing how high up they really are. And I know my own kid never fully woke if she needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night -- she likely would have been in a half-sleeping haze and would have believed she was in her own bed, and would have crashed to the floor from a top bunk.

[Anonymous]

For every visit every summer to my grandparents’ house, I slept in an antique bed that was raised a bit higher than my own twin bed at home. My grandparents brought in two padded dining room chairs lined with a bed pillow on one side and pushed the bed against the wall on the other side.

They were so worried that I’d fall out of bed. Family joke was that they did this for me before any visit until I was about 12.
I never rolled out onto the chairs, even as a very little girl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids go to a sports camp at a boarding school and I was surprised that the bunks don't have guard rails. Very high!

FWIW my 70's bunk bed had low flimsy guardrails (but at least had them!).

You might want to refer back to the earlier posts in this thread about the kid who fell from a top bunk on travel for Little League. Picture your own kids falling from that height.

I would actually make a stink about this with a camp, and would cite the case of the Little League player's severe (possibly lifetime) injury. It's pretty appalling that there are still bunk beds without guardrails anywhere at all, including colleges. Basically injuries (and lawsuits) waiting to happen.

Especially since a kid who is not used to a bunk bed, but is using a top bunk for camp, sports travel, family trip, etc., is not going to be accustomed to realizing how high up they really are. And I know my own kid never fully woke if she needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night -- she likely would have been in a half-sleeping haze and would have believed she was in her own bed, and would have crashed to the floor from a top bunk.

It wasn't the first time a child had fallen off a bunk bed at the LLWS. A child fell in 2019 and his parents were assured that rails would be installed, which they weren't. Also, the maker of the bunk beds used at the LLWS recommends the use of rails.

https://www.pennlive.com/life/2022/09/bunk-bed-maker-sued-over-little-league-players-fall-says-it-recommended-guard-rails.html

[Anonymous]

Ours (early 1980s) did not, but they were likely hand-me-downs from who-knows-when. The person on the top bunk fell off several times. The support for the mattresses was also a wire mesh, and the person on the lower bunk was always getting their hair caught in it. Terrible design.

Incidentally, I also knocked out a tooth running into the side of the bed with my face, but I really can't blame that on the bed design.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember falling out of the top bunk at 4-5 years old, approx 1980. I believe that bunk beds had no guard rails back then. Agree/disagree?

We had guard rails..1980s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids go to a sports camp at a boarding school and I was surprised that the bunks don't have guard rails. Very high!

FWIW my 70's bunk bed had low flimsy guardrails (but at least had them!).

You might want to refer back to the earlier posts in this thread about the kid who fell from a top bunk on travel for Little League. Picture your own kids falling from that height.

I would actually make a stink about this with a camp, and would cite the case of the Little League player's severe (possibly lifetime) injury. It's pretty appalling that there are still bunk beds without guardrails anywhere at all, including colleges. Basically injuries (and lawsuits) waiting to happen.

Especially since a kid who is not used to a bunk bed, but is using a top bunk for camp, sports travel, family trip, etc., is not going to be accustomed to realizing how high up they really are. And I know my own kid never fully woke if she needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night -- she likely would have been in a half-sleeping haze and would have believed she was in her own bed, and would have crashed to the floor from a top bunk.

It wasn't the first time a child had fallen off a bunk bed at the LLWS. A child fell in 2019 and his parents were assured that rails would be installed, which they weren't. Also, the maker of the bunk beds used at the LLWS recommends the use of rails.

https://www.pennlive.com/life/2022/09/bunk-bed-maker-sued-over-little-league-players-fall-says-it-recommended-guard-rails.html

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After their insurer is done paying, they will require guard rails going forward. I'd expect insurers to step in and require them for camps too.