Lee247

My daughter is 11 and wants a trampoline for Christmas. Anyone got one in their garden? Is it safe?
I'm not sure, but want to get her what she wants, any advice appreciated

RS Grant

A friends sisters got one in their back garden..... they are perfectly safe using it, however he fell off at 5.30am one morning when he was completely pissed and broke his wrist.


Cheers,
Grant

Diamond Dave

Borrow a fat person and let her bounce on that.

HTH

ozzy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4728645.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/4141932.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4351364.stm

Read what you want into these sorts of stories. I managed to survice my childhood without serious injury and I regularly went on self-built tree swings & zip slides. We climbed trees for chesnuts, built our own tree huts and did the usual skateboard & biking stunts.

I did break several bones in the process and had a 6" nail stuck in my foot but that's all part of growing up

One of my neighbours has one and (touched wood) I've not seen any Paramedics next door. Like anything if you take precautions and make sure they have something soft to land on then it should be safe enough.

Lee247

no help whatsoever

ozzy

At least it would be cheaper

Lee247

Sorry ozzy, you must have come in the same time as me.
Those stories are what I am worried about, but, I want her to have fun too

ozzy

m8, you'll hear stories about freak accidents with anything in life.

My sister's only turned 13 and I've taken her rock climbing, hill walking, kayaking, wind surfing, mountain biking, horse riding to name just a few sports. All can be dangerous, but if you take all the necessary precautions and have taught them how to be aware of the dangers, then 99.9% of the time they'll be safe and just have fun.

Lee247

Nat

fast bloke

Get a round one - you need to make a feking massive effort to fall off a round one, cos it always bounces you back towards the middle.

As RS Grant says - all the injuries on ours occurs after 2.00 AM. If you are really concerned you can get an enclosure for them, but that stops pissed adults from making a complete w4nker of themselves

Lee247

fast bloke
Round one it is, cheers

Reality

My pal's got one and three young kids - no serious accidents yet but they have fallen off it and were lucky.

Make sure your daughter is aware of the risks and that it's not a toy and she should be fine. The enclosed ones do seem a lot safer !

The adults after the next BBQ should be old enough to know it's dangerous - but they invariably don't.

Just better hope when they fall off they don't sue you for not displaying the appropriate HSE signage

Callyt

my ex's daughter will be 11 in 3 weeks and he has one in his garden which is perfectly safe. wot a brilliant christmas pressent! i love trampolines!

Dream Weaver

Next door have a huge one at the end of the garden, and no incidents so far. Its funny in summer when we are in the garden and they have a party - you can just see 5 or 6 kids bouncing up above the conifers

mart360

i thought i would be really cool and show my eldest how i could do somersaults

yea right!!! straight off the bloody side and onto my back...

theyre great fun though.

Mart

mart360

aonther point?

do you have a swing? a slide? both carry inherant risks.

my eldest was p*ss ar*ing around on the swing, and punted my 2and a half year old up the garden , caught him from behind..

lots of tears, panic from the eldest, laughter and do it again comments from the youngest..

trampoline, childs play...

Mart

OllyK

No of course it isn't safe, nothing is. Everything has an element of risk associated with it. I am afraid you have to make the decision, however, I'd take in to account:
1) What steps you can take to minimise the risk of injury; setting the trampoline in to the ground, supervised use only, extra crash mats etc
2) Your child's nature and how likely they are to misuse or abuse a trampoline as this is when the accidents tend to happen.

David Lock

I saw so many back gardens with abandoned trampolines just taking up space that I always resisted the "I want a trampoline dads" on the basis of it would probably become a 6-week wonder plus the danger bit. Went for a 12 ft diameter metal framed round pool instead (no not at Xmas!). Much more long term fun I think. But if that's what the kid wants who am I to disagree

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

We've got a 12ft round one. My kids & their mates love it & spend ages burning off energy.... it's deffo the best £150 I've spent on a toy. So far we've managed to keep them injury free by strict enforcement of a "no flips" rule.
Go for it !

D

David Lock

Got me feeling guilty now.......


(so I'll go and stand in the corner...)

PG

13 ft trampoline, 12 ft pool.......................no kids here
My mate has a 14 ft trampoline for his 6 and 4 year old and he says the trampoline is by far the best and well received toy he has ever got the kids.
And no injuries

Lee247

Thanks for the laugh and the positive comments

Dr Hu

I heard that nearly all trampoline accidents happen when there is more than one person on the trampoline at a time.......

Robbie T

iTrader: (8)

Its true, a mate bought one and put it up in his tiny garden for the kids. Me and a 17st mate went on and i bounced over the fence in to next doors garden

Lee247

I can see that Robbie

sti-04!!

Loadsa - Get one, i have one for my oldest son, as the youngest is well just here, my little one has loads of fun on it, only injuries as have been said, is when me & a mate went on it pissed an fell off

Bootlid

Puff.

Robbie T

iTrader: (8)

I bet your a bundle of fun Olly, remember the things we used to get up as kids there wasn't the rules and regs there are now and we're still here.

Licking that asbestos based cot paint never affected me