Persuade me not to get a trampoline?

[RunningOnHope]

I've wanted a trampoline in my garden since I was a kid. Not possible when I was.

Now have a large flat-ish garden and soon to be two small DCs - seems to me to be the perfect thing to do, both for my own inner child and for them!

But having recently borrowed a pool for the garden and found it so much hassle to empty and dry and store that I will never do it again, I need to know the downsides to getting a trampoline. Why would I regret it down the line?

I dont have a particularly strong or practically-minded partner, and I am neither of those things myself, if that helps 😂

I have never had one but trampoline based moans I hear from other people include:
Kids never use it
Moving it to mow the lawn
Retrieving it from neighbours when it has blown away
Broken bones

How close are your neighbours? Do you like them?
I can hear my neighbours..... Not a fan

They are a pain to assemble

But honestly... weve had ours 7 years and its been one of our best buys. Its nearly dead and we will miss it. (DD2 needed 10mins on it before bed tonight and she's at Secondary school now!)

Only neighbours that border us have a trampoline...

We haven oval Springfree trampoline for 5 years now. No accidents thankfully but it's by far the most used garden toy.

My 12 year old does her gymnastics on it. They play football on it, etc. We're strict with things like flips (totally banned), but it's fantastic exercise for them and is great for a small garden.

Worth it for us but I appreciate we've been lucky too.

Used to have one. It got a reasonable amount of use , but not loads. More the kids than me.

My pelvic floor struggled with trampolining 😳!!

Despite having lots of padded edges and a large net and a ginormous trampoline, two of my kids collided. One needed several stitches to the face, the other had to have surgery to repair damage. Don't do it! Or only let one child on at a time.

@RunningOnHope
Does the noise of theirs not annoy you?
It's like nails on a blackboard to me

I got a big one for my DC and it was great while they were small but I had to get rid of it when they got a bit bigger as they could jump really high and couldn't manage to take turns, I was worried they would crack their heads together!

Having had a trampoline injury and ended up on crutches for weeks, I won't let my son on one again now.

Also the make your garden look ugly and are a pain to mow around/damage your grass.

Mine’s been in use for 8 years and still going strong and getting usage. Best thing I’ve bought for the garden by a country mile.

Easy - pelvic floor. Watch out

I work in a spinal surgery recovery ward. In 6 years I've seen 3 children who will never walk again because they landed funny on a trampoline. All of these trampolines has cages around them.

Just remembered, our previous electrician broke his leg 3/4 places and damaged ligaments, now he's not an electrician because he can't do the bending and crawling about

Our kids are grown, but we had a massive trampoline for years. They used it so much.

Playing with mates, having sunny lunches on it, making camps under it - it was in constant use. I used to use it for a workout too, with a skipping rope.

We are lucky that we have a huge garden, as they are an eyesore. We could tuck it away out of sight. We never had guards around the edges, but luckily, no accidents.

Too many broken bones

Trampolines are SO BAD for people! Especially little kids. They are not recommended before the age of 8 or so by pediatricians and even then, still aren't looked upon well
It's a world of injury.

Don't do it.

We've had one in our garden for 3 years. I have 2 DSs aged 5 and 12. They both love it. Their mates love it. It has got a net and zip and they are non negotiable for me. No injuries yet. Fab for exercise. Super fun to jump off of into the pool and then slip and slide. The comments about possible injuries are valid but no more so than letting your kid ride a bike or scooter etc. Go for it.

After 3 or 4 bounces I have to run in to use the loo 🤣🤣

Someone told me no paediatricians have trampolines in their garden so when I'm weakening I remind myself of that.

The kid that was in front of us in the queue for A&E triage who horrifically broke his arm and was screaming in pain made me decide not to get one pretty quickly.

I had a trampoline for years for my own children, when they grew up and it started to get tatty we got rid of it, grandchildren came along and I bought one for them, they absolutely love it

We raised 3 kids….had 2 trampolines over a 10 year period….ours loved them….bounced on them…made dens in them….slept out on them in sleeping bags….chilled out on them with their friends …..my DD practiced her gymnastics skills on them ….we put them up every Easter, and took them down every October…..stored them in the shed ….never had a single accident/broken bone…they aren’t very pretty….but our garden was huge and it was tucked away behind the shed …..we always had the net enclosure in place….
we also had a climbing frame and a swing set, but they go nowhere near the same use as the trampoline

From Rosoa website "Trampolining isn't suitable for children under the age of six because they're not sufficiently physically developed to control their bouncing"

So of course some pp's will say the kids have fun and I'm sure they do (until someone gets Injured), but it's not healthy for them. And it's dangerous.

In the 10 or so years that we had a trampoline we had one guest with a slightly sprained ankle and tons of fun. Easily our most played with toy ever, it wasn’t only used for jumping but also for den building and chilling on. We had a massive Octajump and I would get one again in a heartbeat.