To ask where have all trampolines gone?

[EveningCoffee]

Daughter's birthday is coming up, she asked for one since we can't go anywhere. Every single website I have looked at don't have any in stock! I mean decent size ones, not the little one with a handle! Only available ones are expensive, not paying 600 quid for a bloody trampoline. People are really buying them at the moment? I thought everyone is obsessed with toilet paper and soap now?

Yeah, those injuries sound like super fun. And children’s A&E is always good for a laugh.

Ive tried to find trampolines, slides and sand pit! Absolutely nothing anywhere!

Where I live, the wind regularly picks up
Trampolines and deposits them on someone else’s property. If the trampoline owner is lucky, they don’t damage the house it lands on. Regardless, they are always mangled beyond repair. I live in a tornado zone and we regularly have very strong winds.

To stop them lifting in high winds make sure you drop the nets when not in use. That will prevent most lifts.

Ideally have them weighted and pinned down firmly too, not just with the hooks they provide.

We got ours from trampolines online a couple of xmases ago. Paid about £200 for the complete kit.

Safety nets for garden are a good idea.

Mine trampoline for sport though so are well aware of the one person at a time rule etc. Accidents happen when safe practise isn’t being followed.

Had a trampoline in the garden for over 15 years and not one accident and plenty of fun.

As someone who used to trampoline competitively, home trampolines terrify me. The sheer amount of things that can go wrong just from a strange bounce. A jarred spine is no fun at all.

DH is 15 with ADHD and ASD and.we ended up buying one for an adult weight just before the lockdown as the old one was breaking.

He hasn't been out of the house for about 3. months ( he is serious depressed and was excluded from school in Jan) The only thing vaguely good.for.him that he has consistently done since January is go on the trampoline 4-6 times a day . I know the accident risk but for us it is absolutely essential to have a trampoline so we do.

Having worked in A&E for many years, I can't join in with the worry about trampolines really...

The absolute worst paediatric fractures I've dealt with and that really stuck in my mind for awfulness were a child who tripped over their own school bag on the walk home, and a child who tripped over a guy rope camping and ended up with a tent peg impaling as well as the broken wrist.

I'm not saying they're not dangerous but I've dealt with a lot more injuries from scooters (especially with no helmet - the dental damage can be immense), cycling (utterly horrific the way a small body can be projected), rugby (no child of mine is going near that sport), car doors (traumatic amputation anyone?!), bunk beds (why, just why would you have them in your home...) etc etc. It's easy to decide your child should play with nothing if you start thinking about what could happen!

My kids have a trampoline and I thank my lucky stars right now. They're on it for hours a day so are maintaining a level of physical exercise I couldn't replicate in our fairly small garden while we're stuck at home. I'm taking the minimal risk of injury (they're supervised and sensible, it has a net) over increased screen time and inactivity.

Good luck finding one op.

The fun police always appear on threads like this. Children are at risk of serious injury all the time. We've had a trampoline since our youngest was 3. She has had 3 fractures since then, none from the trampoline. First time she fell running in the hallway. Second time she fell off a chair. Third time she sustained a really bad broken femur after she tripped over her scooter. I couldn't have done anything to prevent any of them.

The trampoline on the other hand had provided endless hours of fun. They both use it every day, it's the most used toy we have ever bought and we're upgrading to a rectangular one for her birthday so she can fit in some extra gymnastic moves.

Yeah we’ve had four fractures in this house between three children. One from slipping on a book on the laminate floor (leg), one from tripping over the piece of wood that joins the hall flooring to the living room flooring (leg), one from a trip at school at break time (wrist) and one from falling off a low step in the garden and falling awkwardly (collar bone). None from the trampoline so far.

Of course they are in demand. People are stuck at home.

My friends daughter fractured her skull in a trampoline accident so it was always a no from me.

I don't think they are out of stock.
They may require a 2 man delivery so stores aren't selling them.
Many on-line shops have put larger items on hold.

Fun police is a ridiculous term. People aren't policing fun, they have genuine concerns.

DH's mate is a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, his wife a radiographer and they pale at the thought of trampolines. They see so many terrible injuries and the most catastrophic ones are often trampoline related. And rarely due to falling off or too many children. Nearly always landing unfortunately apparently.

They aren't toys.

But you can call me names as much as you like.

I let dd go on a trampoline once aged 4 and she has a permanent injury because of it. We didn't know she was hypermobile at the time so there's a mitigating circumstance but she bounced and landed awkwardly. Only child, netted trampoline, only jumping.