This is ridiculous

[summers_place]

I recently watched a story on my local newscast addressing the dangers of trampolines. That’s right - trampolines, long the joy of children everywhere, are now considered too dangerous to be used by today’s youth. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that kids and teens should never use trampolines at home or even in

Comments

[silk_noir]

Trampolines scare the crap outta me.

[summers_place]

I'm sorry to hear that. I always loved them. Haven't been on one in years, but would like to try one again some day. I wonder if I can still do a flip?

[starcat_jewel]

While I agree with you in principle here, I'm going to take issue about a couple of things.

1) Bike helmets -- yeah, we didn't wear them when we were growing up. They were not widely available, clunky and expensive when they were, and generally considered only suitable for specialists. Now they're easy to find, lightweight, and inexpensive -- and the benefits of wearing one are very similar to the benefits of wearing seatbelts in the car. (We didn't used to do that either, if you recall.) And what the hell does it hurt to wear it?

2) Dodgeball should be banned from the schools, period. It's never been anything but an excuse for the class bullies to try to deliberately hurt those who are smaller, weaker, and/or outcast. If you don't remember the "joys" of having the biggest, strongest boys in the class deliberately aiming the ball at your face, you may not remember your childhood as well as you think

[summers_place]

I'm not exactly sure what you're taking issue with in #1, given that I expressly wrote in my post the following:

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not advocating against things like bike helmets and protective gear for rollerblading and skateboarding, nor do I believe that parents should leave their kids unsupervised while engaging in certain activities. It’s a good idea to have someone keep an eye on them when they’re on a trampoline in the same way that it’s a good idea to have someone watching out for them while they’re in a swimming pool.As for dodgeball, I was the smallest and least athletic kid in my gym glass, and I was also one of the five most likely kids in the entire school to get the "kick me" sign taped to their back or be beat up and have my lunch money stolen on any given day. Yet I didn't really take a whole lot of abuse during dodgeball; certainly no more than any other kid. There are far worse things going on in school that should be curbed. Dodgeball is survivable, especially when the other things are mitigated. I'm not

[eglantine_br]

When my daughter was small we lived in a place where there were a lot of houses with shared yards. One yard had a trampoline. All the kids played on it. I once found my daughter trying to jump on it while wearing roller-blades. She was about 5. We did not let her do that. I pointed out she would wreck the tramp, and probably also break her ankle. I also did not let her on when there were no big kids or adults around

[soon_lee]

Well, there is a risk of injury associated with trampolines which is the reason for the new design that tries to keep it fun while reducing risk of injury.

I'm personally agnostic on trampolines, never having had access to one growing up.