Parenting & Family

Trampoline for 5 year old?

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Deal Fanatic
Aug 14, 2008
6858 posts
220 upvotes
Ontario

Trampoline for 5 year old?

A few of my neighbours have trampolines and my 5y old loves them. Next door, they use theirs every day except they're a bit older boys.
I was thinking of getting this while it's on sale, and I was wondering what people's opinion of them are, safety, and what to look for in quality, and perhaps where else to buy them.

For instance, what makes it better than this one?

Thanks for your input :)
8 replies
Deal Fanatic
Jan 16, 2003
6507 posts
278 upvotes
zoolander wrote: I was wondering what people's opinion of them are, safety, and what to look for in quality, and perhaps where else to buy them.
:confused: It's a trampoline, there's nothing safe about it! It's fun though..
Deal Addict
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Oct 12, 2001
3625 posts
97 upvotes
We have the one from Costco with the zippered entrance. No injuries from falling out at least.

One method of installing the trampoline I saw, which I thought was a great idea, was the people dug a hole in the ground and made the tramp, level with the ground. Obviously this is way more work, but if you fall you're not dealing with another 3 or 4'. But, you must deal with drainiage issue for your hole too.

Injuries from bouncing aside, at least make sure you have a strong net/enclosure to keep the kids from falling out.

Just looked at the one from CT - what I don't like about it are the steel (aluminum) poles going up to connect up the net. The one from Costco uses fiberglass rods that are bowed outwards to give more room on the tramp, but more importantly I think, to have some give. You slam into the fiberglass it bows a bit more. Not so with the metal.

Its all about compromises as I think the one we got from Costco was about $600 though.
What the H E double hockey sticks have I done now?
Sr. Member
Nov 24, 2005
697 posts
7 upvotes
Southwestern Ontario
Check your municipal by-laws. Here you need to have a locked/fenced in yard , the same as a swimming pool. You are liable for any one using the tramp even if you are not aware they are using it. Check your home owner's policy as well to make sure you are covered.
Deal Addict
Jun 12, 2008
1622 posts
1206 upvotes
Ripley
We have one like the second one you posted. My kids love it. If we were to buy again I would look for one where there are no metal springs or they are on the outside of the enclosure. The padding just doesn't seem to last and they are pricey to replace. It would matter less if it was not near where the kids jumped.
Trampolines aren't the safest toy but my 10 yr old got a concussion jumping off a low swing so it can happen with any kind of toy - I was 2 ft away and watching him.
Sr. Member
Nov 24, 2007
501 posts
74 upvotes
shoppingmama wrote: We've had our trampoline for 5 years and it was a great investment. I did lots of research before buying and this is the only one I would consider buying. http://www.springfreetrampoline.ca/
We looked at those as well but saw that they have a fair number of significant flaws. I found this site to be fairly helpful.

http://www.trampolinesafety.com/Trampoline-Ratings (select the trampoline you want for a review).

For e.g., the zippered entrance, quote a few kids won't close them when they get inside, so they could easily fall out through it.
Deal Addict
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May 30, 2004
1482 posts
37 upvotes
Markham
Trampoline AKA: Quad-Machine (quadriplegic machine)
as per some ER doctors..

Those are very dangerous especially for a 5yr old..
Deal Fanatic
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Jan 26, 2003
5334 posts
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There's a bunch of misinformed and silly comments in this thread. I wonder if everyone has had a trampoline to even offer some sort of informed opinion?

Couple of things:

- (many) trampolines are (mostly) safe ... provided people use them safely and you pick the right one.
- people/kids get injured mostly when in the tramp with 2 or more people. That's dangerous and our rule is one kid only per instance. Kids getting injured by themselves is very, very low in our experience. If you have stupid kids and/or stupid parents ... = accidents and potentially injuries.
- it's great exercise.
- our neighbor is a doc, and he concurs that injuries happen not because of the trampoline itself but because of human error.
- we have the springfree tramp and that website is kinda screwed, very perspective-dependent. Like the way they were talking down the "bounce" ... that's exactly why we liked it. Kids still get good bounce ... but not crazy "get hurt" bounce. If you want your kids to make the Olympics for trampoline then, sure, the springfree is not your best choice. If you want a safe, low energy/bounce option the springfree is a great choice. Kids can't fall out, the poles are very resilient and your feet don't get trapped through metal springs since it's eliminated all the way around.
- plus, the whole zipper thing is perspective too. You say kids can fall out of the tramp, I say parenting teaches the kids to always zip up when entering the tramp to make it a habit. If you don't teach your children to be safe .. .then don't let them do anything in life, just mollycoddle them until they are 40 years old. Ya gotta teach! That's the parent's job! It's irresponsible to not teach. If you're not going to teach safety ... then just give up, get out of the way and don't have kids. Shades of Dave Chappelle here.

The springfree tramp is a good deal at Costco ... usually at some point it's 100 bucks off. We got ours for ~ 700 bucks plus taxes some years ago. Great investment.
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