Three Ways to Keep Your Kids Safe on the Trampoline This Summer

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For kids, summer is a perfect time for bouncing the day away on a backyard trampoline. For adults, though, it's important to ensure this pastime goes off without an incident by providing education about how to use the trampoline safely. "Parents" magazine reports that more than 90,000 people visit the emergency room each year due to trampoline accidents. By emphasizing safety as much as fun, you can drastically reduce the chance of your children becoming statistics. Here are three ways to keep your kids safe on the trampoline this summer.

Limit the Participants

As far as kids are concerned, one of the best things about jumping on a trampoline is doing so with their peers. Multiple people jumping at the same time, however, can quickly lead to an accident. Ideally, you should only allow one person on the trampoline at a time. While this rule might not be overly popular among your children, it limits them inadvertently bumping into each other or games that escalate until there's an injury. If you plan to supervise the kids' play time, give each child an allotted period of time to jump so that everyone gets a fair turn.

Place the Trampoline away from Other Objects

Regardless of how much you reinforce the rules to your children, it can be easy for them to get carried away and attempt something dangerous when you're not around. While kids should only jump on the trampoline with adult supervision, it's important to set up the trampoline in an area that won't tempt your kids to push their luck with daring stunts. A trampoline near the pool, for example, could eventually lead to a game in which the kids try to bounce from the trampoline into the water. Likewise, a trampoline near a tree might encourage a child to climb the tree and jump from a branch onto the trampoline. Place the trampoline on level ground with no obstacles around it.

Only Allow Supervised Jumping

It's important to always be watching when your kids are using the trampoline. An adult presence can ensure the kids don't attempt any dangerous stunts and can address horseplay before it leads to an injury. Although you can stress to your kids the importance of following this rule, there's another step you can take if you think your kids might try to jump when you're not around. If your children are young enough that they need a ladder to climb into the trampoline, keep the ladder locked up in the garage.


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