Kelly-Rose Bradford: Bouncing all the way to hospital

Jun 10 2009 Surrey Herald

YET again I'm finding it's tough to stand by your decisions as a parent and keep to your beliefs and not give in to pressure. For the past three summers, I've been under increasing nagging from the Boy to buy a trampoline.

And not just any trampoline, but some 10ft wide, enormous contraption with netted sides and enough space for a dozen bouncers to somersault and leap on.

From Boy's point of view, they look enormous fun, lots of his friends have them and he wants one too.

And really, what six-year-old wouldn't. Or 36-year-old for that matter as, secret-ly, I too would love to go and have a daily bounce in the garden, jumping just high enough to spy on the neighbouring gardens - thus getting fit AND sating my appetite for nosing in one fell swoop.

But I've resisted. I've told Boy no and will continue to do so, simply because I think that no matter how much fun they are, for a child like Boy, weighing in at around three-and-a-bit stone, and fairly wee, they are dangerous.

In his eyes this, of course, makes me a total killjoy, but I feel slightly vindicated having read the latest figures from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which shows a 50 per cent increase in children going to hospital between 1998 and 2002 after having some kind of trampoline-related accident.

And in Scotland, medics at the Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee analysed 50 trampoline casualties at accident and emergency over a six-week period and concluded the most important factor associated with injury was having multiple users on the trampoline.

And, not unexpectedly, that the lightest person was five times more likely to be hurt.

None of which comes as a huge surprise to me. A couple of years ago, I interviewed a woman who had had an accident on a trampoline - she had bounced off so hard that she became entangled in a washing line and suffered lacerations to her face and neck.

Which as a tale sounds very amusing, but in reality was a pretty horrific incident and one that has been firmly fixed in my mind every time Boy has asked for a trampoline.

But as the summer approaches, and Boy spends more time outside and at friends houses, it's proving very difficult to stick to my guns.

It's no fun having to exclude your child from an activity that all their friends are enjoying, or to insist on lone bouncing (which has been proved as the safest option, although hardly the most fun from a child's viewpoint).

Having gone through all the real agonising decisions where Boy is concerned - choosing a good school, instilling good discipline, healthy diet etc - I never dreamed that a garden toy could cause me so much angst.

But for now, I'm sticking to my guns. I hope.