A Ban on Trampolines? Really?

I was eating my breakfast, wondering why it was so cold when the radio news announced that paediatricians were calling for a ban on all young children playing on trampolines.  I can't say as I took this news well.

Don't get me wrong,  I know trampolines are dangerous.  I have seen literally hundreds of scenes on America's Funniest Home Videos that showed people bouncing right off the trampolines into the ground, the side of their house, a doghouse, a tree and many other hard objects.  Granted most of these people were older, most likely drunk, show-offs who obviously got what was coming to them.  Granted, also, that I laughed most of the times I watched them, and only cringed once or twice.



Rosie MacLennan

So, okay, trampolines are dangerous.  I certainly don't want anyone to get hurt, or killed--though I suspect the aforementioned drunk show-offs will just find another way to get themselves on TV.  I guess I just see a few more consequences to banning these things than preservation of weaker strains in our gene pool.

What would Rosie MacLennan think.  She won Canada's only gold medal in the London Olympics.  It is likely that she has used a backyard trampoline a time or two in her life.  Add to that, to reach Olympic calibre you have to start young.  Maybe this is the international community's way of making sure Canada gets no gold medals at the next Olympics.



lethal fun toy of my youth

Do we need more regulations in our lives?   Is a ban necessary?  Wouldn't better parent supervision accomplish much of the same thing?  We lost lawn darts because they were deemed too dangerous.  Part of the fun of that game was its lethal nature.  I am sure there were plenty of lawn dart accidents, but I am sure either alcohol or lack of supervision was a contributing factor.



pathetic safe toy of today

When you get right down to it, a lot of stuff can cause harm.  You could take a horseshoe in the head.  You could get a serious burn from a hula hoop.  You could go careening off the wet banana into a bunch of hard, scratchy stuff (again, I have seen this on AFV).  Once my mother warned that we could take out an eye--and we were playing with a beach ball.   Let's face it, the world is a dangerous place, with or without trampolines.