The Scoop on ‘Trampoline Fun’

While we were on vacation last month we had the opportunity to visit with one of my wife’s friends that she has known since elementary school. After we had dinner and took some time to catch up, we all went outside to let the kids run around in their expansive back yard. Next to their swing set they had this 12′ trampoline that was enclosed with netting to prevent the kids from jumping either off or out of it.

We were a little hesitant to let little man play in it, but he was so intrigued by it that he was frankly driving us insane. So, we figured that as long as we watched him like a hawk there wasn’t much he could do to hurt himself even though it is ‘rated’ for much older children.

It took him a little while to gain his bearings and there were just so many different balls for him to play with that he appeared to have caught a touch of ADD. The times he did manage to stand up on his feet (he had only been walking for about a week and a half at this point) he didn’t make it very far before buckling under the pressure of walking on the unstable surface. No matter how many times he fell down though, he’d pick himself right back up and try again. He was having so much fun, he didn’t care that he would routinely end up on his backside.

On the ride back to my in-laws house that evening my wife and I discussed looking into buying one of these for him to play with at home. While he had a lot of fun, we decided it was best to wait a little longer. Still, the fact that it tuckered him out completely was a key selling point. We will definitely revisit our decision next summer when he is a little older and more coordinated. No matter what we end up doing, I lnow that I need to encourage him to be as active as he can outdoors and this may be a good first step.