Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Trampolines

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Apr 17, 2019, at 11:54 AM, Kathryn McCamant <kmccamant [at] 
> cohousing-solutions.com> wrote:

> IMHO, if those of us want who live in intergeneration communities, want to 
> keep and attract families with kids, we need to be willing to make reasonable 
> accommodation for kids play.... fort building, bike jumps and trampolines are 
> the kinds of play many remember as favorite childhood memories....but the 
> insurance companies and attorneys would likely tell us to forbid such things. 
> Let's not let the fear of liabilities ruin kids play.  Life is full of risks, 
> and one of them is the risks of growing up being better at video game play 
> than creating your own play in the great outdoors. 

I totally agree. But the problem for some community members is the financial 
risk— some have no extra money and live from week to week. Another reality of 
diversity and generational inclusion.

If a child is hurt or killed the whole community would share the risk if a law 
suit were filled. And many parents  would have to file a suit in order to pay 
their own medical bills. And the parents of neighborhood  children wouldn’t 
hesitate to sue.

Part of maintaining affordability is caution.

I loved the story Rob Sandelin used tell about his community and its pile of 
dirt. It was left over from digging out basements and was supposed to be hauled 
away. But the kids loved playing on it so much that it remained instead of 
being replaced by a playground.

There are many  ways to be active and free and creative outdoors that don’t 
involve the relatively high risk of physical damage from unsupervised use of a 
trampoline. Unicycles? Obstacle courses?

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org