How Jumping On The Trampoline Made My Family Happier

My stepchild has a trampoline in her back garden. I’ve never seen her use it though. I can just imagine how depressing it would be for her to actually use it. We live in the UK, where the weather is notoriously bad— it rains nearly every day.

I can only imagine her jumping alone, raindrops falling on her head, in the middle of the garden — listening to the squeaky sounds of the rusting metal of the trampoline. Our family dog would watch her from the inside of the house, he would not dare to get his coat wet. Our dog is quite posh.

The trampoline was useless, so we decided to get rid of it. One day, I’ve read the news about the new vast trampoline park opening just in the area so I’ve decided to take our family jumping. We didn’t expect much from it, but somehow we fell in love with the concept of the “trampoline park”.

We had so much fun that now we do it on a weekly basis — if not more often.

There are many health benefits to jumping on the trampoline: such as losing weight, improving motor skills and just plain having fun. What I’ve realized though is that going together as a family to the trampoline park made us happier and somehow more “closer” to one another.

So here are my 5 unconventional reasons why you should take your children for a day of “jumping”.

Jumping helped us express our feelings more freely.

My stepchild is a tween so naturally, there are days when she is not in the mood to talk to me and her father. What we have realized is that when we do fun activities together, her mood rapidly improves and she feels better to “let go” of issues that are worrying her.

Now she often comes to us midweek and tells us that she needs to go “jump it off”, meaning that something has upset her at school and she needs to get that frustration out of her system. This not only works for her, but I found it effective for myself too.

Often during the day, stressful things happen such as missed deadlines or miscommunication at work. Sometimes we don’t feel like talking about the issues that are bothering us as we are not in the right frame of mind. But when I get on that trampoline and I bounce to the music, my endorphins levels increase and I feel “freer” as if I left all that baggage on the floor.

I assume that she feels the same. After 1-hour sessions, she opens up and tells us what has been bothering her and how magically it all doesn’t seem like a big issue anymore. Together we laugh it off and head for home, where we are all in the right mood for a yummy dinner.

Jumping improved our personal relationship.

Since we’ve been going out as a family together to the trampoline I’ve also noticed a slight “improvement” in my relationship with her father. We rarely have issues, but then again sometimes life gets the best of us and we are just not in the right mood for intimacy.

Lately, since we’ve together been out jumping I find my partner more in the “mood” for the intimacy. I haven’t fully figured out the reasons for this, but I can only assume that he too shakes off the stress that accumulates over the day and he enjoys moments where our blended family is having fun. So perhaps by the time its bedtime, he is more relaxed and able to focus his attention elsewhere — on me.

Jumping brought my stepchild more confidence.

My stepchild is very shy. We have to encourage her a lot. The first time we went out to the trampoline park she was reluctant to order herself a drink, she always asks me to do it. The next time though she was more confident to talk to the cashier and order drinks for all of us — she even paid.

It seems that somehow she was more comfortable expressing herself only after a 30-minute session. Psych Central states that regular physical activity helps develop better self-esteem and feel more confident. Physical activity also helps develop better leadership skills and feel empathy for others. Trampoline exercise helps to improve self-esteem in children.

A child will naturally gain confidence over time.

This can translate into a better self-image. The best part is that her “new” attitude has shown in other areas of life too — she is more outspoken now and makes friends easier.

Jumping made my stepchild sleep better.

I am a long sleeper, so I have no issues falling asleep at night. My stepchild sometimes struggles with falling asleep. We found it very effective to go in the late afternoon jumping which tires her down.

According to a study at the University of Konstanz, Germany trampolining can increase the sleep cycle period and increase the duration of REM and slow-wave sleep.

She used to wake up to the slightest sound, now it’s ancient past.

Jumping made us more productive as a family unit.

I’ve also noticed an improvement in my stepchild's academic life. Lately, she has been much more focused because of our new “jumping” routine and she has better integrated into our family household, meaning that she wishes to help around the house and be of “service”.

It is believed that jumping on a trampoline has a positive effect on their academic success. After all physical activity is positively related to educational performance. Kids who take part in physical activity solve problems more effectively and are able to multi-task more effectively.

She has learnt to put down her phone and take a book instead when we drive to the trampoline park. I’ve had to remind her only once to stop playing video games. Now she is more than happy to read on the way and back from our jumping sessions, and share the things she has learnt.

Jumping brought us closer as a family.

Overall, going to the trampoline park has made our family closer to each other. We are a very active blended family unit, due to having limited time with her, we tend to do as many things together as we can.

Sometimes we take it over the top: going skiing in France, swimming in Croatia, biking in Yorkshire woods. We wish to savour and enjoy every moment we have with her. Little did we realize that such a simple and cheap activity as trampolining would be so effective for us.

Because of the feeling of freedom and weightlessness that comes with jumping our brains release more feel-good endorphins. A trampoline session also gives us a natural high as it releases adrenaline and we feel a rush of feel-good vibes. Going to the trampoline park has not only improved other areas in our lives but has also become our little family ritual which has improved so many other areas of our life.

Who would have thought?

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This story was originally published here.