A bouncy castle is considered by many as a must-have for children’s parties. Renting one of these fun party inflatables will keep your child and his or her guests entertained throughout the event. It is a feature that will certainly ensure your child’s birthday party is a big hit.
Since an inflatable can keep all the kids preoccupied for hours, most parents are free to relax and mingle with each other during the party. However, a bouncy castle isn’t an inanimate babysitter. As such, there is still a need to look after the children playing on the inflatable to ensure their safety and continuous enjoyment.
Safety Guide for Parents
If you will be renting a bouncy castle for your child’s birthday party, take note of these important safety tips:
1. Hire the inflatable from a reputable supplier
The first step to ensuring the safety of kids who will be playing in the bouncy castle is to rent one that is in good condition.
Make sure you rent an inflatable from a company that does not have any record of accidents in the past. Or if they did, ensure the measures they took were successful in preventing these incidents from happening again.
Ask the supplier how often they maintain their inflatables, what their maintenance practices are, and how frequently they have them inspected by professionals. The supplier should also able to show evidence of these checks.
2. Have employees from the rental company set up the bouncy castle
Proper installation of the bouncy castle is also crucial in having a safe fixture during the party. As such, it is best to have it set up by a team from the supplier since they are trained to do this correctly.
As the host, you can further ensure the children’s safety by choosing the best spot for the inflatable. It should be placed in an area far from fences, posts, low-hanging branches, and any fixture or item that can be dangerous should a child hit or fall on them.
Once the bouncy castle has been installed, check the anchors and the inflatable itself to be certain it is stable.
3. Do not let kids of significantly different sizes play simultaneously
If your young guests are of different sizes or ages, do not let them play at the same time. This is because the smaller, younger kids will be at risk of injury from colliding with or falling under a bigger child.
To give all kids the opportunity to play in the bouncy castle, group them according to their ages and sizes. For instance, give kids aged between six and eight years 30 minutes to play. Once their time is up, let the kids between nine and twelve enter and play for 30 minutes as well.
Follow this schedule throughout the party to prevent kids from accidentally hurting each other.
It is also worth mentioning here that if you hired a bouncy castle for kids, do not let adults or teenagers use it. This is because the material used to build a child’s bouncy castle is often thinner than that of an adult inflatable. As such, they are simply not suitable for adult use.
4. Set rules for using the bouncy castle
Although giving kids a list of things they can and can’t do doesn’t seem too fun, keep in mind and tell the children that this is for their safety.
Some of the important rules www.foryourlittleone.com that you have to enforce and for the kids to follow are:
- Remove footwear, eyeglasses, jewelry, and sharp objects such as keys and pens from their pockets before entering the bouncy castle.
- Food, drinks, bottles, and glasses are not allowed inside the inflatable.
- No somersaulting, pushing or roughhousing at all times.
- No climbing onto the outside walls.
5. Ensure there is always someone supervising the kids
To ensure all the rules are followed, there should always be an adult looking after the kids all the time. If you can’t do this, ask another parent or adult to supervise the bouncy castle users.
When there is an adult looking after the kids, they can stop the children who are roughhousing or climbing the walls. They will also ensure that the bigger kids do not enter the bouncy castle while the little ones are playing.
An adult supervisor that can spot troubles quickly, including ones that are bouncy-castle related (the anchors are loose, there is a hole on the inflatable, etc.), will definitely ensure that the kids can have fun for hours safely.
A bouncy castle will even make your child’s birthday way more fun and memorable. It’s a great activity for energetic kids. However, make sure the kids are safe while they are having fun on the bouncy castle. You can do this by following the safety tips listed above.
AUTHOR BIO
In 2008, Managing Director and Founder of The Big Moo Events Lorate Hamzeh left a successful career in Human Resources to venture into the niche market of children’s entertainment. By introducing the UAE to Singing Telegrams, Lorate attracted the attention of the children’s entertainment market with a collection of fun mascots. Within a year, Lorate added children’s entertainers and bouncers to the company’s ever-growing list of services, and the rest was history.
