You don’t want to exclude any children from the fun and excitement of enjoying time in a bounce house. But at the same time, you don’t want anybody to get hurt, especially a small child.
Talk About It
Rather than arbitrarily setting a minimum age or height limit for using the bounce house, talk it over with other parents and ask their opinion. If they think their child is old enough to join in the fun, who are you to stand in their way?
In the end, you can only make decisions about your own children. Prohibiting other people’s kids from playing in the bounce castle is only going to cause hard feelings, especially if they’ve already told you that they are okay with their kids joining the fun.
Separate Big Kids from Little Kids
One way to let everybody enjoy the bounce house while minimizing the risk of a smaller child accidentally getting hurt by a bigger child is to designate different times for different groups of kids.
For example, for the first 30 minutes, you can let children under a certain age — such as 5 or 6 — use the bounce house while the older kids are busy doing something else. Then, after their time is up, you can clear the smaller kids out and let the bigger kids use the bounce house for another 30 minute period. Then, simply alternate the two groups until all the kids have had their turn in the bounce house.
Discourage Grownups from Using the Bounce House
Grown adults are bigger and heavier than children. So allowing children and adults in the bounce house is generally a bad idea.
If parents want to join their children, you can quietly take them aside and discuss the dangers. In most cases, they will be understanding.
