{"id":73106,"date":"2025-07-18T16:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73106\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:36:12","slug":"are-treehouses-dangerous-i-had-a-magical-childhood-with-a-treehouse-and-no-one-got-hurt-but-my-wife-thinks-theyre-death-traps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73106\/","title":{"rendered":"Are treehouses dangerous? I had a magical childhood with a treehouse, and no one got hurt. But my wife thinks they’re death traps."},"content":{"rendered":"

Care and Feeding is Slate\u2019s parenting advice column.\u00a0Have a question for Care and Feeding?\u00a0<\/strong>Submit it here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Care and Feeding, <\/strong><\/p>\n

My wife, \u201cJudy\u201d and I have two boys, ages 7 and 9, and they want me to build them a treehouse in the giant oak tree in our backyard.\u00a0I\u2019m a master carpenter by trade, so this would be no big deal for me.\u00a0The obstacle to this is that Judy is staunchly against it.<\/p>\n

She is claiming that the boys could fall and injure themselves or \u201cworse.\u201d She also says that if they have friends over, the same thing could happen to them. To her, this mean my boys can\u2019t have a treehouse. I think this shouldn\u2019t even be an issue!<\/p>\n

My dad and grandfather built a treehouse for me and my sister when we were kids, and some of my happiest memories are of playing there with her, friends, and cousins.\u00a0 Nobody got hurt, let alone landed in the hospital!\u00a0 With all the shit going on in the world right now, if I can give my kids some joy in their lives and allow them to create wonderful memories of their own I really can\u2019t see why Judy is making such a big deal over it.\u00a0 How can I convince my wife that her stance on this is not a normal one?<\/p>\n

\u2014Treehouse Triggered<\/p>\n

Dear Treehouse Triggered,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of playing on concrete playgrounds. But today, most kids playgrounds today\u00a0are built on softer surfaces because kids did often get hurt! Just because you and your folks were never injured in your treehouse doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no risk involved. I\u2019m not saying you\u2019re wrong for wanting to build one\u2014and I get that you\u2019re credentialed to do that\u2014but you\u2019re acting like your wife is being unreasonable, and she simply isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing abnormal about your wife\u2019s stance. She recognizes the risk inherent in building a play structure high off the ground! Kids absolutely can fall from even a well-made treehouse. What would you do if someone else\u2019s child fell? Do you have the insurance to cover their injuries? Also remember that parents are more litigious today than when you were a kid. The fallout from something like that could be devastating. I\u2019m not asking you to give up your treehouse dreams, but try to understand where your wife is coming from.<\/p>\n

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    There\u2019s no guarantee she\u2019ll get on board, but if you want to try to persuade her, I would recommend emphasizing the safety measures you would take to make the treehouse as safe as possible. In an article for\u00a0Nationwide Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a>, Laura Dattner of the Center for Injury Research and Policy notes that most treehouse injuries are from falls and jumps. Safety recommendations include that the building to a max height for eight feet; spreading at least nine inches of mulch in a six-foot radius below the treehouse to soften jumps and falls; and installing solid walls instead of rails. Other frequent treehouse injuries come from from ropes, chains, and improperly hammered-in nails. Skip the ropes and chains, and I don\u2019t need to tell a master carpenter to make sure his nails are hammered-in correctly! And check with your homeowner\u2019s insurance company\u2014they may have requirements of their own.<\/p>\n

    Read this post and do more research on treehouse safety. Assure your wife that you\u2019re taking the injury risk seriously and doing what you can to mitigate it. And of course, let her know that you will do your part to ensure the kids are always supervised in the treehouse.<\/p>\n

    \u2014Jamilah<\/p>\n

    \n Please keep questions short (<\/p>\n

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    The latest sex, parenting, and money advice from our columnists delivered to your inbox three times a week.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Care and Feeding is Slate\u2019s parenting advice column.\u00a0Have a question for Care and Feeding?\u00a0Submit it here. Dear Care…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[600,246,251,159,5597,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-73106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-family","10":"tag-kids","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-slate-plus","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114875215654917838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}