I don't care too much if my kids jump on the couch, but it's old and we need a new one anyway. Unless I'm sitting on it and they're jumping around, then that's rather annoying, lol. Otherwise, they play games where they jump off as far as they can, do headstands on it, pretend they're rescuing each other and pull the other up over the side. They also jump on their beds. I have to agree with them, it looks like they're having great fun to me. And they have no problems with respecting property. They're not jumping to try and break it, they're just having fun. If they were trying to be destructive then that would be another matter. I've never seen them jump on anyone else's couch either so I guess they understand that the same rules might not apply at someone else's house.

In answer to the second part of the question, no, I don't think it's too much of a risk to just let him go. Kids know their limits. I would let him experiment and take risks and work out what he can and can't do. Who knows, once he's done that he might get over it anyway!!