Legal Question in Personal Injury in Massachusetts

Your mother's concerns sound reasonable to me. The boards you describe would probably prevent anyone from *accidentally* walking onto the ice, but they probably would not keep out neighborhood children who were determined to skate there. A child who did so and was hurt would indeed be able to sue your family.

Your proposed rink would be what the law calls an attractive nuisance -- something that foreseeably would entice others to use it while simultaneously endangering them. (That's not a precise definition, but it's good enough for our discussion.) The persons responsible for an attractive nuisance are generally liable when the forseeable type of harm actually occurs. Your mother is quite right to worry about that happening if you go ahead with your plans.

A backyard swimming pool is the classic example of an attractive nuisance. If given the chance, children are likely to swim in it when they think no one is looking. If a child drowns after getting into a pool whose owners did not secure it adequately, the owners would be liable. That's why almost every backyard pool is behind a tall, sturdy fence with a lock on the gate. A similar enclosure around your proposed rink might be enough to satisfy your mother about the risk, but it's probably far beyond your budget. Besides, she probably doesn't want a new fence.

As the movie said, if you build it they will come. What the movie didn't say was that if they hurt themselves, they will sue. As is so often true, mother knows best.

You may want to consider buying homeowner's insurance to contractually transfer the risk of being sued to the insurer. MA has a child trespasser exception and attractive nuisance statute, so there is a potential liability. I guess you need to weigh out how much you want the rink vs. whether you have a budget for paying for a defense lawyer and to satisfy judgments and the frequency of claims and the likely indemnity amounts. Good luck.