We bought a trampoline when our oldest was five. He didn't ask for it, we were just guessing. We got a good deal on one from Craigslist or similar that was brand new, still in the box, so probably like $50 or something.
He loved it and many years later he still uses it, pretty much every day that it's not raining. He's well past the age where I would have thought he would still be interested. We've replaced the mat and all the springs to keep it going.
Point being, sometimes you just don't know what kids will like.
I went on a backyard trampoline once as a kid and it ended with the entire neighbourhood searching for me. I just couldn’t stop playing with my friends and was hours late for curfew. I had forgotten to tell anyone where I was.
Fortunately, I integer overflowed my mom’s level of worry and she was too glad to have me back to be angry. Though, seeing her unwind from genuine terror was more effective than any level of scolding and I never again forgot to tell them where I was going.
>A reminder to buy the kids things they say they desperately want.
If I were to follow this, I'd be spending half my days driving to stores to buy the thing my kids happen to "desperately" want today :)
Also a reminder that you're not obliged to _buy_ everything. Its kind of amazing how ingrained this is into a large amount of peoples' heads. You can get a lot of things for free or secondhand. I got my kids' large trampoline for free.
Almost everyone I knew who broke a bone growing up broke them on a trampoline. As an adult, every story I've heard involving someone's kids and a trampoline ended up involving a cast at best.
... And yet. I wonder. I can remember the feeling of freedom and joy in my body as a child, joy in movement itself that I have never recaptured in any meaningful way no matter how I ever tried to motivate myself to exercise...
Swimming is also dangerous, but is considered a very healthy and useful activity and skill. I could see a similar cost/benefit analysis for trampolines and other gymnastic equipment.
I bought a medium sized above ground pool that the kids rarely used. More work than it was worth.
Next I bought a nice trampoline for the kids and the second it showed up at my door my dad commented that he thinks it was a waste of my money and that the kids don't even use the pool and the same would be true for the trampoline.
Well he has since apologized many times over after realizing my kids would put about 6 hours a day on the thing in the summer and even on some of the less then optimal weather days put in some time. My dad now keeps talking about the cost per hour the trampoline has gotten ($500 trampoline - 500 hours use = 1$/hr), well now I think he calculates it by the cents per hour no longer dollars.
If I was their mischievous uncle, I would get them a full feature drum set, maybe with extra percussion instruments. Hopefully the kids will show the same enthusiasm for it, before the parents let them play the drums in the bath or the rain, in a deliberate effort to get the kids to destroy the drum set.
We bought a trampoline when our oldest was five. He didn't ask for it, we were just guessing. We got a good deal on one from Craigslist or similar that was brand new, still in the box, so probably like $50 or something.
He loved it and many years later he still uses it, pretty much every day that it's not raining. He's well past the age where I would have thought he would still be interested. We've replaced the mat and all the springs to keep it going.
Point being, sometimes you just don't know what kids will like.
I went on a backyard trampoline once as a kid and it ended with the entire neighbourhood searching for me. I just couldn’t stop playing with my friends and was hours late for curfew. I had forgotten to tell anyone where I was.
Fortunately, I integer overflowed my mom’s level of worry and she was too glad to have me back to be angry. Though, seeing her unwind from genuine terror was more effective than any level of scolding and I never again forgot to tell them where I was going.
Trampolines, man.
>A reminder to buy the kids things they say they desperately want.
If I were to follow this, I'd be spending half my days driving to stores to buy the thing my kids happen to "desperately" want today :)
Also a reminder that you're not obliged to _buy_ everything. Its kind of amazing how ingrained this is into a large amount of peoples' heads. You can get a lot of things for free or secondhand. I got my kids' large trampoline for free.
You could also... just... not get them anything unless they earned it according to rules that they agree with and believe in.
Of course that would require a lot more parenting than buying things.
Reminds me think of this youth, bouncing on one[0].
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampoline
The hidden costs are in the ER visits
Or your home insurance company dropping your coverage because you didn't declare the trampoline yet they found it while surveying aerial imagery
Almost everyone I knew who broke a bone growing up broke them on a trampoline. As an adult, every story I've heard involving someone's kids and a trampoline ended up involving a cast at best.
... And yet. I wonder. I can remember the feeling of freedom and joy in my body as a child, joy in movement itself that I have never recaptured in any meaningful way no matter how I ever tried to motivate myself to exercise...
Swimming is also dangerous, but is considered a very healthy and useful activity and skill. I could see a similar cost/benefit analysis for trampolines and other gymnastic equipment.
They're great fun to bounce on tbh
Even the mini ones (rebounders) but in a different way
I bought a medium sized above ground pool that the kids rarely used. More work than it was worth.
Next I bought a nice trampoline for the kids and the second it showed up at my door my dad commented that he thinks it was a waste of my money and that the kids don't even use the pool and the same would be true for the trampoline.
Well he has since apologized many times over after realizing my kids would put about 6 hours a day on the thing in the summer and even on some of the less then optimal weather days put in some time. My dad now keeps talking about the cost per hour the trampoline has gotten ($500 trampoline - 500 hours use = 1$/hr), well now I think he calculates it by the cents per hour no longer dollars.
If I was their mischievous uncle, I would get them a full feature drum set, maybe with extra percussion instruments. Hopefully the kids will show the same enthusiasm for it, before the parents let them play the drums in the bath or the rain, in a deliberate effort to get the kids to destroy the drum set.