My parents bought me a 6x12 backyard trampoline on a whim at a garage sale for $200 when I was 12 years old. I lived on that thing. That led to gymnastics and six years later I was competing at the college level, was on an NCAA championship team, and was training for the Olympics (I did not make it, although some of my teammates did and they went on to win the Olympic team gold medal that year). That trampoline changed the course of my life in a major way. You just never know.

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.

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.

Somehow, my wife's co-workers managed to sneak a full size trampoline (with netting) into their Rental's living room; somehow the landlord is fine with the arrangement, having seen it in person.

I loved our trampoline as a kid. I went on it nearly every day and I'd go on it to dry after baths. It was a big deal buying a trampoline for my kids - they used it once and I have to force them to use it again.

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

Trampolines are awesome, not just for kids. Best thing I bought (long before I had own kids). I recovered my knee after an operation with it - the "professional" reha I got before was close to useless.

Because you cannot just mind and recklessly jump on it - you have a generic flat/bouncy ground to do all kinds of soft movements, you can do slow or fast. So recovering I did not by jumping yet, but by roling and softly bouncing up and down. First while lying, then standing ... then finally jumping again.

Now many years later, I bought a second, connected them and can do longer jumps and tricks between them.

Oh yes, and the children now love it since they could crawl in it. (Except with strong sun, my older boy is strongly afraid of the static electricity that builds up, that can result in discharges strong enough to hurt, which my daughter uses intentionally to shock him).

Of course it helps, that the Trampolin is hidden from view, not sure if I would have as much fun it it, if everybody from the street could watch. If you have that, or don't care, - go wild in it. Extremely rewarding sport for me. I never hurt myself in it, but that can of course happen, if you overdo it, but compared to the accidents I had in all those other sports that not happen on a soft ground ...

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.