Trampolines: Mr Anchovy needs your encouragement to dig a hole...

[Anchovy]

My plan for the Easter break is to get DH to sink a small rebounder trampoline into the garden for the DCs. My responsibility involves: thinking up the idea; choosing the colour of the rebounder; ordering the rebounder; deciding where in the garden it should go; finding and printing up the advice on a previous thread on how to do it; generally supervising and giving advice on the project. DH's responsibility is simply to do all the digging and install the trampoline. How easy is that? I make that one, possibly two jobs for him as opposed to my five (together with the "management responsibility" I am assuming).

Now, I'm sensing a bit of reluctance on his part and am interested in whether anyone has any tips, either for digging in a trampoline or for getting Mr Anchovy to get on with it.

You need Anteater - he sunk his own trampoline (I think he did it anyway...)

How on earth do you do it? Getting ours this summer!

Could do with another thread on which is the best one - do I really need to fork out for a TP one and is it best to get the 14' one bearing in mind I've got 3 rowdy boys??

Now come on please, we can't let him get away with doing nothing over the Easter weekend. Has anyone actually done this? (I've seen the advice on the previous thread and printed that up). We have a book that says "dig a hole and stick your trampoline into it". Hmmm. Any tips to encourage him on how children love bouncing and, say, it makes them smarter (or even tireder would do).

Obviously I will be standing there right next to him guiding him through all the heavy work. But to be able to get away without doing any digging myself I have to have lots of strategic tips to dispense.

Can you find a Manual (print something - ANYTHING - off the net) to give Directions? Hold heavy tools? Mince off into the kitchen to bake fortifying baked goods?

Planning strategically ahead, I think it may be also a good idea to develop a suspected dodgy back over the next few days.

Direct him to this inspiring hokum

And talk about things like 'sightlines', whatever those may be. You need to be standing there positioning him. With the dodgy back, obviously.

Apparently my great grandfather used to be chief stoker at a power station. This meant he didn't actually do any shovelling, he leaned on his broom and told other people how to do the shovelling. I like to think that I'm genetically pre-programmed to offer advice without actually breaking into a sweat myself.

Hmmm. So that's me sorted. Still haven't thought of any reasons to sell it to DH. Need a spurious bit of research that shows that "Children who spend 30 mins bouncing on a mini-trampoline are scientifically proven to go to bed with less back-chat; share their toys with their sibling; not wake up demanding to be taken for a wee at 3am and forget that they have ever heard their father say the word "tosser" in the car when out driving. Obviously the effects of all of these are magnified significantly when the trampoline is sunk into the ground as opposed to free standing.

I'm sure you can talk up the safety aspects of it being sunken - less far to fall if the worse happens. So something along the lines of 'sink a hole for the trampoline or it will be your fault if one of our sons breaks his neck when he falls off'??!!

re persuading him to do it: simply show him how much a safety net costs.

re getting it done: where are you? if in norfolk, dh says get a man/some machinery in. All that chalk. If somewhere soft, no probs (probably)

Thanks SP. We're in London (hence the mini-trampoline to go in the mini garden!) I'm anticipating that DH will say exactly along the lines of your DH: he'll argue that he needs to get someone in with "equipment", he'll say words like "plant hire" and "mini-diggers" and "back hoe" to try and throw me off the scent. I can't believe that he needs more than a spade, a wheelbarrow, a lot of cups of tea, and as MI said earlier some fortifying home baked goodies.

How deep does it have to be?

Why not have a boys dig a hole party with lots of beer on tap? he gets to show off his manliness to associated mates with shovels.....they may even take off their shirts.......

Bl*dy Hll! We've just ordered the 12ft TP one - are you sure you want to sink it in? We ordered ours from The Active Toy Company - if you give them a ring and explain you're interested in buying one (ie lie) but wanted to sink it into the ground, how would you go about it?

Flippin lot of earth to get rid of .....

I honestly dont' know how you do it. I bet we'd end up paying someone as a safety net for the 14' one is over £200!!!!!

No, this is a tiny one - only about 2 foot in diameter - the sort that you see in the gym. One wheelbarrow full, two max. The big ones need SERIOUS construction work and tools - this I think just needs a bit of determination and encouragement!

I had enough trouble getting Mr M to put all the springs on our 14' trampoline. We thought about digging it in but the thought of the dog running down the garden & hitting it at speed, + squirrels jumping off the trees & bouncing into orbit put us off. We just move it to a fresh bit of grass every few weeks. We got ours (Supertramp) from the Active Toy Co. as well.

Anchovy, if you cat me with an email address I will forward directions and photos... I Send out directions about once a week to MNs

DH has just told me that one cubic metre of earth is one ton. I told him it was a fab idea to dig a hole for a trampoline and he said yes. Then he said, in very serious tones, "It's a lot of digging". Anchovy, I think he's intimating that your jobs are far easier than Mr Anchovy's will be

Then I read to him how small the rebounder was and he said "Oh right. How deep does her pit have to go?" Apparently you have to be careful of hitting the water table at the bottom of your bounce, so to speak

that sounds filthy!

It does rather - totally inadvertant bit of smut there! Oops!

Anchovy, aren't you tempted by the possibility of bringing it inside to use when it's cold/raining? Compliance with parental wishes should not be weather dependant

milliways, how long did yours take to put together? Ours is arriving tomorrow and I'm sure dds have visions of coming home from school and finding it fully erected .... How old are your children, btw? I'm really scared this might be a 5 minute wonder (like the wendy house - they once found five ants in it and now it's condemned on the grounds of public health) ......

Carla - DH & I managed it between us in a few hours. The instructions showed using 1 spring to lever the others in, & you have to do them evenly around the edge so as not to distort the bed. We built it too near the house to start with but it is easy to move (Circular pushing, twist it around the garden). Didn't think neighbours would want mu kids looking over their garden too near the house - as the gardens are v.long we have the option!
My kids are now 9 & 14, had it for 2 years, still v.v.v.popular. All friends still come round but we are strict with no more than 3 t a time, 2 if big, unless only toddlers holding hands etc. The bigger the bed, the safer it is as it throws the bouncer into the middle more.
Happy bouncing - hope your pelvic floor is ready!