Anything to do with assembly of anything drives me crazy.
When it comes to flat pack furniture – all you assemblers out there – name your price! My patience wears very thin when it comes to counting screws, bolts, nuts, dowels and all that type of stuff.
So – it was with a tad of trepidation that I took on the assemlbely of our new trampoline with the kids in tow. It was a beautiful day. So,what could go wrong? Worst case scenario, I’d call in a few mates to resource the project. Best case scenario I’d have a bit of fun with the kids putting it together and watching the excitement build. What eventually transpired was a mix of both!
So to start with we went off and bought the biggest trampoline available. The old one was getting too small. With 4 kids, I did a quick Brownian Motion analysis and concluded that the larger the volume in the trampoline, the less likely the kids were to bombard into each other! And here’s the beast before we opened that box!
Fast forward 5 minutes, box opened and the cavalry arrived. The lads were all decked out in their work gear and the littlest one was looking very pretty in pink. No getting hands dirty for her. She was purely acting in a supervisory capacity for the project.
So we got down to business. Took out all the bars and springs and stuff. I tried to rally my troops to get stuck in straight away but the lure of an empty cardboard box was too much…
So I broke for a quick coffee. No point in trying to compete with an empty cardboard box!
One quick coffee later and the novelty of the box having wore off, we got down to work.
Lots of banging and hammering. We got back to being men. Steel bars and schematics. Man stuff. We bonded – had a laugh. They loved it.
As we started to assemble this contraption, I realized just how big a 4.0m diameter really is: freaking huge as it turns out.
Nonetheless we were in full flow now – things were coming together. We were building something and they responded to seeing it come together. It was cool to see them straining to get things in shape. I had to say that this assembly stuff wasn’t as bad as I had expected….
…. until the fatigue started to kick in. Once we got the frame assembled the lads had enough. TV and a treat was the competition this time. My troops were going AWOL one by one.
Our daddy son bonding had peaked and I was flying solo now.
So – if you’ve ever seen one of these, you’ll start feeling my pain…
The helpers turned into excited time checkers.
How much longer? Is it ready yet? Things were turning south now for sure…
So – I have to admit – at this stage I called in reinforcements. With the lure of a few cold beers and a barbecue, we resourced up and flew through it. After a lot of stretching of canvas and springs, we were nearly there.
The kids couldn’t wait any longer, so on they jumped with a few cousins in the mix too to add to the danger levels….
Once they burnt off steam and avoided a few close shaves, we went into the last phase of operation Trampoline.
Putting on the protective surround. With a bunch of kids going loco on a trampoline 4 feet off the ground, the surround is essential!
Once this baby is clipped up, with a bit of luck the only injury you’ll record is a few head bumps here and there…
And so it was done. I have to admit, we were Trampoline skeptics at first but with a clear set of rules and always insisting they clip closed the protective surround, the Trampoline keeps the kids entertained for hours on end. Its fun, burns off energy and by all accounts its fantastic when it comes to sensory development in kids. And luckily, we had a bit of fun putting the thing together too!
