My dad got us a trampoline for Christmas.
It's 12 x 12.
Our yard is approx. 14 x 15.
We don't want a trampoline.
But he was really excited about giving it to us. He couldn't resist buying it because he thought our girls would *love* it.
And it's true. They will love it.
But I don't want a trampoline.
We can't return it (don't know where he bought it), and besides that would hurt his feelings and disappoint the kids.
But it'll take up my whole yard! And kill what little grass we have! And look stupid in such a small space!
Besides the fact that I'm being supremely ungrateful and rude, and besides the fact that the kids _will_ love it... WHAT DO I DO??
What do you do when you receive a big, expensive gift that you a) don't want and b) don't want to make space for? But the gift was thoughtfully purchased (well, thoughtfully with the kids in mind, but not the parents!) and excitedly given.
Help.
Also, HAI! We are back at home from SD, after driving all day yesterday. We had a good trip but being away makes coming home all the sweeter. Finding room for all the new stuff is a bit... laborous, but it sure is fun to have some new things! (I don't mean to sound like a spoiled baby. Christmas was lovely. We were blessed with quality family time and awesome gifts, even the unexpected ones.) Anyhoosers, our plan for the evening is to ignore the post holiday detris and watch Bucket List. And then maybe make our own bucket list? Maybe.
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12 comments:
urgh. Maybe you could exchange it for a smaller one. Or sell it and buy a smaller one? OR just sell it and explain your yard REALLY didn't have the room.
OR set it up and let the kids play on it and suffer through the smaller yard. (till they get tired of it and then sell it? )
ACK! Does it...STORE in any way? Like, so you could bring it out sometimes (like every fall when the grass is doomed anyway) and have it put away sometimes (like the rest of the year)?
oh that sounds like my folks. they are coming for xmas tomorrow and my mom had to call my sister to ask if she can take some of the gifts b/c everything won't fit in there car !!!!
i would say thank you and just explain you might have to store it and bring it out for parties and such or doen't even tell him,
Can you bring it up in conversation with him, and kick in something about safety, like: "I KNOW the kids will LOVE the trampoline and I'm excited to see their faces adn watch them bounce away the hours but I'm trying to figure out how to make such an AWESOME, BIG trampoline SAFE in our small yard."
I bring up safety because my high school boyfriend had a HUGE trampoline in his backyard and, as it turns out, the bigger the trampoline the more capable it is of SENDING SMALL CHILDREN HEADFIRST OVER FENCES. (Okay, that only happened once, and it was a small TEENAGER not a child, but STILL.)
Maybe he'd follow your line of thought and thoughtfully say "Oh, I didn't think of that, would you like to return it?"??
Does your dad have a big yard? Maybe it could be one more reason to be excited about visiting Grandpa!
Im with LoriD. COuldn't he have it at his house?
CBHM- it has the netting or "sides" or whatever, to prevent such launchings, I'm assuming. And we HAVE mentioned to him our lack of space, our safety concerns, the fact that some home owners insurances don't allow trampolines... He just laughs and says "you'll figure something out."
Swistle- I don't think it can store anywhere- at least not without taking it apart every time...
LoriD and Tracy- I've thought about leaving it at his house, but he lives 550 miles away, and we only go there 2 or 3 times a year... We're still considering this option...
Wow, this is way worse than our story, which is just that we begged both our parents to keep it to one or two gifts per kids. They SORT of complied, by giving each kid one big BOX, but inside the box was like eight gifts apiece. Nice.
A trampoline for a tiny yard, though. Wow. I am shaking my head with sympathy.
I would sell it on Craigslist or Ebay and buy something smaller. You could even post on craigslist asking if anyone wants to trade. Maybe there's someone out there who actually needs a bigger one. Your dad won't notice.
Then I would follow swistle's advice and just make setting it up each fall part of the joy of the fall.
Or just sell it and buy something you'll actually use/want. :-)
Oh no - that's almost as bad as someone buying you a pool you don't want! (Can you imagine?) I don't even know what to say. . .
Oh, man. I have no suggestions, just sympathy.
In other news, you're tagged for a meme.
Well, THERE'S a man for you!
Do you think you could manage to cry when you tell him it doesn't fit? Then he would know you feel really bad, and the Dad in him would kick in to do whatever it would take to make you STOP crying. That's really my only idea. But, I would also go with the safety thing - it will be almost impossible to set it up and have all the netting, etc, in that tight of a space, and if anyone ever DID fall out, they could be trapped between it and the fence, or injured but unable to be reached easily.
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