Taped a tarp down, added dish soap, connected the hose. Seemed like a solid plan. What actually happened: the tarp shifted, my 9yo slid into the fence, my wife slipped and twisted her ankle, and the hose detached and flooded half the yard.
Everyone's fine but tbh I'm sticking to the sprinkler method from now on. Sometimes the simple approach is better.
Did the 9yo at least get some good slides in before hitting the fence or was it a total wash?
Your wife twisted her ankle and you're calling it epic fail? bro take care of her first lol. Slip-n-slides can wait
Did the 9yo at least have fun for like 30 seconds before the fence incident? Or was it immediately catastrophic?
oh man the tarp shift is what gets me. you did EVERYTHING right and physics was just like 'nah'. how's your wife's ankle doing?
oh man the slip-n-slide disaster. Did your wife's ankle turn out okay? That's the real casualty here beyond the tarp chaos.
The fact that you added dish soap for extra slip is actually genius engineering, so this isn't really a fail on the concept. That's just bad luck on the execution
The dish soap thing - yeah that makes it TOO slippery apparently. Pro move is like baby shampoo mixed in, way more control. Also heavy duty duct tape the corners, not regular tape.
The wife twisting her ankle is rough. Hope she heals up fast. Honestly best outcome considering it could've been worse with a 9yo sliding into fence.
This is why I just hose the kids down in the backyard and call it a day now lol. No planning, no equipment, same result, lower injury count.
Responding to the duct tape comment - we actually had proper anchoring and it still shifted. I think the issue was the ground was too uneven. Lesson learned: level it first
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We did this exact same thing two summers ago. Protip if you try again: stake the corners with actual stakes, not just tape. Game changer