My Parents Bought My Son a Cool Birthday Present. My Wife Refuses to Let Him Have It.

Pay Dirt July 15, 20266:00 AM Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Aneduard/Getty Images Plus. Pay Dirt is Slate’s money advice column. Have a question? Send it to Kristin and Ilyce here. (It’s anonymous!) Dear Pay Dirt, My wife, “Lauren,” and I have two boys, ages 5 and 7. Last month, when our older son “Connor” had a birthday, my parents were going to surprise him with a trampoline. Lauren pitched a fit when she got wind of it and said the kids would be using a trampoline “over my dead body.” My wife then proceeded to rant about all of the ways kids injure themselves when using trampolines (she’s a doctor and thinks she knows everything; my sisters and I had trampolines growing up and we were fine!). She told my parents they needed to return it because we wouldn’t be accepting it. The p