How do you modify an outdoor tent so it can be inside the house?

[mommyshoppinghabit]

Sorry if this is not in the right section of MDC. I haven't visited the boards in a while. DS had wanted a bed tent but since his mattress is full-sized, I coudn't find much on the internet except these (colors are ugly) so I bought this one but silly me as I have never been camping in my life, I forgot that tents are built to be pitched into the earth, not sitting on top of the ground...
So now we got Ds's full size mattress into the tent and I'm scared the poles are going to all of a sudden come undone and thwack someone in the face or collapse on DS in the middle of the night. What can I do to steady the two cross poles that hold up the roof of the tent? I was thinking of taking two bungee chords and making an X underneath the mattress to hold the poles in place. Any other ideas?

[4evermom]

Tent stakes are mostly to keep the tent from blowing away, ime. I don't stake mine half the time. I bet your tent is alright as you have it. Those poles are flexible and will move around regardless. I suppose you could build a wood frame (2X4s) on the floor around the tent and attach the corners of the tent to that somehow. Keeping the bottom corners in place will keep the poles from popping out if that does prove to be a problem.

[rhiOrion]

I agree that you usually don't need tent stakes. I also agree that it's probably fine like you have it.

[4evermom]

Oh, and I wouldn't do bungie cords like that because they will pull the corners of the tent in. You'd want them fastened being pulled out, if anything. Does that make sense? You want the base of the tent to stay wide and spread out so the tent poles stay in place.

[lifeguard]

I only stake my tents if I expect a big storm or I'm setting it up & leaving it empty for some reason.