s/o: was your outdoor swingset worth it?

[fivi2]

I am currently debating an outdoor swingset. My girls are 3. We have a plastic little tikes 8 in 1 climber now (craigslist). honestly they don't play with it a lot. We have a playhouse and a sandbox. The sandbox gets the most play, followed by running around and digging in the dirt. We have a park within a couple blocks with a playscape. The elementary school is also a couple blocks with two more playscapes, but we can only use when school is out.

So - would you get one of the big swing sets for the back yard? At what age did your dc start to really use it?

[AngelaS]

Absolutely. We got our CedarWorks when our oldest was 17 months and she's been able to climb it and go down the slide since day one.

She's now 11. She still loves to swing, sit in the fort with her dog and a book, climb across the top of the monkey bars and play any number of games on it with friends and little sisters.

My other two girls are younger and love to play on it too. We've definitely gotten our money's worth!

[Karenn]

We have a Sunray from Costco. We got it when DS was 3 1/2 and DD was 18 mos. We get a lot of play out of it and have from the beginning. Their interest in playing on it ebbs and flows, but I still think we're getting our money's worth most of the time. I think they play on it more now that they are old enough to be out there without me standing right next to them while they play.

I do think we could have gotten away with something smaller or cheaper. (Maybe metal?) I'm especially glad we didn't pay the money for a "real" rainbow or cedarworks set. My kids seem to spend most of their time in the fort or on the slide. They do some swinging too, but it's the fort that really captures their imagination.

[misshollygolightly]

We don't have one and DS is too young, but it might be worth considering how many months out of the year the weather in your town is suitable for outside play. I had one growing up and loved it, but now that I live farther north I'm not so sure it will be an indispensable part of my DS's childhood ;)

[AngelaS]

It was 30 degrees here today and my girls were outside on it. LOL

[KrisM]

Yes, absolutely. We went with a Rainbow and got it when DS1 was 2 years. I expect another 10 years from it. It's in good shape and has gotten a ton of use.

[fivi2]

We don't have one and DS is too young, but it might be worth considering how many months out of the year the weather in your town is suitable for outside play. I had one growing up and loved it, but now that I live farther north I'm not so sure it will be an indispensable part of my DS's childhood ;)

We live in the south, so hot summers are our biggest problem! but thanks for the reminder :)

Thanks everyone for all the input!

[brittone2]

Yes, but my kids live outside for 3/4 of the year LOL. We're in NC. If you aren't the type of mom to enjoy being outside a lot, then it may not be worth it, but our kids get a ton of use.

We started w/ a metal set from TRU and that still gets a lot of play. DH built a separate playfort (about 5-6 feet off the ground) w/ a slide coming down from it, and a playhouse underneath the "deck" of the fort. We put a little playmarket w/ a canopy coming out one side of the playhouse on the bottom.

DS is 5, DD is 2, and they play out there a *lot*. They also have their sandbox, and one of those excavator toys to play with in the pea gravel. It all gets a lot of use and the whole neighborhood hangs out on summer evenings (which has its good and bad points LOL).

[Melbel]

Over 8 years ago, we purchased a simple Rainbow swing-set w/ slide and fort, delivered and installed for $1,100. After about 4 years, we paid the company to move and reassemble the set for about $150 IIRC. My DC still use the set almost every day and we have been happy with our purchase. I am not happy, however, with Rainbow's customer service. We have a couple of boards that have warped on the ladder to the fort area. When I emailed pictures, they agreed to the repair under the lifetime warranty but insisted that we present an original receipt that DH had purged.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We've got a Play-A-Round set from Sam's and it is a hit. We like that we can send them out there to play with a mother's helper/uncle/grandparents while we get stuff done inside. We like that we can have friends over for dinner and it is immediate entertainment for all the kids. We can host playgroup easily (we have other things in the fenced in yard) and the adults can all sit down on real furniture while they play.

All these events kinda lead to the same thing...we can be more social because it is in our yard and we like having people over. Otherwise, we'd be kinda randomly seeing strangers at the other parks. With multiple children, I find it just a lot easier to walk outside than to get to another park. We changed out the older kid swings for baby/toddler swings so we can have multiple kids of the same age swinging.

[DrSally]

I'm bookmarking this thread for ideas b/c I'm think of getting one this spring.

[mommyof4]

[QUOTE=fivi2;2306338]We live in the south, so hot summers are our biggest problem! but thanks for the reminder :)

My kids seem to play with the swing set the a lot in the winter!! They were out there today! The fort is the part they play with the most! They are 9 and 7...

[sbirmantaz]

The thing that sold me on one was when one my dh coworker said he's had some pretty great conversations with his kids in on the swing set! If you can afford even a smaller set from a good quality company, I think it would be worth it. Cedarworks has great CS too!