Do your kids use those big backyard playsets

[Momit]

If you or friends/neighbors have one? I'm talking about the big cedar ones like Rainbow, Gorilla, etc.

We are looking for a new house and I have become strangely obsessed with putting one up in the backyard to surprise DS when we move in. But I'm also kind of afraid that it will take up tons of space and he will rarely use it. He's newly 5 and has one more year before starting kindy if that matters.

Thanks!

[Philly Mom]

My DD is 2 and loves hers. Our neighbors are 8 and 9. They and their friends use their set all the time. My DN is 5.5 and wishes she had a set. She plays on one any chance she gets.

[Melaine]

We have only had ours for a couple months I guess? With all the rain they haven't played as much as they wanted to, but they love it. I was also obsessed with surprising them. I wanted to somehow have it installed while they were gone or something. My parents ended up gifting it to us so they called and we took the girls into the front yard and gave them the cell phone and my mom told them that a truck was coming to bring them a swing set and then the truck came around the corner! They were thrilled!

ETA: We have never had a swingset of any kind so I can't know for sure that a smaller, less spectacular one wouldn't have also thrilled them. I do know that our particular set, which is custom made by a local company, has really really high swings. And I think that makes a big difference for them since they are already almost 7 and not too short. They spend the most time on the swings although they really like to play up in the covered area as well. The slide seems to get more use when other kids are over.

[KrisM]

We've had a Rainbow set for 7 years and it still gets used a lot. My 9 year old still swings on it (they all swing). The make the slide into a water slide in the summer. They play games on it, tag around it and on it, etc. Tonight, my 3 and 4 neighbor kids were hanging out on it.

[AngelaS]

We have had our set for fourteen years and it gets lots of use. My oldest still swings on it every day.

[lmwbasye]

So much so that I disassembled it myself while DH was deployed and had the movers ship it to the UK. We put it back up in the last few weeks and they are on it every. single. day. at the ages of nearly 6 and 9. I don't see it not being used and enjoyed for years still.