If you have a swingset, do your kids use it?

[NicaG]

I'm thinking of getting a swingset/playset for our yard. I have a 5-year-old ds and a dd who will be 2 in September. Our yard is fairly small, and ds has very little interest in playing in the yard. I'm hoping a swingset might provide enough fun to keep both kids outside this summer, and I think it would be fun for playdates. But I rarely see neighborhood kids playing on their playsets, and I wonder if they're worth the expense. We do have a couple of playgrounds within walking distance, and a few more that are 5-10 minute drive from us. Maybe that's more fun than a backyard playset? Do your kids use your playset? Was it a good purchase?

[MamaChicken]

We have a very simple set- just two swings and a teeter-totter. My 3 yo DD and 1.5 yo twin boys play on it all the time. But they all love to be outside and will play with barkdust to keep themselves occupied.

[Fuamami]

Yes, but we just have three swings. My dh built it, and it's excessively tall (IMO), so they go really high and are really fun. We also have separate teeter-totters that don't get nearly as much use as the swings.

[Drummer's Wife]

Yes, they did. I say did b/c we had to dig it up due to a leaking sprinkler pipe and need to re-cement it... But before that, our kids, ages 3-9, played on it frequently. They still play outside just as often w/o a swingset, but I know they miss it. We have a simple metal framed set, fwiw.

[Dandelionkid]

Yup- swings are really popular over here. We have a tiny set but the kids love it- not so much the ordinary seat but the two-person one and a fancier one-person one.

[A&A]

My kids are on the swings all the time!

[ledzepplon]

My kids, ages 6, 4, and 1, are on ours every day. But the equally big draw for the boys is the sand that we have all around it. The LOVE the sand. Dd mostly loves the swings and the fort above the slide.

[Just1More]

Yes. We have one we got for free from a friend. She got it for $25 from a yard sale. All that to say, it really isn't much, and it's not in good shape at all. Just a little metal thing.

But they play on it everyday. Sometimes for hours. It's very much like the one I played on when I was a child. And I dearly loved it.

[rik8144]

My kids love their swing set. It has one slide, two regular swings, one 'baby' swing, and a large deck type area they can play in. Underneath the deck is a sandbox. Their interest changes all the time thought. One week they want to swing all the time and the next week they are playing house on the deck.

[jake&zaxmom]

I guess my kids are the oddballs of this thread We got one of the wooden ones with monkey bars, fort, sandbox, bench, fireman's pole, swings, rope ladder and slide. A bunch of family members went in together and got it back in early 2004. It was about $600.
Sounds cool, looks cool, a lot of thought and planning went into it but...there was never really that much interest. I can't remember the last time I saw them touch it. Sometimes the neighbors will swing for a minute or two but that's it.
My boys aren't bratty or spoiled. They really do appreciate the things that they have and the LOVE to play outside and spend hours at a time outside...just not on the playset.

[Tilia]

Yes, my DD plays on her swingset every day. She likes the swings the most but she also slides. The neighbor girl likes to climb the slide, and also swings every day with her Grandpa.

[ElliesMomma]

got ours free from a neighbor whose kids had outgrown it. it's pretty simple, three swings and a slide. we added monkey bars. our daughter loves it and uses it every chance she gets. but she's a very adventurous/athletic kid by nature.

not saying this is your situation -- but i have observed that some kids are just naturally less inclined for physical play, and sometimes their parents want to encourage physical play and hope a swingset will help their children do more activities outside. for example, we have some other neighbors who bought a very expensive swingset/fort with climbing wall, etc. -- like $2,000+ and woodchips for another $500 -- and the 4 year old who didn't like physical activity play much before doesn't use the playset now, either.

[mamazee]

Only if there are other kids over to play on it with.

[newbymom05]

We have a very basic metal one from Kettler that's just monkey bars, trapeze and swing and my 5 and 2 yr old are out there pretty much every day on it. Not for hrs or anything, but enough to justify the purchase.

ETA I'd involve your LOs in the purchase. DH and I thought they had to have some sort of fort and/or climbing wall, but DS1 was pretty insistent that he only wanted monkey bars and rings/trapeze. While I'm sure many kids like slides, both of mine never have. Ask and see--maybe yours would be happy w/ a tree swing and Little Tykes sandbox.

[lolar2]

Based on my extensive experience doing volunteer playground duty at the preschool , it seems to me that sandboxes and slides are better play value (based on how long most kids play on them vs. how much they cost). Swings are hit-or-miss.

[AllisonR]

Originally Posted by lolar2

Based on my extensive experience doing volunteer playground duty at the preschool , it seems to me that sandboxes and slides are better play value (based on how long most kids play on them vs. how much they cost). Swings are hit-or-miss.

This makes sense to me. My kids use our swing, but I think more because they are out there using the sandbox and playhouse and gardening... so the swing gets some use also. If it was just the swing, I don't think they would use it much at all. We live within walking distance to three other playgrounds, so we tend to rotate between them all. FWIW, we bought a really cheap one that DH attached with ropes to our apple tree. Maybe see if you could find a low-budget one, then if it gets used, great, and if not, then no major money down the drain.

[*jeanine*]

Originally Posted by Fuamami

Yes, but we just have three swings. My dh built it, and it's excessively tall (IMO), so they go really high and are really fun.

This is ours, too. We intentionally bought "different" swings, so it wouldn't be the same as the park - we have a horse swing made out of a tire, a spring swing (a disc you sit on with a spring in the rope) and a "twizzler" which is a bar you hang on and it spins. There's also a rope ladder on one of the cross-members. The kids are almost-9, 5, and 2 1/2. They use it a lot. I'm contemplating adding monkey bars to it somehow - I think the 9 yo would like that, and it might keep him from literally climbing up the walls of our house. We also have a sandbox which they like, especially when I turn the hose on to make rivers in it. And we have a little plastic slide ($7 at a garage sale) and a little plastic play-structure ($20 at a garage sale 7 years ago). Those still get used - even by the almost 9 yo.
Our old neighbors had a wooden costco one, with swings, slide, rock wall, fort, and their kids rarely used it. They were 3 and 6 (?).

[broodymama]

We have one like the Costco one the PP described - it has swings, a slide, a rock wall and a little clubhouse/fort at the top. Our kids play on it all the time, it was definitely a worthwhile purchase for us. (But I already knew from park playdates that our kids liked play structures like that.) I still like a little supervision when DD2 goes up the ladder since we haven't had it very long, but I know she'll get more proficient at it and she loves going down the slide. They also have built-in playmates, though, so there's always someone to play with.

[Beppie]

YES! We got our swingset from a neighbor who was moving, it's nothing fancy. . But my girls swing on it every day. We have a fenced in yard... they go out by themselves (ages 2 and 4) and swing on it together while i do something boring, like wash dishes in the kitchen or water the garden! i can't imagine life without swings here. my girls like swinging so much that during our long winter we even put swings in our house (attached from the doorframe) ....!

[Cascadian]

Yes, yes, a million times YES!!! We traded up from our toddler set to an awesome huge 'activity' swing set with swings, seesaw, monkey bars, fort, slide, climbing wall...for my 4 and 6 yr old, and all of their friends, it is the central focus of their outdoor play! They're on that thing for hours! There is something soothing about swinging (I do it with them once in a while..), and the fort turns into every imaginable fantasy base (rocketship, pirate ship...fort lol ) It's be amazing for their gross motor skills and strength as well - my older DD was lacking in that, being a late walker and a sensitive child who dreaded slides in playgrounds for years. Totally recommend it!!

ETA they still do go to playgrounds and have fun there, but it's so wonderful to have them be in their backyard without an adult, to indulge in fantasy play with the swingset for as long as they want. They cycle between the swing set, the kiddie pool, the sandbox and the flowerbeds in the summer.

I read the rest of the thread and realized that I was the odd one out with my kids liking their set