If you have a backyard play set, what features got used the longest?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
Anyone have any input on how old your kids were when they stopped using monkey bars? They add a lot to the price so only want to do it if they're likely to still be used when my kids are, say, 13 and 10 or so. |
Anonymous
| We finally took ours down last year with kids in HS. They still occasionally used the swings and liked to sit up on the monkey bars (that were above the swings) with friends to talk. |
Anonymous
|
The wood sets always age poorly. Get a Lifetime playset like this... that they can use for many years
https://www.lifetime.com/swing-sets |
Anonymous
| Swings and trapeze. The climbing wall and rope ladder almost never used. The picnic table rarely used. We had a fun double swing that used a lot (pretend rocket) and then also a swap out that was like a skateboard used as they got older. |
Anonymous
We have a wood gorilla set from Costco. It is now 13 years also and we are finally getting rid of it. The component parts are still solid although some of the wood pieces (particularly horizontal ones like the stairs and roof over playhouse) need replacing. |
Anonymous
We have our red wood set restained every few years, its about 9 years old now and still in great shape. |
Anonymous
Until the termites destroy it |
Anonymous
|
The main issue for monkey bars longevity is height - once your kid is too tall to have feet off the ground, it's no fun. We looked at Lifetime (which also seems good) but ended up getting a set from ActivPlay, previously Skywalker Trampolines, because it had the highest money bars and ninja line. Our specific set isn't sold anymore but it's basically a central grid they can climb in, with a "jungle line" off to one side and a hanging bridge on the other. Still gets used at age 11.
I don't like anything with a roof because it's just a place for spiderwebs and wasp nests to develop. Ditto for any kind of tunnel. We have a separate swing set. Although it's well made (Equinox brand coated wood) we could never get the ground anchors in, and now it tips when big kids swing hard. We need to either remove it or figure out different anchors. I have seen so many trampoline injuries among my friends' kids, including a recent one that required surgery. I would not do it, but if you must have one, get a net. |
Anonymous
|
We put our playset/swing set up when our kids were 2 and 4. We put a play kitchen in the underneath playhouse area and that got a ton of use in the first 2ish years- the kids would have a restaurant and we would order from the window while sitting on the swings.
Now the swings/swing adjacent things (things that hang and can spin for example) get the most use, and the slide. They do still like being on the top part of the fort as a hideout (now 6 and8) |
Anonymous
| Biggest waste of money ever for us. Never got out to use |
Anonymous
| The treehouse portion was used constantly. They took board games, books, and toys up there. It was also endless imagination with pirates, spies, robber hide-away, etc. there is a ladder up the back and a slide down the front. Then they threw balls up to the windows, up and down the slide, etc. The swings were used second. But, that little playhouse in the sky was like a private kid club. |
Anonymous
| What dimensions do you need on a swingset to make it work for bigger kids? Are the 6 foot tall ones too short? |
Anonymous
| Do big kids still really use the trapeze bar? For what? |
Anonymous
| A tetherball set was surprisingly popular with my kids. |
Anonymous
My nieces (now 12 and 10) and nephew (now 3) have similar spacing, and my nieces have appreciated a high "tree house" that is only accessible by an access route that the little one hasn't yet mastered yet. He's got a play house under the slide. The girls will sit up there with friends for hours whispering, giggling, painting toe nails etc . . . Besides that, another vote for the swings as something long lived. |