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Jun
14
Swing Set Sticker Shock
Filed Under Daddy Fun
I don’t know if any of you have looked into buying your kids a swing set for the backyard, but man…, those things are expensive! Our kids love going to the park – love playing outside – so my wife and I decided to look into getting something for home that they could use whenever they wanted. We had a budget in mind: less than $1000 (I was actually hoping to get one for closer to $750). Well the first place I looked – Rainbow Play Systems – their starting price for an assembled swing set was $2000! The set we really liked was $3500!!! The quality of the product, however, was fantastic. I would feel safe climbing around this thing. We have friends who paid less than $500 for thier swing set, but my youngest daughter – who weighs all of 27 lbs – can make this thing rock back and forth when she’s swinging.
Despite the minor heart attack the sticker price gave me, my kids LOVED the set. They loved ALL the sets. The have them all set up for the kids to try out, which is all part of their evil scheme to get you to buy one. After seeing how much fun my girls had, I was almost ready to cancel our driveway repair and buy the swing set.
I held back, however, and decided to check out a set from BJ’s that someone told me about and another that Wal*Mart sold. Both of these sets, although nice, seemed flimsy compared to the Rainbow playset. The wood was thin and felt like it would break easily. Splinters were another thing I worried about. The price, however, was more what we had in mind, but I guess here’s where the saying, “You get what you pay for” runs through your mind.
We checked out another brand today – Woodplay. It was a 30 minute ride to the showroom, but we spent more than an hour playing on the indoor set-ups. We were the only customers in the store (one of the benefits of being a stay-at-home dad – you can move freely among the earth while everyone else is at work), and again, the girls had a blast. “We never want to go home,” my daughter said. I even got to play this time, trying out the swings and climbing into the fort. The quality of the set was just as good as the Rainbow Play system – solid – and the price was a little less. They’re even offering free installation through August. Even though the price of this set was $500 less than the Rainbow set, I was thrilled despite the fact that it was still 3X what we originally set out to spend.
It’s going to be hard to say no at this point. If you saw how much fun my daughters had playing on these, you’d understand. Sorry driveway…, looks like you have to wait another year for that facelift.
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6 Responses to “Swing Set Sticker Shock”
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But… when they get tired of it, what then? I’m sticking to the city park near enough for us to walk to. My taxes pay for it and its upkeep, and it won’t become an obstacle in the yard when the kids get a hankering for something new.
Yes…, that thought has crossed my mind. I would hate to have to put the swing set in the basement next to the weight bench, treadmill and various other items that seemed like good ideas at the time.
Chris,
When I read the swingset post I flashed back to Naples, Italy in 1978. 4 year old Beth was so proud that she could climb up the ladder on the slide all by herself. Got to the top, sat at the top of the slide, turned to wave to me by the side of the slide and toppled right over the edge. Fortunately my side of the family has very hard heads so no permanent damage other than my almost heart attack!
There is actually a deep philosophical point to discuss here. Putting in nice swingsets, pools, playhouses, etc not only is fun for the girls but also acts as an attraction to their little playmates who also want to play on the set, swim in the pool, and fry up some pretend chicken in the play house kitchen. That means that your span of control will increase – 1 Chris spread around more little kids. That is tiring and sometimes worrisome.
But there is a pattern here that can pay huge benefits when these precious little giggling bundles turn into teenagers (be afraid..be very afraid!) There will be other investments that you will discuss over the years which are designed to make YOUR house the “cool place” for the kids to hang out and play – hang out and listen to music or watch movies, etc.
When the kids are at your house (yes, eating you out of house and home) you know who they are with, you know where they are, and you know what they are doing. This is an immense relief when they are teens because they are subject to so many influences and their sense of personal privacy is VERY well developed so they are unlikely to share a lot with you about what is going on in their lives.
So I think that the swingset is a great start. In addition to the fact that they will get exercise, be outside and not in front of the TV, you are starting to build the idea that your place should be the hub so that when they get older they are very comfortable with their friends coming over to their house to hang out. Certainly having gangly and strangely dressed teens lounging around on your furniture like spawning salmon is a mixed blessing, but it will give you a great deal of peace of mind. Given what I see from your Blog I suspect that you and your wife will also become parents that your kids’ friends will be able to share things with too if they are around enough to be comfortable and that is a precious gift as well.
Jim
PS. As an example of children’s privacy concerns – even past teenhood, my youngest contributed an article to a former boyfriend’s web humor magazine – when she was 22 or so. I happened to find that article when I had “googled” her to get an old soccer article from her days as a soccer star. It was very funny and well written so I congratulated her. She flipped out and accused me of “snooping into her life”. I replied “Honey, do you see those letters at the start of the URL. WWW? Are you really telling me that my reading an article that you have posted to the World Wide Web available to any of the billions of people with internet access constitutes snooping?”
With bad grace she finally muttered that perhaps she had over-reacted just a little.
:)
The kids love to go to the park, but I look at the $1300 invested in playscape stuff in the back yard as a huge help FOR ME. I can open the back door, shoo the kids out there and get stuff done inside.
Of course we set everything up with this in mind, so the set kind of takes of the best part of our yard to insure that I was able to see the goings-on.
Dear Grandpa Jim -
I hadn’t thought far enough into the future to think that I might actually WANT all my daughters’ teenage friends hanging around the house, but your comment has me thinking that might not be a bad idea. As far as my current “cool” set-up goes, here’s where I’m actually already set – I just need my kids to grow into my obsession. Home theater system is pretty state-of-the-art, including living room that converts to a “movie theater” with 92″ 16:9 screen. Several iPods, a sound dock and a huge Cinema Display hooked up to my Mac. When she’s into that kind of stuff, she’s not going to WANT to go anywhere else – she’ll have it the best at home.
Great collection of stickers at Sticker Giant…..