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It's that point of time again: playset season. The time when millions of parents prepare yourself to pay out thousands of dollars for small-scale back garden jungle gyms for their beloved children.For a long time I'd were able to effectively avert this dependence on suburban family life. And, one day something happened.I cracked.I can't even blame my kids. They never badgered me or complained. I'm not even sure they wanted a playset. No. I needed one.Whenever we were outside in the back garden my kids wandered around aimlessly, invariably returning inside to the couch. I needed to shoo them back again outdoors and shout, "Go play!" But using what? We didn't have a pool or swings or even a paved driveway to get on. I chosen for my very own sanity and their success we needed a playset.Visions of warmer summer months days and nights whiled away on the swingset or in the attached fort with children's laughter floating by over a balmy breeze, danced in my head. But I wanted a very important factor to be flawlessly clear. EASILY would take out a second mortgage to funding a playset, my kids were going to have to go on it--literally.The playset we eyed-up possessed a house-like enclosure and a picnic desk and was basically as large as my house. It was certainly a suitable dwelling for just two smallish people. They could come inside for the winter but not until then. Of course, if we ran some electric wiring and plumbing to the fort, I might never have to see them again.But much like most fantasies, once noticed, the facts on the floor don't quite match the perspective, and so it was with the playset.My research on playsets commenced well before spring and coil because I thought if we bought in the off-season, we would be capable of geting a reasonable price. I got mistaken. There are no affordable prices as it pertains to playsets. I don't know if the hardware is solid yellow metal or if the structure is constructed of rare, endangered timber, but bargains are not to be had. So I considered a choice a friend suggested: used playsets. One could get a whole playset for 50 percent the purchase price. That possessed my name written all over it.Unfortunately, it didn't have my husband's name written onto it. He was against the whole playset idea from the beginning--it would ruin his lawn. If, however, I was going to insist he recognize he has children and they require playthings, then he motivated he would need a deluxe model worth being placed atop his pristine grass.Still, I prolonged in my seek out pre-owned models, persuaded I could satisfy us both. And I was successful to find a used playset in relatively good shape large enough for just two school-age kids. It even experienced a rock wall membrane. But the best benefit was it only cost about a thousand bucks. Victory was mine.Then my hubby described the playset was somewhere beyond your tri-state area, and we didn't have a car large enough to transport it even if we have want to take the half-day drive going obtain it. I nodded silently. I comprehended. And with much heart, I quit on my used playset search.For those who have never had the knowledge of shopping for a playset, it's a significant daunting task. There are several makes and models and levels and configurations to choose from, and everything the actual playthings are extra. I suppose you may buy a fairly cheap wooden structure, but your children would be able to do is stare at it wistfully because it would be only an large sawhorse.I continued to shop around online for weeks before day finally emerged when I spotted my dream swing set. It acquired everything I'd thought. The only real problem was I couldn't find the money for it. Over the course of the next weeks, I visited the playset many times, hoping to happen upon a sale. Then, mid-summer, it finally occurred. The company had what constituted a storewide deal in playset circles: free gangplank weekend. I had been sold.Free gangplank weekend was a huge coup for me personally, and I breathed a sigh of comfort that the hunting and agonizing and planning was over. Then the sales guy strike me with the expenses. Slightly below $2,000. And it was FREE gangplank weekend!The playset has been bought and payed for, supplied and erected inside our yard for almost yearly, but it hasn't been used much. Or possibly I will say it hasn't been played with up to $2,000 would warrant. We haven't made our money back onto it yet, but a few items have been worthy of their price. The swings and trapeze pub. That's really all you need. Take it from someone whose been burned.The kids still wander aimlessly about the yard, ignoring the main one component, the priciest one, that they lobbied so vehemently, the fort. It sits empty aside from the parrots and the squirrels. But maybe if we installed a TV in there...