backyard playsetsIt's that point of calendar year again: playset season. Enough time when millions of parents get ready to shell out thousands for small-scale yard jungle gyms because of their beloved children.For years I'd managed to efficiently avert this requirement of suburban family life. And then, 1 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 wanted one.If we were outside in the garden my kids wandered around aimlessly, invariably going back inside to the sofa. I needed to shoo them again outdoors and shout, "Go play!" But using what? We didn't have a pool or swings or perhaps a paved driveway to get on. I decided for my own sanity and their survival we needed a playset.Visions of summer times whiled away on a swingset or in the attached fort with children's laughter floating by over a balmy air flow, danced in my head. But I needed one thing to be flawlessly clear. EASILY was going to take out another mortgage to finance a playset, my kids were heading to have to live on it--literally.The playset we eyed-up possessed a house-like enclosure and a picnic stand and was practically as big as my house. It was certainly a suitable dwelling for just two smallish people. They could come inside for the wintertime but not until then. In case we ran some electric wiring and domestic plumbing to the fort, I would never have to see them again.But much like most fantasies, once became aware, the facts on the ground don't quite match the eye-sight, therefore it was with the playset.My research on playsets commenced prior to spring because I thought if we bought in the off-season, we might be able to get a reasonable price. I had been mistaken. You will find no reasonable prices as it pertains to playsets. I don't know if the hardware is stable silver or if the composition is constructed of rare, endangered real wood, but bargains aren't to be enjoyed. So I considered a choice a friend suggested: used playsets. You can get a whole playset for half the price. That had my name written all over it.Unfortunately, it didn't have my husband's name written on it. He was against the whole playset idea from the beginning--it would damage his grass. If, however, I would insist he recognize he has children and that they require gadgets, then he motivated he would desire a deluxe model worth being placed atop his pristine garden.Still, I prolonged in my seek out pre-owned models, persuaded I could fulfill us both. And I was successful to find a used playset in relatively good condition large enough for two school-age kids. It even experienced a rock wall structure. But the best part was it only cost about a thousand bucks. Win was mine.Then my husband described the playset was anywhere beyond your tri-state area, and we didn't have a car large enough to move it even if we have want to take the half-day drive to look obtain it. I nodded silently. I grasped. And with much heart, I quit on my used playset search.For those who have never had the experience of shopping for a playset, it's quite a daunting task. There are many makes and models and levels and configurations to choose from, and everything the actual playthings are extra. I suppose you might buy a fairly cheap wooden structure, but all of your children can do is stare at it wistfully since it would be nothing more than an oversized sawhorse.I continued to comparison shop online for weeks until the day finally arrived when I discovered my dream swing action set. It got everything I'd dreamed. The only real problem was I couldn't manage it. During the period of the next weeks, I went to the playset several times, hoping to happen upon a deal. Then, mid-summer, it finally took place. The company got what constituted a storewide sales in playset circles: free gangplank weekend. I was sold.Free gangplank weekend was a huge coup for me, and I breathed a sigh of relief that the hunting and agonizing and planning was over. Then your sales guy hit me with the invoice. Slightly below $2,000. And it was FREE gangplank weekend!The playset has been bought and payed for, delivered and erected inside our yard for nearly each year, but it hasn't been used much. Or possibly I should say it was not played with just as much as $2,000 would warrant. We haven't made our cash back onto it yet, but a few items have been worthwhile their price. The swings and trapeze pub. That's really all you have to. Take it from someone whose been burnt.The kids still wander aimlessly about the backyard, ignoring the main one component, the most expensive one, for which they lobbied so vehemently, the fort. It rests empty aside from the birds and the squirrels. But maybe if we installed a Tv set in there...