Backyard Swing Set Ideas

When I was young, I didn’t spend a lot of my time inside. I didn’t have a lot of toys, and I rarely played with the ones that I had. I spend a large chunk of my time outside playing. I was lucky that I grew up in a close knit neighborhood, and we were very safe from things like traffic and strange people. We had wide open spaces in which to play, and we never felt like we were in any type of danger. One thing we spent a lot of time playing with was the swing set that was in our yard.

It was a simple set, but most of them were back then. I’m not that old, but thinking about it I suddenly feel like I am. It was what most families had. It had two swings, a horse that swung back and forth, and a slide. It was made of metal, and I think it was painted red. I can’t quite remember now. This swing set probably didn’t cost very much at all, but it did what it had to do, and held up to the abuse rather well.

There was one problem with our swing set that actually made it a little more fun to play with, though it probably wasn’t the best thing. My mom never had it cemented into the ground. If you went very high, the swing set would tip. We had to learn how high we could go before we would make the swing set topple over. There were time we would take turns holding the legs down so we could swing higher, or we would simple let if fall over. Luckily, we never got hurt. I think my mom would have had a heart attack if she saw us doing that. We were smart enough to do it when we knew she wasn’t looking.

I have no idea what ever happened to that swing set, but I imagine it has rusted and been removed since we lived in that house. We left it behind when we moved, and we never had another one. I would love to put one up for my daughter, but we can’t have anything cemented into the ground where we live now. Though I’m sure I could watch my daughter close enough to be sure she was safe, I can’t trust that the neighborhood kids would leave the swing set alone when we weren’t outdoors. She’s just going to have to wait until we move I guess. Until then, there are always swings at the park.

Tags: Backyard