What Is In Your Backyard?

I live in town, where the houses are mostly two story, close together and have small backyards.  You can either have a pool, a trampoline or a swingset, but there is only room for one of these unless you are VERY lucky and have a large backyard.   When my oldest son was four, we bought him a large wooden swing set.  It had great swingset accessories like the ones found at Swing Set Mall.  It had a climbing tree with foot pegs, cool swings, a built in picnic table and swinging bars.  My husband and I could grill out, have time together on the patio and watch him play.  The neighborhood kids would play and everyone would have a ball.

We moved from the house with the swingset before my youngest was big enough to play on it and now we have a pool in our backyard.  The pool is great, but in the cooler months, I miss that swingset.  When it is too cold to swim, the pool takes up space, comes with upkeep/management costs and keeps the kids from playing in our backyard.  I miss those days when I could let my child play outside in the backyard with the dogs without any worries.  Once you have a pool, there are constant worries and your children cannot play alone in the backyard anymore.

Did you have a swingset when you were a child?  I had a swingest with two wooden swings and a tall slide.  It was right in the middle of our backyard.  I remember spending many hours on that swingset.  Swinging and begging my parents to push me.  Do you remember playing “Under Dog?”  We were so lucky that those heavy wooden swings didn’t come back and hit us in the head while we were foolishly running underneath each others swings trying to get them swinging as high as possible!

What do you have in your backyard?