Was it a worthwhile investment? Did it break down quickly or did the kids just get bored of it? Was it a pain to set up/take down/dry out? I'm thinking of buying one in the $300 - $500 range for my son's upcoming 6th birthday, but just not sure it's worth it. For a variety of reasons we can't have a playset/swingset in the backyard and my pediatrician friend would clobber me if we bought a trampoline. What has been your experience?
Have you thought about renting one for the party? That's what my daughter does. They really enjoy them. You have to be careful when they are outside, though. I've seen where they can be blown away by a good wind.
"Grams"
from the Pocono Mts. of PA
We got a Little Tikes bounce house (no slide or anything extra) for our 2 and 5 year old. It was around $300. It only lasted about 3 months :( It was very poorly put together and the seams on the inside kept coming undone so every day or so we had to try to patch it and refill it. We did not go over the weight limit, overfill it with air, or let our children put any toys, etc in there. I finally called Little Tikes to see if they would exchange it and they were very rude and seemed to have other things they would rather be doing (I called more than once hoping to get our issue resolved). I believe they told me their products only have a 30 day warranty and even if it was a longer warranty, we voided it because of where we filled it up at. We used to have a very nice, very soft carpeted master bedroom with 900sq ft so that's where we put it up at. The Little Tikes agents that I talked to said it needs to be put up/kept on grass which made no sense to us since there are many sharp things that could be in the grass. Very displeased with Little Tikes. If you decide to get one, I hope you have better luck than we did!
Completely worth it if you know you will have use for it beyond this party : )
My cousin bought one for her oldest and has 2 more so they used it for all the bday parties and other backyard gatherings with lots of kids. The youngest is 9 now, but my child is 3 so when we go and its nice out they still blow it up. It fits in their garage and doesn't seem too difficult to set up. It was cheaper than renting it. I think if we ever move out of NYC and have a backyard, I will be inheriting it :) Might be a worthy investment.
I bought the little tikes one 50% OFF at walmart. It lasted until I sold it. The key is NOT to get kids above the weight limit or rowdy kids on it.
We bought the Tikes water slide that has stairs on one side and a curvy slide. It lasted all summer with about 12 kids using it until I STUPIDLY let some 8 and 10 year old boys on it. They all ran up the stairs together which caused two seems to pop. And I had told them the rules before hand.
Also, you can NOT leave them outside. They get nasty. You must dry out the wet ones and turn them over before deflating.
Yes, we bought our girls the Little Tikes bounce house with the slide about 3 years ago. They have played on it probably 12-15 times with friends and it has done really well. They still love it and are now 6 and 8 years old. We paid about $300 for it.
We actually just bought one a few weeks ago at a garage sale, it's a Little Tikes one with a slide to get out of it, about 5-6 ft square. My kids have loved it, they are 5, 2, and 1. They can all get in there together and have a blast. What I love is it's super easy to set up and tear down. I even got it out for about 15 minutes the other day and it was worth it. You just tie the blower to the hose on the house and push a button, same for tear down, super easy. I got a great deal on it for $40, so I won't be too upset if it breaks quickly, but couldn't imagine spending the $300 on one. There are a ton of them on our Craigslist, maybe a good place to find one?
i bought a bounce house for my daughters 2nd birthday (little tikes brand). she is 5 and still loves it. we set it up for her parties or when friends are over. it may only be cloth material (not the plastic industrial material used on commercial ones) but it holds up well for us. i think ours was a good investment.
We got a smaller version it was called a jump-o-lene.....
The first month it was GREAT. After that it was whole after whole after whole..........it was maddening. I finally took scissors to it because it was making me insane. We bought a little tykes trampoline that is low to the ground and completely enclosed. after a year we have had no injuries (KNOCK ON WOOD) lol
A friend of ours has two smaller bounce houses. One is a wet slide version and the other is just a bounce area. For them, they have been worth the investment. They use the wet slide about once a month when they go to a lake property they own. And their dry bounce house gets used pretty frequently at home. They don't leave them up all the time, because the sun would be too harsh on the plastic. They love them for entertaining the kids, but they loathe putting them away. They are very careful with the clean up and storage, which is probably why they have lasted so long. The wet one is always completely dry before being stored.
