Review on Joovy Playard Nursery Center Charcoal by Nathan Kalivas

These are conflicting 3 stars. I totally agree with the reviewers who expressed the difficulty of assembling and dismantling the playground. I don't know if we got blocks with stiffer components or something, but it took two adults, lots of swearing, and thousands of degrees of rotation of the playground in every possible position to snap the handrails in place - and it was pretty much the same process of its destruction. My husband and I didn't get along very well after we came across this thing. Despite this, the device is incredibly durable, beautiful and well thought out to the smallest detail. The side table is the most functional and beautiful feature I have ever seen on a children's bed set and I wish there was something just like this that could be attached to a normal children's bed. But we're still not ready to keep it. To make things easier, here's something we learned VERY the hard way about how to snap the rails into place when setting up or taking down: - Make sure the center section hasn't been laid flat. and still mostly collapses when set up. If falling, fold the middle section in before attempting to detach the rails. - Turn everything upside down so your legs are in the air. - When installing, start with the shorter rails and gently pull the legs towards each other to help the rails bend. Then try to snap it into place. Much easier with longer guides. Also pull your legs together when dismantling, then the button on the rails should be easy to press. You can do this alone by pulling your feet together with your hands and pressing the button with your heel. The button seemed to be literally stationary before I brought my legs together. UPDATE: We have since installed and broke it in 2 minutes following the above technique. I think it's reassuring that it takes so long to break - there should be little chance of this thing falling on our baby. Now that we've dealt with that and everything else to do with playground stones, I've upgraded my rating from 3 to 5 stars.