Can anyone think of a reason not to buy a 4$ swimming air mattress for the kids to sleep on? Our kids keep asking for air pads like my husbands and mine. I'm not able to spend that kind of money on 3 kids so I was thinking of buying the cheap swimming ones and calling it good. Right now they sleep on zrests cut in half

Thats what I grew up sleeping on. (Car Camping)
Don't see a big issue, other than they are not as durable, and may pop easier. They also don't have any insulatoin value in them, so I would hesitate a little if you are camping in cooler wheather when the ground temp is cold.
SB

Insulation would be my reason not to.

We have our old thermarests that we have upgraded from, so the little one uses that. The older one we have sprung for an exped because of her back issues.

You could ask if anyone has old pads they want to sell cheap if they have upgraded to something better.

If it gets cold at night (probably mid 40's and below) the kids would get really cold on one of those. A lot colder than if they were directly on the ground. They are very noisy when moving around on them.

Also, they are a lot of work to blow up, especially times 3 :). If not basecamping it really would not be fun having to do it multiple times.

I think the kids and especially the parents would be happier sticking w/ the zrests.

I used one once for a 3 night car camping trip and will never do that again.

We do spring camp. I Hadn't thought it would be colder, good thing I asked