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Those Big Fails
by Marcy Lytle
You know those days.
I’m sure you have them often.
You prepare a fun day for the kids, and everything goes wrong.
I recently joined my daughter-in-law and her two littles for a day at a resort, where there’s a toddler area with games and rides. We met there at 9:30 am and planned to leave at noon, because all parents know that toddlers are at their best in the morning, right?
The guy at the counter sold us a card to use for the games and rides for those that were “just their size” only to find out that the ride attendants were not coming until 11am. Seriously? We tried to be patient and do a few games, only some were broken, the ticket machines weren’t working, and we had a lot of time to kill before 11am approached.
Would the kids lose it and we’d end up having to leave without all the fun?
We then decided we would eat lunch early and grab the rides last thing, only to find out that the restaurants didn’t open until 11am either.
Frustrated, I asked for a manager and asked why would toddler activities open so late, since little kids are their best, early. He totally agreed, but that didn’t really help us.
We held the kids hands and moved them all around the place, probably gaining all of our steps for the day, and I was so worried we’d have to leave without the most fun of all, the rides!
Finally, we used the few tickets we had gotten from the few games (which only gets you a trinket sized toy, of course) and using the tickets was also a chore! But we had a few minutes and went to the ride attendant and got on…two rides…in the 10 minutes we had left.
Oh, it was fun for 3-year old Camp, and I enjoyed getting to ride one of them with him! 18 month old Corie could care less, as she was more interested in sights and sounds. Camp smiled as he finally pushed the right button to go up in the air before the ride ended. And he was amused that I became dizzy on the second ride.
Could the day have ended up disastrous with no one getting a ticket or a ride? YES. But actually, it ended up being fun, and the toddlers will only remember the fun - not the time restraints (I think.)
The point of this whole article is to chalk up days like this as a win, or just another day in paradise, as a parent.
Resorts are gonna fail.
Kids are gonna get tired…or maybe not…they might surprise you.
Food will be eaten.
Time won’t matter, when it’s all said and done.
You’re not supermom and you can’t control chaos, most of the time.
Laughing is good medicine, so do that, instead of crying.
(Or maybe do both, but laugh last…)