i was never going to be one of *those* parents …

26Oct09

You know the ones. They spend their weekend days with the masses at amusement parks and shopping malls and Chuck ‘E’ Cheese.

They plan.

They do family stuff with other families. They hold birthday parties at the places they plan to go every weekend.

Don’t get me wrong, we adore a trip to Science World, the aquarium, zoo or planetarium – you know – where my kids actually learn something in conjunction with fun. I’m all for learning and teaching the about the stars, moon, animals, molecules, dinosaurs and orca whales.

But just fun in H1N1 breeding grounds? With hundreds of snot-nosed, climbing, falling, laughing, coughing, crying, sneezing, hollering children?

That is where I draw the line.

I’m not that family person who does those family activities and sits with those moms and dads while those kids have snotty exchanges.

I’m not one of those parents who stand in lines at fluorescent yellow counter tops to buy food and refreshments in the form of modified, compounded pig and chicken parts with sides of sugar dips, potatoes fried in fat, fat fried in fat aka donuts and liquid glucose aka fruit punch when my kids are hungry and thirsty.

…:::

Years ago I remember wandering along the ocean and climbing mountains with Colin before we got pregnant, talking about children. We wanted a “little sponge” to fill with beauty. We wanted to take it with us on our strolls and hikes and travels and for it to see all of the beautiful things we saw, feel what we felt, hear what we heard, taste all we tasted and smell all we smelled. Feel the rain on it’s face, stand under waterfalls, watch ducks and birds play on well hidden lakes in silence while dreaming about the world … not about being a princess, opening presents, a new DVD or ice cream treat.

Trips to malls, family restaurants, amusement parks, Disney on Ice and Gymboree were just not on the docket of things to do. Ever.

And then we actually had the kids.

We realized that umbrellas and children is not a safe combination and that 10K sea wall walks, hikes to the highest peaks, lounging under blankets beach side, floating atop an air mattress on our favorite lake under the hot sun for six hours, sitting on park benches being zen, getting out of bed at midnight to dress and play in the freshly fallen snow … and young children … are things that just don’t groove. For more than 20 seconds at a time at least.

It was a hard pill to swallow.

And while we still don’t do weekend grocery trips or malls or frequent family food establishments or Dora the Explorer “Live” type things, we have done community children event things *shudder*, the public pool thing *shudder*, the spray parks thing, the play grounds thing, etc. on the days we aren’t doing actual cool stuff like being cultured and entertained at Granville Island, farmer’s markets, nature trails, local lakes, zoos, aquariums, science, stars and on harbour boats.

But yesterday? It was raining very hard … Colin had me sleep in and served breakfast in bed … there was a Canucks game on at 7pm that we wanted to be home well in advance for and by the time I was ready to go, it was already noon. We wanted to stay local but didn’t want to do anything in the pouring rain.

So yesterday we spent the afternoon at …

…an indoor amusement center.

And at that center I met a mom of twins who invited me to join a group for moms of twins and I’m thinking about it because they do things like have parties and excursions for adults as well as have parties and excursions for twins in an environment where mothers of multiples don’t have to field a thousand questions about being a mother of multiples.

Yes, I talked to those people at one of those places and my offspring washed down fried fat and modified chicken with liquid glucose.

Next week?

We are purchasing Disney on Ice tickets because our kids dreamed of going.

Week after that?

Mom bum jeans, a minivan, Old Navy and membership to the all you can eat buffet family restaurant.

I have no further words.

~~

PS. I realize that as the girls get older and when Col and I have an empty nest we will have all the time in the world to do our thing again; I’m not really that upset about it

PPS. For cool parent/kid points, after the family fun center we did hit up the trails behind our house – in the pouring rain – and found a quiet bridge over the river and watched the migration upstream. We saw a few massive salmon and even a little guy jumping over rocks against the current. As long as we can keep up with that kind of experience, I think I can deal with the amusement center every now and then.

Besides, have you ever taken off your shoes and gone to play in one of those things?!

It’s like, sixteen levels of climbing, crawling, jumping, sliding, scaling, snot sharing, H1N1 breeding awesome.

Filed under: la famille, randomly   |  10 Comments