Staying Calm

My friend was in a fender bender the other night. She commented that only after she had gotten home and the kids into bed that she finally broke down. To me that is just the result of being a mom. If she had freaked out at the scene no doubt her kids would have freaked. I think when we become mother's we create an internal mechanism to keep ourselves calm in bad situations.

It reminded me of last summer when we took the kid to an water park called Cedar Point. The have the regular amusement park and a water park called Soak City. We decided that it would be fun to go to the water park side and overall we did have a really fun time.

They have this ride that the whole family could go on called the Zoom Flume. It looked like a lot of fun. What I didn't realize is that this ride starts out about four stories into the air. I looked, but could not find a pic of the tower online (probably why I didn't know it was so high) Since becoming a mother I have developed a fear of heights....well to be more accurate of my children plunging to their deaths from heights. (The summer before I basically had a panic attack at the top of a light house, but that is another story.)

So we get to the park and spend some time in the kid's area then we started to venture out and go on rides. We finally ended up at the Zoom Flume and climbed the tower to get in line. Over the next 20-30 minutes of waiting in line and looking out and down I had plenty of time to build up to a climatic panic attack. The kids were unaware that I was having an issue and Steve was so kind and worried about me he offered to go down with the kids by himself and I could just go back down the steps. However my active imagination had kicked in and I was TRULY worried that my two skinny, lightweight kids would go flying out of the raft and plunge to their deaths so I reluctantly decided that I would be going down this ride. See pictures for visualization.

It is literally this half tube that winds around itself out in the middle of no-where. Now logically I know that if there was any danger that this ride would not be in existence and if my kids did not weigh enough someone would have said so....but still. So we get on the ride and I have Nicholas huddle up Next to Steve. Emilia is right next to me on the opposite side of them. (So in case anyone were to go flying we could catch them...great thinking no?) The person at the top sees me panicking and makes sure that I am okay. I plaster on the biggest fake smile and say sure! Well then she gives us a big ole shove and off we go. Going up from one side of the slide to the other. Not 5 seconds after she set us off, then this primeval scream emanates from my body. This only serves to panic Emilia and she starts to cry. Nothing will change a mother's heart faster then seeing that she is scaring her child. So I tell her it's okay, and keep telling her not to worry for the rest of the ride. (over and over and over....I think that was a way for me to cope with not screaming) so we finally get to the bottom all limbs attached.

And Emilia says "that was fun, let's do it again". Needless to say we did not go on that ride again. I am sure we will be headed out that way sometime in the next few years. It is only a short distance from where Steve's dad lives and it is a lot of fun. But the kids will have to be old enough to go on their own the next time around, ........if I let them. Steve would probably go with them but I will definitely pass.

Well it is a long post, but a funny story. Hope you enjoyed.