We recently took our son to an amusement park. This was part of a dream my father had of having his two grandson’s at the park together (along with their parents). This would put the whole family in one place at one time. The amusement park would also provide a child-centered event where the kids could spend time together, see some new sights, and have all of the attention on them. I later learned that there were other reasons to have the whole family there. Unfortunately this was not possible. An illness prevented my nephew from attending. Since we had already purchased the tickets we weren’t going to let this prevent the day from taking place. So we put on our shorts and t-shirts (after a healthy dose of spray-sunscreen) and got in the car to head to the park.
The best thing about amusement parks is how big they are. I remember being a kid and thinking how huge everything was. Perhaps now they seem small because of my age (or simply after travel and additional life experiences) but the park was not as I remembered it. Our son, however, had his first ride in the same park and the same ride that I had had mine 20ish years ago. He was a little scared but Mom held him tight so he made it through. As we searched for other rides it became apparent that, though child focused, these rides aren’t really for 1 year olds (well, almost 1 year olds). This was when I learned about why my almost 2 year old nephew would have been a great addition to the trip: he could serve as a riding buddy (sense of security) for our son on some of the bigger-kid rides. It was not to be. Our son’s favorite ride wasn’t really surprising in retrospect.
After riding some spinning rides and some air balloons our son found the ride that really brought him joy: his grandfather. Yes, the man who had the dream and orchestrated the event turned out to be the best ride at the park. Twisting and turning in the arms of my father our little boy laughed and laughed and smiled and smiled. It turned out that we didn’t have to travel to the park for him to have an experience. He did have one, certainly, but if emotion has memory he’ll remember his grandpa. We’ll show him the pictures in a decade or so.