The Water Park

Let me be quite clear: I don't like the water park.

For starters, it is too damn expensive.  I mean, really, thirty bucks a person for, what, a few acres of water rides? (I am not kidding, it is an incredibly SMALL place) and maybe because I hail from the southern part of California where our "amusement" parks are anything but small.  I don't know.  But, the bottom line is the place is too small and ridiculously high priced.

Why do I go, you ask?  Because my kids read over 800 minutes in the spring and therefore they received free passes to the water park (now you are wondering why I am complaining about the high price if I got free tickets...and that is because Josh is in middle school and doesn't get those reading incentives nor do I as loving parent).

It is so crowded.  Toddlers who poo/pee in the pool.  Screaming children.  And crazy people who should NOT be wearing bikini's.  But, that is really neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.  I don't care if these people should have, technically, given up the use of bikini's, let's say, sixty pounds and four children ago.  But, whatever.  Let me just say that sitting in the sun and listening to screaming kids all day is NOT what I consider to be FUN.

No, I do not go into the pools.  I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH CHLORINE they use.  Ew. Yuck.  It absolutely, positively GROSSES ME OUT.  No thank you.  I'm not normally obsessive like that (okay, maybe I am a little) but being in pools of water with five thousand other people is totally NOT MY THING.

We also avoid, as much as possible, the purchase of food in there as well.  I could feed my three kids for a week in what lunch would cost us so instead we packed a lunch and left it in a cooler in our car and sat on the grass outside the gates for lunch.  I did buy a large cup and sipped lemonade all day and because I'm not totally a mean mommy, I bought them ice cream too.

Here is my biggest issue with this place.  Now, it is not a universal truth here...but, I feel that sometimes these "organized" places that cost a fortune for parents overall is a total waste of money and does nothing but feed our "need" to constantly overstimulate our children.  What happened to simpler ways for children to play?  How many of us have experienced first hand the whole, "they didn't play with the (expensive) toy but instead wanted the box to play in instead".  That.  That is my point.  My kids are almost giddy with excitement over going to the water park and yet once there they are "bored" or "don't want to get wet anymore" (hello, news flash: WE ARE IN A WATER PARK!) or the lines are too long or they are tired and hungry, etc. etc. etc. as if the build up is the best part.

A couple of days ago I took the kids, each with a friend, to our pool.  The girls played ring around the rosy and laughed and giggled and jumped into the pool ninety times and were happy as clams and didn't want to get out nor go home.  The boys, all four of them (amazingly rare), played this game (I sat there and watched and couldn't figure out what they were playing) with a ball for HOURS.  Not a few minutes.  HOURS.

Now, granted, not everyone has a pool and while ours comes to the tune of eight hundred dollars a year, I still see it as "free" and I don't have to fight crowds, find good parking in the shade, listen to hundreds of screaming children, or be grossed out about ALL those people in those yucky bodies of water...

Plus, it provides them with unstructured, no bells or whistles kind of play.  They can still have fun without sliding down massive, brightly colored tubes.  They can still have fun and be outside and be active without it breaking the bank.  They can learn how to have fun with simple things instead of always wanting MORE and bigger and faster and better.  Of course, places like that, for us anyway, are "treats" (for them, not me) and something I would NEVER consider doing all summer (and would never, ever, EVER consider season passes for).

I'm all for summertime fun, and I don't expect them to kick a can or go play with a handful of rocks and my kids are FAR from being deprived little beings, but I also hope to "teach" them that fun can come in many ways...and finding enjoyment and fun in simple (perhaps even free) ways will make them overall more satisfied with life.

I think summer should be a time for exploring, downtime, having simple, low-key kind of days....Swimming, reading, being outside, playing with friends, crafts. 

I have officially made our last trip to the water park (which, by the way, despite their special promotion last week, was surprisingly EMPTIER than I have ever seen it in the past and I'm not sure why that makes me kinda glad, but it does...people are being smart and not spending money on places like that) and I am tickled.  The water park will definitely NOT be something I miss about living in Idaho.

Comments

[gina]

Free is best! :o) My girls said the park was pretty "empty" that day too, which was nice for them. I still have to take a trip there this summer, once the cast is off. :o(