We have all seen her…”THAT” mom. You know the one…crouched down, nose to nose with her index finger just waggin’ away while saying things like, “Do you know how much this trip cost us?”, “Crying? There is no crying at <insert any public place>!”. I swore to myself I would never become that mom. I have been to Disney parks enough to know how to prevent the kiddo or mommy meltdown and we go to regularly so I wouldn’t have to push my kids to the point of exhaustion.
Famous. Last. Words.
It was a sunny fall afternoon in Hollywood Studios when my DS was almost 6 years old. We left my husband and infant daughter on a nice shaded bench and headed to Toy Story Mania, Fastpass tickets in hand, and that’s when it happened. Logan absolutely refused to go in. He had been struggling with that phase that many kids go through of being afraid of dark rides, possibly aggravated by the fact that we took on the Spiderman Ride at Islands of Adventure when he was only 3. Of course I knew Toy Story Mania is not a scary ride and is well lit so I started to try to reason with him. I told him that mommy and daddy would never (again) take him on a ride we thought would scare him, it’s so much fun, hel’ll love it…words words words. 45 minutes later, I was done. I felt myself lowering down to his eye level so he knew I meant it and told him that if he didn’t go on the ride we wouldn’t go to see Grandman and Grandpa at the beach and instead would go right home tomorrow (yeah, like I was REALLY gonna pay those airfare change fees). As soon as I said it I immediately knew I had crossed the “THAT” mom line and held my breath to see what would happen next. Logan looked at me wide eyed and said, “Fine, but I want to ride with Dad!” So hubby and I changed places and I sat on that bench staring at the exit praying that I saw something other than tears on my sons face when he emerged. Fifteen minutes passed before he came bounding out grinning ear to ear and immediately says “That was the best ride ever! Can we go again?” Sweet boy! Not only did he learn that he could indeed trust mom and dad he also got a lesson on wait times and the Disney Fastpass system!!
