A shiny new playground opened up not too far from our house
and everyone came out of the woodworks to check it out. It was amazing; it had
a pirate ship area, a beach, a new-age jungle gym that even I wanted to climb
up and a sprinkler park to boot. If the new equipment wasn’t enough to draw a
crowd the park also put up a carousel for the opening weekend.
With the news of a ride Dan and I decided to check it out.
My plan was to try the playground first, then go for the carousel since Ali
will have a melt down the second she has to get off the ride. After an hour of
running around in the heat I was ready to hop on a glossy impaled horse. The line
was only a few people deep, so it was perfect timing. As I scrambled through my
purse to find a few dollars for a ticket one of the other moms informed me the carousel
was free this weekend. What? Free rides? Score.
Ali and I were ready. As the turn before ours started to
slow down we could barely hide our excitement. When the ride came to a full
stop all of the mothers dragged their screaming children off the ride and back
onto the line for an another turn. On closer examination, one mother DID NOT
exit the ride. She just sat there continuing to feed her son Easy Mac while he
was safely strapped to a lacquered horse.
The carousel attendant didn’t have much of a problem with
this since there was enough room for everyone on the line. (Plus he didn’t seem
to have it all together “up there,” you know?)Well I had a problem with it.
When the ride stops you exit- end of story. You aren’t special. I don’t care that
your son is in the middle of his lunch – he shouldn’t be eating his lunch on a
spinning ride anyway. Find a bench dammit. I was so pissed at this woman I
couldn’t enjoy the ride. I just glared at her during my entire turn on the
carousel. Then when the ride was over she just sat there again.
The worst part was that she was so unfazed by the whole
thing. Her and her son were just sitting there enjoying their day of free
rides, like she owned the carousel. It wasn’t like her son was having a tantrum
and the only thing that calmed him down was the ride; if she seemed like she
was having a rough day I would have let it slide. But no, they were both fine.
At the end the rest of us had to wrestle with our children to get off the ride amidst
screams and sobs only to reassure them that we’ll be getting right back on the
line. Of course all the kids were pointing out the fact that her kid didn’t have to get off. Thanks
wench.
The whole thing pissed me off so much I left. Plus I haven’t
been on a carousel in a few years so I wasn’t prepared for the motion sickness.
Now that the park is officially “open” they removed the carousel. Good thing
because there would be some mommy wars going on if they kept it going.
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