Scared Mommy

How do I say this without sounding wimpy?

OK I'll just say it.

I freaked out on a kiddie ride. It's ok though (kind of.) I left the panic on the inside. I think.

I took the boys to Busch Gardens last week and we did as we usually do: ride the train all around the park and through the Serengetti (no sky ride for me -- could you imagine the cable breaking and then we're stuck in the middle of the Serengetti and a lion pack? Do I look like lunch? Do I look crazy??)

We watched the monkeys, the alligators, ate lunch... then went on to the amazing kid finale: the kiddie ride section. And Poops rode the little dragon flume (he got to go around the circle 3 times because no one was in line!) Then I figured I'd get Mini in on the action and hop on a kiddie ride that all three of us could ride.

But I forgot one little itty bitty thing.

My intense fear of ferris wheels.

Granted, this one was tiny. (I know. Lame.) Each cup that people sit in is shaped like a dragon egg. Poops was on one side of me, I was in the middle (weight distribution) and Mini had his own seat and seatbelt on the other side of me. Which on its own scared me to death because at a year-and-a-half, he is very very wiggly.

And actually it was all very fine and good when we got strapped in. There were only about 6 cups and it really doesn't go very high. But I had forgotten that you get stuck sitting for a while when the ride stops to let all the other people in their cups. So the inner panic set in when we went up one space and were officially off the ground and up about halfway up on the side. And the tiny kiddie ferris wheel did that sway back and forth while you're up kinda high -- the kind that a ferris wheel normally does (only that one is really really high) and I hate that feeling because I always feel like the cup is going to tip over and I'm gonna fall right out.

And then I picture myself hanging there to the side of the cup. Dangling. With the death grip. With my feet kicking back and forth. Looking down at the ground and seeing the tv stations and camera phones rolling and the crowd gasping, firefighters arriving with their big ladders, ("Is she gonna fall!!!????") and it's on the news as a terrible story of a ride gone wrong at a park.

I have a vivid imagination.

But I stifled my tiny inner panic voice, told her she was being really really very silly and lame and put on my best mommy happy smile. And that's when Mini decided he didn't wanna sit there anymore and he wanted to get out. So he's screaming and wiggling out of the seatbelt while the tiny egg cup is swaying back and forth...

And this is a kiddie ride, so mommy must remain composed. For a great many reason. The first being it's a kiddie ride. We are not going to fall out.

Or are we? Crazier things have happened!

So once we started really moving and all the patrons have entered their little egg cups, Mini settled down and enjoyed the ride while I sat there with my back plastered to the back of the cup and my arms spread out, touching both the kids, gritting my teeth and smiling.

(Would you believe I am an avid rollercoaster enthusiast? Yeah. I am. But I'm scared of a kiddie egg cup death trap ferris wheel.)

Yes we made it out alive. Luckily.

Scared Mommy

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/04/scared-mommy.html