We woke up as usual this morning and I really had no Idea how I wanted to spend the day with my son. I figured something would come to me. When Will woke up the first thing he said was” Is it Dudes Day” I assured him it was. I asked what he wanted to do he told me the first thing he wanted was to watch Scooby Doo. Now unfortunately for me he was not talking about the old cartoons or even the new cartoons for that matter, no he wanted to watch the Freddie Prinz jr. Sarah Michelle Gellar atrocity of a film. I granted his wish and popped on Netflix. I figured it would give me time to wake up and decide what we were going to do. I had a couple Ideas since the weather was nice. The first Idea was Forest Park and just enjoy the Park not the zoo not the science center just the park. The second idea was to just stay home and he could play in the backyard while I got caught up on yard work. As we were watching Scooby the gang goes to Spooky Island which is basically a theme park on a island and then it happened Will said ” Can we go there for Dudes Day” I replied we can’t go there but we can go somewhere just like it. I brought up some YouTube videos of Six Flags and asked if that would do. Of Course he was excited as was I. I jumped on the Internet to find out how to get the cheapest tickets. It has been years (probably 10 at least) since I had been to Six Flags, but I know there is usually a price for daily admission which you can sometimes find a coupon for and then there is a season pass option which is sometimes a really good deal. Evidently they have changed their business model since I’d been there last. You now have a 3rd option a membership which basically allows you to pay a monthly fee and can go as many times as you want, as well as travel to any other Six Flags location. I chose one membership package for me which included free parking and a membership level for my son which was just a basic entry. Mine was 12.00 a month and his was 6.50 a month so for less then 20.00 a month we could go there whenever the weather allows us to. There are lots of add ons including a season meal pass and unlimited photos from the rides as well but for now this will do. I have no idea how he will do or if he is even big enough to ride on anything, but we will find out together.
Six Flags
On the way to the theme park I asked if he would like to stop at Waffle House for our usual breakfast spot. He said no lets just go straight there, so we did. I also wanted to use this time to explain the rules for the day. The first rule is one that we have always and that is We walk down hills and run up hills. It may seem silly but when I was little I seen a lot of kids get hurt really bad running down hills and their legs getting out from underneath them. It also tires him out pretty good running up all those hills. The second rule is if you get tired or hungry you let me know so I can do something about it. Rule 3 is you stay by me at all times. We shook hands and said ‘deal’. In our house this is as serious a commitment as you can get. When we pulled into the parking lot he smiled so big I swear you could hear it.(Awesome Daddy moment). I could tell right away that it was pretty overwhelming for him. He just kept pointing at the big rides and saying “I don’t want to ride that one” I told him we won’t ride anything that you are not comfortable with. Our first stop was the Moon Cars, these are old functioning cars that you can actually drive on a track. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and right when we got up to the front the ride had broken down. So needless to say so far my very impatient four year old was not impressed. The next stop was The Log Flume. He was very suspicious of this ride it got you wet and had a very big hill all of which were things he was not accustomed to. He made the ride operator promise that we would not go down the big hill. So as we approached the big hill and he realized that he had been tricked, I felt him tense up, but as we reached the top he was smiling from ear to ear. As we splashed down he said lets do it again. He loved it. I loved it. Well there it was we will never get that one back, his very first thrill ride was the Log Flume. Next stop was a new one for me its called the Battle for Metropolis it is a dark indoor ride where you wear 3D glasses and are equipped with a laser gun to shoot joker and his minions. This ride proved to be a little too much for him. The wait was about 45 minutes and the action was very intense for a little one. When we got done with this one he was pretty adamant that he wanted to go home. I was a little disappointed that I had not read any reviews on this ride first because I did not want him to leave here scared in anyway. I realized that if he wanted to leave we should just leave and try again another day. I told him “Okay lets go then” He tugged my hand and said ” Dad lets get some ice cream and talk about it” now I don’t know if he said this because he sensed my guilt or if that’s how he really felt but either way it was pretty cool to hear such a rational thought coming from such a little person. We got some dipping dots and I promised not to take him on anything else we were just gonna walk around and look at everything. We shook hands and off we went. He did decide to ride some of the rides in the kid area and had a blast then he asked for more Ice cream. We got it and after we ate cold stone creamery in a waffle cone he had decided that he had enough and was ready to leave. We were there for about 3 hours and had spent most of that time eating ice cream and waiting in lines. As we were walking to the car and I was reflecting on our first trip to a theme park I was overwhelmed with a sense of pride cause here was kid that was super scared of the rides dealt with it and then continued on and I had learned just a little bit more about my sons character. I felt like a better father just for that. I know that there are kids and Dads all over who are dealing with problems and situations much larger but for this moment I had felt like I had cracked the code to this father son thing.
An Imperfect Man 