Blessings of Stuff

We first came to this splash pad park in Sebastian before Liam could walk. I remember when Grandpop described it to me, I was suspicious--so untrusting of the unfamiliar was I. I assumed it would be some over the top production, I guess, rather than a practical and relatively safe way to allow young children to play with water without fear of drowning--what big city fountains perhaps allowed years ago on hot summer days or what children found in other areas when they broke open the fire hydrant. As a toddler, Liam loved it, and he has looked forward to it ever since. Crispin was hesitant to go today (he wanted to go to the pool and had perhaps forgotten what the splash pad was all about), but he was enraptured once he was there.

It was so nice that another child came with so many buckets that she could care less if Crispin came to pick one or two up and play with them--very gracious.

As return and return to Florida, and especially since we fly into Orlando--the home of Mickey and all his competitors--I sometimes worry how long these lovely but less supersensational attractions will please the boys (and Liam is growing older; I remember the experience as a boy of looking forward to returning to something only to one year find I was suddenly too old for it. I remember wanting to sign up for baseball camp and never did--not through my parent's refusal--until I was too old to really enjoy it; all my friends had moved on). There is also this unwritten rule that we must at least consider redoing all events we have previously done on a visit (unlike an adult, children like rhythm and repetition), so even if we spent the week going to Disneyworld, Sea World, and Somebody Studios, Liam would feel the loss of not going to the Splash Pad or local zoo (I consider taking them to Sea World, but even that will then become something to do or feel disappointed for not doing on a return visit; nice as it was when I visited as a young adult).

When you fly to Florida with young children, your children will be asked if they are going to Disneyworld. Sometimes there almost seems to be disappointment from the well-intended but insidious adult if they are not (I don't mean to criticize my own parents hear; they brought me to Disneyworld when I was a few years older than Liam; I loved it. It is also true that one part I loved was the independence they gave me, but years later I learned that what I thought was a granted right for me to take a bus and explore by myself was remembered as me running away by myself and them desperately searching for me. I returned to Disneyworld as a cutting edge English major and could not put out of mind how patriarchal it seemed--that was where I was then. Around the same time, however, I was able to go to Universal Studios with my sister and be conned into pretending to be Norman Bates only to be tricked into wearing Granny's apron in front of a large crowd while another, more authentic Norman Bates simulacrum stabbed me--showing you that my literary criticism of Disneyworld was perhaps not to be trusted. Since then, of course, Disney and others have, of course, become ever more proficient at separating parents from their money while leaving the children happy but unsatisfied, ever seeking more, much like the White Witch in Narnia who gives Edmund the Turkish Delight that always leaves you wanting more). That all being said (in parenthesis, of course), there was a reprieve for me this time. As I was boarding the plane from Chicago to Orlando, I heard one flight attendant tell another, "I was talking to a dad coming back with his children from DIsneyworld. He was saying that he would rather have his head slammed in a car door repeatedly than go back to Disneyworld another day." (Now before you protest that you, too, went to Disney, remember that clever Ivy league graduates have probably helped Disney become even better at separating money from parents and leaving children feeling unsatisfied and wishing they had more [and perhaps more clever Ivy League graduates will shut down this blog because I've had the audacity to criticize Disney--so read it while you can]). While I wouldn't want any dad to have his head slammed in a car door repeatedly, it did make me feel a bit better about planning a trip mainly of pools, splash pads, the local zoo, meals with Grandpop, and trips to the same Publix grocery store I have gone to for probably 20 years.