Worlds of Fun

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, they say, and that couldn't be more true about Tanner.

My kid is an amusement park pansy.

My friend Vicky called me late Friday afternoon, and offered me two free tickets to Worlds of Fun for Saturday. I jumped on them. Tanner has been wanting to go to WOF for years, but the tickets are sooo expensive. We've never been able to do it, and frankly, I wasn't sure it would be worth the money until he was tall enough to actually ride most of the rides.

Well, he's tall enough now, and I couldn't wait to surprise him! We went and picked up the tickets from Vicky's house, and sprang it on him. He was his customary subdued self, but his mouth dropped and his grin was huge. As soon as we walked outside, he looked at me in disbelief and said, "Are we really going to Worlds of Fun?!"

In the meantime, I decided it would be more fun for him to have a buddy, so I worked it out for Johnny to be able to go with us. Chila didn't tell Johnny where he was going at first. He was watching TV on Saturday morning and a WOF commercial came on. He sighed deeply and said, "I wish I could go there. But it's never gonna happen." Chila called me and told me that, and asked if she could tell him. Of course! So she did, and he didn't believe her. He made her show him his ticket. I LOVE surprising deserving kids with really cool stuff. So awesome.

So off we went to have worlds of fun for the day. And it was fun. However, Tanner would hardly ride anything. We started off in Camp Snoopy, the kiddie area. My theory was that if we went there first, he would think those rides were lame and be ready to take it up a notch. I knew I was in trouble when he got off the kiddie coaster and said it went a little bit too fast. Um, what?! 2 year olds are on that ride!!

Much of the day went like this:

"C'mon, Tanner, just ride it. It's not scary, I promise."
"I don't like rides that spin."
"Look, T, that kid is 3 and he had a good time!"
"Don't make Johnny ride another ride by himself!"
"I don't like rides that swing."
"T, if you ride this with me, I'll ride the Fury with you!"
"That one goes too fast."
"We're at an amusement park for God's sake. ALL the rides spin, swing, or go fast."
"Tanneryougetonthatriderightnoworwe'regoinghome."

Now, it's important to note that we were not trying to get him to ride any roller coasters. These rides were kiddie rides or ones with 1 and 2 ranking on the Thrill Scale. Tame and lame, if you will.

Finally, it clicked with me that my son is made from the same mold as me, and he is not going to do anything he's not ready to do. No amount of bullying and coersion is going to get him on a ride he's scared of.  So I stopped. I told him that if he was content to spend his day watching Johnny ride rides, that was his choice. I didn't think it was a good choice, but it was his to make. His response was:

"The hard part about today is that I have to face my fears. And I HATE facing my fears!"

I wanted to say, "You're not facing anything!!" but I held my tongue. And 15 minutes later, he said he wanted to ride the Viking Voyager. YES!!! And guess what? He liked it.

Overall, the day was lots of fun. Johnny was a great sport about doing rides by himself, and Tanner didn't seem to mind hanging out and watching him. And the rides they did do together, they loved. That said, we will not be going back to WOF until Tanner is old enough to buy his own ticket. Then, the investment is his and he can do what he likes when he's in there.

To see pics, click here!