8.02.2008

Overheard conversations...

Yesterday, Ken took the day off and we went to a local waterpark that is run by the county park system. It wasn't super huge and just perfect for us. There was large kiddie area where a huge bucket of water fell on the crowd every so often. The kids below would try to time it and count down to its tipping. But they never seemed to time it quite right. There was a large wave pool that even E* went in and floated on the waves with us...while we all linked up our innertubes! The park had 2 water slides. In the Raving Rapids, we were in a yellow rubber raft which E* did not like AT ALL. (Seriously, not worrisome...what is his problem?) And the other was a slide where you put down a rubbery mat, sat on it, pushed your self down and then slid down a windy slide system until you got to the bottom of a shallow pool. I went down first and thought, there is no way that E* is going to do that or he's going to come off screaming at me. I waited at the bottom to help him out...and he was SO excited! We of course rode that slide many times yesterday. The park was full but not crowded...plenty of chairs, innertubes, picnic tables. We brought in a cooler of food and drinks. Weather wise it was a perfect day. Sunny and bright, hot but not overwhelming b/c of the trees that were all around.

As in all crowds, you get to overhear conversations. And yesterday, I heard one that totally shocked me. I was raised, you get up and go and go early...but there was some question as what we were going to do yesterday. By the time we got to the park, it was just after 11am (it's opening time) and we had to stand in line for a bit to purchase our tickets. Behind us was a family...a mom with 3 teenagers. She started getting grumbly about the line and their talk turned to "cutting" and "how to cut in line." She instructed those teens that the "best way to cut in a line is to cut in front of a little kid b/c they won't say anything." Seriously I was shocked. Haven't mothers always taught their children to look after the little kids? To not take advantage of them? Good grief!

Then later while standing in line for a waterslide, some teen girls in front of us were talking about how they cheat in school. I wasn't too surprised at this. But why talk about it on a summer day at a waterpark?

Moral of this story is: I told my older 2 kids that if an adult or older kid cuts in front of them, they should loudly say, "Hey, don't cut in front of me." And we'll have a talk about cheating in school sooner than later!

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Quote by C this morning: "I like to get engergy before I work." Context: I wanted the kids to put away the dishes before they ate breakfast. But then I decided to let them eat first, put away second. haha He's a growing boy that needs FOOD!

3 comments:

wispy willow said...

Skip a rope...

I'd like to say that it's funny how children learn things,. But, the truth of it is... the things they're learning all too often aren't funny at all.

I'm one of those that says,
"Children need to be given a moral compass at home." "A stong nation is built on strong families." Both of those statements are true. But THEN, you overhear things being taught like you overheard at the water park and realize that many familes don't have a lot of moral strength. Where do we go from here?

My jaw is always just inches from the ground when I walk the halls of a middle or high school. Whew! Such potty mouths!

Enough of that!! Your day with your family sounded like such a great time!! I soooo like to read about days like that! You sound like a fun mom!

Great Grandma Lin said...

interesting how family values are variable....says a lot about our society.

Susan said...

what a great day all around.

but after I read your entries I started to play your game at the bottom of the blog. And I got to thinking how innocently we think CHEATING is when even playing that game. Refresh til you get a good set of color patterns and then getting a good score. Playing solitaire ONLY if the 7 piles are a good combo. And we think this only happens in other areas? Most of the time we do it ourselves and don't even see the cheating element. We say, Oh, it's just a silly game....but when that silly game overflows into LIFE, it's not so silly anymore.

thanks for the lesson, the game, and how it all led to my thought processes.