Friday, March 18, 2011

The Magic Rule



This was the face of utter anxiety.  Sadly for Rio, I'm stone cold and cannot be broken.  While standing in line, for the majority of  rides at Disneyland, Rio had complete meltdowns.  

"Do I have to go on this ride Mom?"  Rio cried and pleaded, before every ride.

"You know the rule,"  I explained for the one hundredth time.  "If we come to Disneyland, we go on ALL of the rides."

His tears were convincing, and random people in line were sympathetic, shooting me dirty looks and shaking their heads.  I know, what kind of mother am I...forcing my child to do something he doesn't want to.

"Mom...my stomach hurts," Rio held his stomach in agony. "I don't feel good!"

The dirty looks quickly turned to looks of fear. It  was understandable, there was a chance he wasn't bluffing, but it was a chance I was willing to take.



Does this look like a kid who didn't benifit from my magic rule? 

15 comments:

  1. That's one happy kid on the roller coaster! Good thing you didn't let him get out of riding, he would of missed out! I love your blog!

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  2. That's awesome and takes me down memory lane. When I was eight we went to Disney World and I refused to go on Space Mountain. I cried too, but the first words out of my mouth when it finished were, "Can we go again?"

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  3. A picture is worth a thousand doubts. Loved the sheer joy on his face.
    Edge of Your Seat Romance

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  4. I have the same rule! I'm so happy I'm not alone on this one.

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  5. I'm glad you weren't my mom. I can't stand roller coasters (and yes, the ones at Disneyland are way too scary for me).

    But it's clear that you know your kids. Glad you made sure he had a good time.

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  6. I'm sure he can't imagine what it would have been like at school-to say he went to Disneyland, but didn't go on the rides. Great work mom!

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  7. There are stomach aches and then there are stomach ACHES. Good thing he has you to know the difference.

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  8. Hi I hopped in here from Norway and am looking forward to following you. Funny post, when I was 12 I went to Disney land and my Dad did the same thing...lol, I was terrified but it was worth it in the end.Have a wonderful day!

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  9. Looks like y'all had a great time in Disneyland! And those 'meltdown' pics could so come in handy the next you tell him he can't do something, then he wants to know why. "Um, because you might do THIS again." :)

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  10. Great post! My man and I need to start pushing a certain 11-year-old we know to overcome some of her fears. Every time we do - success! But we don't do it often enough when it comes to amusement park rides... that's for sure.

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  11. I thought the magic rule was saying please.

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  12. Haha, I'm totally using this rule when I have my own kids :) Great photo!

    Sarah Allen
    (my creative writing blog)

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  13. Right after my son turned 6, he was finally tall enough to ride Space Mountain. He loves roller coasters and would ride the crazy ones at 6 Flags Magic Mountain, if I'd let him...However, outside of Thunder Mountain, he hadn't really ridden any hard core coaster and Space Mountain is in the dark, etc. WELL, he was nervous but there was no talk of "not" going, he said his tummy hurt and he was worried, but he LOVED IT! We had to ride it again...interesting, I thought for sure he'd say "that's okay" BUT Indiana Jones did freak him out (he was technically not tall enough- but we got in) the snake scared mommy and it scared him and he couldn't see way in the back seat and the way the car kept stopping and starting all herky-jerky. We didn't go on that again...:)

    Sandi
    http://www.ahhsome.wordpress.com

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