Sunday, December 7, 2008

Best mom or worst mom...it's fine line

My friend and I decided to take our daughters to the Santa Monica Pier. I felt like Lee the Super Mom :)

I was pretty hesitant to go - 3 kids between the ages of 4 and 7?? On a crowded pier with 2 adults?? MADNESS!! My friend talked me in to it with LA logic - it was so "cold" that it wouldn't be as crowded as normal.

For everyone outside of the Los Angeles area, let me explain what cold means to us here - the high was 64 degrees. And she was right - very few people were there.

We were able to ride all the rides we wanted with no wait. There were a couple of rides that the kids didn't even get off of until they were tired of the ride! One ride, the Frog One, the kids were on it for like 20 minutes straight. It took that long to get more than 8 kids who wanted to ride it at one time!

We also let them do the jumpee ride - the one where they hook you up to harnesses and you can jump really high! By that time it was getting really cold (about 60 degrees) and we were starving. But the kids begged, and we gave in. First we made them tell us who the best moms in the world were (which they did). Mom can not live on joyous and happy child alone - we need kudos too!

That whole "Best Mom" thing lasted for all of 10 minutes. Once we got in the car it was all over - "how many exits", "I'm HUNGRY" (of course that's our fault, not the fault of the munchkins who wouldn't leave for the past 1.5 hours), "my tummy ache hurts", "why can't we eat crackers on the way to sushi" (we had given them chewy chocolate and peanut butter bars, and thought crackers on top of it would ruin their appetites).

We so were not the "best moms" anymore - do you hear the hurt in my voice coming through the blogosphere???

The kids had a great day, I LOVED to watch them have a good time, they didn't fight amongst themselves (hardly) or with the Big Monkeys friend, AND (my favorite part) they were BOTH asleep by 8pm!!


9 comments:

Unknown said...

You are the best mom. I live in Florida, so anything below 70 is COLD! I would never have gone for the lone reason that it's too cold. Hell, I Ilive 30 minutews from the theme parks, have passes to 3 of them and still won't go. SO you are Super Mom.. just like Lee

Kim said...

Cold? COLD? We have an inch of snow and I think the high on Sunday was about 20 degrees!

It is supposed to be in the 50's later this week which will feel like a heatwave!

Unknown said...

Julia - you are too kind with all of these supermom props being sent my way but really I'm so struggling on a daily basis it's not even funny. I must be hiding it well. : - )

LOVE that pier I gotta tell ya! So happy you guys had fun...maybe, just maybe, we'll be brave enough to meet one day and maybe just maybe we will be brave enough to take our kids to the pier together!

What a post that would be!

; - )

Opus #6 said...

I LOVE the pier! It was much more crowded back in July. Did you get those bracelets for them? You are the best mom. I can see it in their eyes.

April said...

SO much a better mom than me - I'd take them to D-land in 70 degree weather, but NEVER Santa Monica pier - with the sea breeze? yeah, I'm a wimp. That's why I live here :)

Anonymous said...

HA! Right on. I'm from upstate NY and used to be able to handle anything. After 7 years in the South I freak out if it's below 60. I have to go back saturday for 3 weeks and I'm freaking out!

Shelvicious said...

Wow! It is freezing here. Not 64 degrees, but below zero! we are looking forward to 6 inches of snow by morning! What I wouldn't give to be there right now!

Abby said...

It sounds like a fun day. I think you win the "Best Mom" award. I could only wish for 60 degrees here! We won't see weather that warm for months to come!

Julia@SometimesLucid said...

Kim - I love talking to co-workers in other parts of the country and tell them about our weather ;)

Lee - It would be so fun to meet up with the kids. Of course, I'm not venturing down there if it gets any "colder".

Opus - Yes, we did get them the bracelets and it was WELL worth it - they rode each ride about 10 times (I'm not exagerating). My friend and I get 4 tickets each and had one left over that we "lost".

April - I still ahven't taken them to Dland (we went last when I was like 8 months pregnant with the little monkey). Too many people! And I used to work at the mouse, lol!

To everyone in "real" cold weather - I have NO IDEA how you do it, I would go in to hibernation mode for a good 6 months probably!!