As I’ve often written about, we typically use the weekends to bring the boys somewhere fun to entertain them. This usually involves indoor play structures, jungle gyms and play places. I’ve taken to writing about these outings because it provides some balance and contrast to many of the posts I write about the negative effects and pitfalls of Diabetes. Watching my children play is effectively how I live vicariously. When I consider that most of my childhood involved being in hospitals for either myself or my brother, suffering through comas and complications, knowing that my boys don’t hav to deal with all that shit makes me feel a little bit better.
The downside to these outings is that although small children understanding “playing,” they don’t necessarily understand the cost that’s associated with all of these little outings. Last weekend, we brought the boys to a place called “Get Air,” which is an indoor trampoline gym. It has the potential to be loads of fun for a kid, so long as you can afford the special socks required and don’t mind paying about half a tank of gas worth in entry fees. But fuck me sideways, we paid for it. Nathan is at an age now where he can socialize and play with other kids without much concern. Alexander is a bit more of a problem…
Although three years’ old now, he still functions on the premise that once something catches his attention, it becomes the centre of his focus and won’t do anything else; no matter how much daddy paid for him to be DOING that something else. We paid for an hour of jumping time, only to have him focus on all of the fuckin’ dollar rides that we had no change for. Lovely. He got pretty pissy when we kept trying to steer him towards the trampolines, although he did mingle for the last ten minutes until we had to go. Then he got REALLY pissy. At least when I told Nathan we had to go, he didn’t object much. Especially since the plan was to take them to McDonald’s for lunch and further playing in their play structure.
Once at McDonald’s we managed to get some food into both kids before they disappeared into the play structure. Things reached a head when Alexander couldn’t make his way back down from the structure and my wife had to climb up there to get him. I could have climbed up but there’s a very real chance I’d get wedged in there somewhere. I don’t need the embarrassment of the fire department coming into cut me out. I mean, it would make for a great story and I’m not saying I’m fat or anything, just bulky.
Our afternoon closed out by going home and putting Alexander down for a nap. My wife and I decided on napping as well because, well… life, you know? Nathan doesn’t nap anymore and hasn’t in the past couple of years. I set hm up with some things to do and he decided to stay at the kitchen table while everyone else enjoyed family nap time. I awoke about twenty minutes in from low blood sugars. I corrected and was awoken another half hour later when Nathan wouldn’t stop humming and singing out loud. I swear, that kid likes to do everything he can to exhaust me to the point where I usually get more rest on Monday morning when I go back to work. ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 