The Carnival

Carnivals...I'm not a big fan. You know the ones...the old rickety grimey rides that pop up in an empty field for a couple of weekends. So, we're driving home from dinner Friday night and as we crest over the hill, there it is. In all its bright-light, spinning, whirling glory. And here come the squeals. And then "can we go can we go can we go (big gasp for air, followed by...) plllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!". This is the perfect opportunity to for parents here...let's use this as leverage, right? So, dear hubby says if they are nice to each other for a whole day, we'll take them Saturday night. Now, this isn't really fair because, well, it just isn't. I'm thinking, there is no way that's gonna happen. I would let lots of bad behavior slip just so they could go - but not dear hubby. He means what he says.

Fast forward to Sunday. The girls lost their carnival rights probably in the first hour and dad promised to take them Sunday. On the way home from church, my oldest daughter remembers (of course! you can't promise a 9-year old to take her to the carnival and expect her to not remember!). And then, here it comes. Bad mood plus stress can make dad say dumb things. "I can't take you today - I'm too busy"... "But Dad, you PROMISED" and dad says "It's just a cheesy carnival...we'll take you to Six Flags sometime". This is one of those moments that, had we been sitting at a table, I would have given him a hard swift kick in the shin. But, seeing that my foot was on the gas pedal, I couldn't. Tears, cries and more "but you promised" ensued. But that whole "don't contradict your spouse in front of the kids" thing prevented me from chiming in too. While dad worked, I took the girls for milkshakes hoping it would lessen the blow.

Fast forward again to Monday night. Dinner. Talks of going out for ice cream. And then dad telling the girls that if the carnival is still there, we can go for one ride. What? One ride? You can't bring your kids to a carnival and only go on one ride? I'm pretty sure he was convinced the carnival had packed up and left, so this time I did chime in and told them if it was still there, I would stay if daddy needed to come home to get some work done. So off we go to get ice cream and as we turn the corner, there it is - the ferris wheel. And the squeals. And giggles. And more squeals. Truly, it was the best $50 we've spent all summer just to see the faces on the girls. And dad? Yeah, of course he stuck around. Not a chance he was going to leave after one ride.