Festivals As A Kid, Pre-Parent, And Post-Parent-Video Post
As a kid, I loved going to festivals. I loved the crowd, the vendors with the trinkets that I didn’t need but desperately wanted, the rides, the junk food, and the games my parents dropped tons of money on to win a cheap stuffed animal. The day was just filled with kid-awesomeness that goes along with festivals.
When I moved to this area, my girlfriends introduced me to the Carteret County Seafood Festival and once again I was in love, but now I was old enough to drink-making the festival that much more….well, festive. Every year, a huge group of us would get together and head down to the Morehead waterfront and just have a blast. We’d listen to live music, hang out in the beer tent, browsed and bought things from the vendors (this time for our houses), hung out at the bars and ate oysters and other seafood. The day was filled with adult awesomeness that goes along with festivals.
Then we all had kids, and the “festive” in festivals changed.
Sayle showing the commercial fishermen what REAL fishing is!
Prior to having Sayle, I didn’t care where we parked because the walk was always entertaining. Now, I’m freaked about where we park, how close we have to walk to traffic, and whether the parking lot is well lit because I have this little issue with being an over protective parent. Then, we get in the crowd with Sayle in the stroller and its almost guaranteed that we will get stuck behind an idiot walking .1 mile per hour that has no idea what is going on or that there is an angry crowd of 100 people behind them willing to push them over to get to where they are going. After mulling over said person, I’m maneuvering the stroller over huge chords and curbs, dodging other strollers and stray children, while trying to get to our destination. Not the crowd I used to love.
The rides I loved as a kid, scare the crap out of me as a parent. Sayle wanted to ride the dinosaurs, which looked safe, but we’ve all heard the horror stories about these rides. Sayle watched the purple and green dinosaurs in all their glory and was determined to get on a dinosaur. Reluctantly, I strapped him in with the rope (yes, just rope) and stood as close as I could to the fence (the ride attendant actually had to tell me to get BEHIND the fence-whoops) and waited for him to scream bloody murder as other the kids I watched did. To my surprise, Sayle laughed, smiled, and screamed in happiness as the dinosaur went up and down the tracks. I hovered over the fence waving and clapping like an embarrassing parent. Then, he rode this pink train covered in enough flashing lights to send someone into a seizure. Again, Sayle laughed, smiled, and screamed in happiness as the train traveled the tracks at a speed I wished was slower as other children on this ride screamed in fright.
Unfortunately, Sayle noticed that every child at the festival was carrying a Sponge Bob so he repeated a zillion times “SPONGE BOB? I hate Sponge Bob but we had to get him one. We finally found the game where the prize was Sponge Bob, but it was a game a two year old couldn’t win and I wasn’t about to spend $100. I pointed to Sayle in the stroller and told the game lady Sayle was dying for a Sponge Bob, so how much for one? I paid $6 for a blow up Sponge Bob, but the smile on Sayle’s face was worth $6. Sayle was also introduced to funnel cake, and I swear he ate more of it than my husband, who loves that nasty fried sugar bread. On our way out, Sayle noticed that lots of kids also had light up swords, so I tracked down a mom and she directed me to the game where the fluorescent weapons were being distributed. This game was winner guaranteed game, and it was adorable. Basically for $5, Sayle was given the opportunity to catch magnetic fish in a baby pool to win a sword or magic wand. Sayle was quite the fisherman and actually caught seven fish as he refused to put the pole down, but he did win the sword.
On our way out, we passed the live music, our beloved beer tent, and favorite bars and momentarily wished we could engage in our pre-parent irresponsibility, but then we looked down in the stroller at Sayle, clutching his $6 Sponge Bob, $5 flashing sword and the permagrin he had from his $6 unsafe dinosaur and train ride, and decided the new version of the Seafood Festival was actually better…but that beer tent did look fun!
How has your experience with the Seafood Festival or any festival with kids been? Do you get a freaked out about rides as I do or an impatient in crowds? Did your child love it?
Here is a short video of me being over protective prior to his first ride on the dinosaurs. I was trying to pump him up in my super excited voice and show him where we would be standing. He really could have cared less! HAHA!!
