Day 207 - 8:44am, 27 July 2019
Does anyone else hold romantic notions of family days out? Of how wonderfully relaxing, stress-free and brimming with happiness the whole day is going to be? This is so me at the point I sign up to something, meaning I can genuinely look forward to it for weeks before the event. Then, on the day, around about the time we are trying to marshall the troops out the door, I suddenly remember the full horror of what is likely to lie ahead.
And I freely admit, I'm as much to blame for this as the kids. First off, I don't do well with crowds. I never have. Having to keep your eye on three kids, one of whom is autistic and more susceptible to either wandering off or getting lost because he is in his own wee world, terrifies me. The busier it is, the bigger the crowds, the more on-alert I am. And with your nerves nicely fried, that's when sensory bombardment, in the form of loud music and flashing lights, is the tipping point.
Today we visited the National Airshow at East Fortune. The day was punctuated with crowds and loud noises, lots of hanging around waiting for planes - half of which were cancelled due to the low cloud - and not knowing what we were doing. But, we made it through, bumps and all, and really the worse thing to happen was Little Miss' spectacularly muddy bum when she slipped down a grassy mound. On the plus side, Little Master got his photo taken with Darth Vader and bumped into a friend. Little Mister shot an airgun and saw his friend too. And Little Miss loved the giant, bouncy slide. Daddy even got to see a plane or two.
Was it a success? Yes, I think it was. We took three children and brought them back without major injury. And I have a full year to recover should we think about taking them again. Plenty time for my head to edit out any of the wobbles along the way and for me to take a note of when the advance booking line opens for 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment