back to reality

Okay, to sum up, spent the rest of spring break going mini golfing, bowling, and finally on the last day which was pouring rain again, I caved and took the kids to a place that gives me the heebie jeebies - Go Bananas. One of those giant indoor germ infested playgrounds, filled with screaming kids with snotty noses, running madly up and down and around and around, conducting secret bullying sessions at the zip line out of the sightline of their parents, who huddle below in a cave like area, clutching coffee cups like zombies while they attempt to read a long forgotten book, but are compelled to jerk their heads up every 30 seconds to check to see if that is their child who just tripped and did a face plant at the very top of the jungle gym and is now shrieking for their mother, who will be totally unable to go to her child's aid, but will instead have to recruit some other manic child passing by to climb up into the maze and drag her injured offspring out to safety. You know the kind of place I'm talking about - is my horror of them terribly obvious? But I was desperate, at the end of my rope, it was the last Friday of our two weeks off, I had exhausted my supply of coupons from my entertainment book, the only one left was for this place...I stared at the deluge of rain outside my kitchen window for a moment, while listening to the kids chasing each other around and around the main floor of my house, yelling things like "I didn't MEAN to hit you, it was an ACCIDENT" and "stop LOOKING at me!!" and that was it, my moment of weakness, and before I could stop myself I had torn out the coupon and was telling the girls to put on their jackets and get in the car, and I grabbed a book and we headed off in the rain. The kids sang and cheered all the way there - about a 25 minute drive - while I clutched the steering wheel in a death grip, wondering what the hell I had just done. I clung to the faint possibility that I might not be able to find the place, I had never been there before, having previously always been strong enough to boycott such outings. Or perhaps they would be closed....but no such luck. The giant green and yellow sign loomed, the open sign was lit, and we were in. The kids took off their shoes so as to be able to slip more easily whilst I filled out some kind of release form in a daze. A buzzer sounded, a gate opened and into the mayhem we went. My three children vanished, and I found myself standing staring like an open mouthed idiot at the other parents in the tiny seating area. They were either trendily dressed, fully loaded with a mass of litterless snack containers on their tables, or scrunched miserably in a corner like a prisoner awaiting sentencing. I dragged a chair to a far corner, got out my book, and attempted to tune out the world around for the next hour and a half. That's the beauty of having three kids. I figured they were in a contained area, they couldn't get out, and no one worse than some other mean kid could get in, and if that happened I would just tell them that three kids are stronger than one, and encourage a swarming style attitude to prevail against opposition. Stick together, stick together, that's my motto to them when they are out in the world.
Anyway, sometime later I realized I was getting both a horrible kink in my right shoulder and more frequent visits from the girls who were thirsty - go use the water fountain - and hungry - I didn't bring food and I'm not buying any, so play or go home and eat, you choose - and I figured our time was coming to an end, so sad. Gathering up sweaters and my book, I practically sprinted to the gate to get out of there, and once outside in the rain I decided that wet air had never smelled so good. Was it worth the trip? I guess. The kids got more than enough exercise, and it definitely killed some time. Plus it was like gold having that outing to dangle over their heads for at least a week or two whenever they started to complain that we never did anything fun. Like during the rest of the weekend, when we eased them back to reality by having to entertain themselves while we did yard work, cleaned out the carports, stuff like that. Only downer is that I still have that kink in my shoulder - I guess that's the price I paid to make it though spring break otherwise unscathed. How will I make it through two months of summer holidays? I'm thinking day camp is starting to sound really good....