projectdavid

My favorite barn this morning.



This morning we decided to go to one of the park/playgrounds in town. You know, there really aren't enough parks in this community. For instance, we live on the mountain here. There is one playground (which has two of those bouncy things for toddlers. That's all.), one school with a playground (so you can only play there outside of school hours) and a private preschool with a playground (ditto). There is a park being built next to us, but who knows when it will be completed AND there are thousands of people living on this hill.

This particular park is located waaaay the other side of town, but will be great in the summer because across the road is also the leisure centre and a water park. I guess we were spoiled in Langley because there were at least three water parks there and there is only the one here. The population difference is only 20,000 different so I don't understand the difference in amenities.

Griping aside (for now), the park was marvellous. It was very cold, but it was so nice to get some fresh air.



Of course, when you're the parent, you tend not to get to run around so much (at least not yet. Give Tink a few more months and I won't have to help her up and down and on and off so much...) so I was frozen way before the kids were ready to leave. So I did what any stay at home parent would do...drove the kids to McDonalds to play there.

This was dumb on so many counts. The eating wasn't too bad. The kids split a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait and a blueberry muffin and I had tea. But first of all, every other parent in town was there. Of course they were. It's the only McDs with a play area. So LOTS of dirty hands, lots of noise, lots of hyperactivity.

Which is what I think spawned problem number two. Davey would not come out of the play area to go home. Now have you ever looked at one of those things? The reason we NEVER go to these places is because once your kid is in there, you can't get them out. So you have to rely on your child being obedient and well behaved. Which is a battle we've been fighting for a while in this house. So after giving Davey two warnings that it was almost time to go, I packed up our stuff and...couldn't get him out. This is my worst nightmare. Of course all the dad's there were marvelously helpful with ideas and tricks (none of which worked, but thanks for trying) while all the moms studiously ignored me. Of course Mcd's was hugely busy so even though I went and asked the manager to come and unlock the front of this play thing, I still had to wait about 20 minutes before he had a chance to come. During which time I still tried to get Davey to come out. I even tried (on one dad's advice) telling Davey I was leaving and then hiding in another part of the restaurant (something I didn't want to do because I don't like making false threats). Yah, he didn't care.

Anyway, the manager finally came and unlocked the play thing and I managed not to beat Davey to a pulp (I was very proud of myself!) and we left. And we're never going back, let me tell you!