A little while back my parents and I decided to take my son and niece and nephews to the zoo. We thought it would be a great way to get the kids outside, learn a bit about animals while also having the excitement of seeing all the animals the zoo had to offer.
For one, I am going to say that the zoo is way over priced for what it had to offer. To others it might not seem like much, but for me, this was out of my budget, but I was already there so what could I do. Now before you go thinking, well why didn’t you look up the price before going, know that I have been to the zoo many times, it definitely was not as expensive as it was when we went. I paid $20 for a one day ticket, just for myself. Now that might not be bad, however, I have gone many times and it never fails that many animals can’t even be seen in their exhibits, if there is even an animal reserved for the spot. That and the monkey exhibit has been completely removed, there’s some here and there, but now there’s birds instead of monkeys.
Anyways, I wasn’t writing this to complain about the pricing of the zoo. We get there and it’s way more crowded than usual, parking is hard to come by, but whatever, that’s to be expected. Of course every other exhibit has an animal you can’t even see. Then they have it decorated for Halloween, which would be cute, except we got there with some grabby hands. The younger 2 were actually the good ones about not touching anything.
We have the oldest that knocks a decoration over, the next oldest that does the same thing knowing what would happen and directly after being told not to touch. Sitting on the exhibit wall, hanging from a tree, complaining about how bored they are and that they aren’t having fun. Then to have 2 toddlers that are still in the potty training stages and making sure they go before accidents happen. It being cool in the morning and then hot when we get there so nobody is dressed for the heat in the fall.
We get to the area where the kids can run free and play, have 1 toddler go “missing” (only one way out so they were in there, but still having to find them in the heap of other children and hay stacks.) Try and get the oldest to help us located his brother but he’s busy playing with a bamboo stick even after being told 3 times to put it down. Ends up hitting the other toddler in the head with said bamboo stick that should have been long put down. Find the toddler but now have to leave because the others aren’t listening.
Needless to say, you can’t really plan a trip to go according to plan. In my head everyone was going to get along, be excited about being at the zoo and it go smoothly. That was not the case. I ended up more tired from getting after kids than the walk around the zoo itself. One toddler napped for 20 minutes while the other cried from being woken up. It was a mess, but that’s life. Not everything is going to go your way. Kids might not enjoy the place you looked forward to taking them. It can all be a bit of a disappointment. But it is all OK. It’s normal. It’s life. And things happen.
As always, thank you for reading to the end and don’t forget to hit the follow button on the right side of the screen so you don’t miss out on any future posts. Don’t forget to check out the other sections of my website listed below.
Mel's Life 