MOMday: When to call It Quits

No - not motherhood.  or work. or life. I'm talking about outings here.  

I have this big thing about offering as many experiences to our girlies as I possibly can.  Whether it is a trip to the zoo or a walk in the park.   I get these grand ideas about how the trip should go and how long it should take.  

Of course, usually that translates into them having other ideas (Say what!?!?! - I know - I'm still shocked every time it happens).   I am usually the one who ends up disappointed when an outing doesn't pan out the way I envision it.   Then I get mad.  and I usually end up in tears.  It's not pretty - considering the twins are usually also in tears because they no longer want to be there.  I guess I've just had a hard time rolling with certain things.   I've endured shopping trips punctuated by screams just because I think we should be doing it as a family. 

But this weekend, I finally let them dicate.  

We went to the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown.  The dragon and lion dance was to start at noon sharp and we were running late.   Then we ended up way far away from the action.   Unfortunately, the celebration started with 20 minutes of speeches.  Who really expects 2 year olds to sit still through long speeches?  When the lions and dragon came out to dance, I hoisted Doodle up onto my shoulders and she watched for approximately 2 full minutes and then she asked if we could go.  Buggie was already playing in the snow and throwing snowballs at everyone by then.  

As much as I wanted to watch the dragon dance - I had to weigh it out.  

1) It was warmer out than it has been, but it still wasn't THAT warm.

2) We had crappy "seats" anyway

3) It hadn't cost us anything but the time to drive to the city - which we might have done anyway at some point that day.

So - we left.  Went to Eau Claire and beat the rush for lunch in the food court. The girls chattered about the dragon and we looked at the photos and videos I took, holding the camera above my head.  

They still got the experience - it might not have been what we'd originally planned, but it still worked.  Best of all, this particular aborted outing taught me alot about assessing when to abort the outing.

It would have probably been much harder had we paid money to be there.  I might have tried harder to salvage a trip to the zoo or the science centre...but sometimes it isn't even worth it to do that.   I want to foster as many positive experiences as I can in their little lives and if it is forced, then it isn't going to be positive.

Guess it just takes me a bit sometimes to figure out when to let go.