Adventures Of Fatherhood

Adventures Of Fatherhood
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A seven-day family trip to Disney World merits some more reflections, so here’s a few more from last month’s adventure.

The most common phrase expressed on the trip by Pam and me was, “get your feet up.”

As ridiculous as this may sound, it was true that every day, multiple times an hour, we had to remind the boys in a forceful way to keep their feet off the ground while being pushed in the strollers.

Although they have tons of energy seemingly around the clock, the boys could not handle all the walking required in the parks. Therefore, a stroller was needed.

The first day we started with a double stroller and quickly realized that was a mistake for two reasons. One, it was simply too cramped for them. Secondly, their immaturity leads to fighting and bickering with both of them simultaneously dragging their feet.

Once we resolved two separate strollers were required, things got better, but the kids continued to mess with our heads.

This was an issue I did not foresee. I figured some problems would arise over the course of the long drive from Berlin to Orlando, but I never imagined that the stroller aspect would cause us the most heartburn of the entire trip.

While Beckett eventually realized rides were on the line if he continued to defy with not listening, Carson was the source of the most aggravation. When he was not dragging his leg out of the stroller, he was pulling up the brake with his hand behind him.

For some reason, poor Pam always seemed to be pushing Carson. That’s probably because he likes her more, knows she’s more patient than me or it’s that he’s not as concerned about the punishment from her as me. It’s probably a combination.

The unique thing about Disney is all parents, particularly those of little ones, are swimming in the same proverbial lake. There are simply exasperating moments along the way that sometimes bring out the worst in parents.

Some of those moments for me came during restroom breaks with the boys. Beckett has a newfound aversion to urinals and that caused problems. During some nature calling breaks, while I was helping Carson at a nearby urinal, Beckett would barge in on complete strangers who forgot to lock the door on the stall.

Once he realized he could not do that, he would instead get down on his hands and knees in the public restroom to see if he saw any feet within the stall inside. We clearly had some public restroom etiquette and proper ways to maintain cleanliness to go over. Unfortunately, the disgust factor combined with holding on to Carson while taking care of my own business led to some shouting at times.

I was not alone in that department, however. As we would walk through the parks each day, it was common to hear parents getting aggravated with their kids and we tried our hardest to not be that way. However, there were times when we had enough with behavior and the kids needed to know it.

Despite some periods of high emotions, I was proud that we never stooped as low as one particularly aggravated Dad did with his son, who looked to be about 10 years old. While waiting for Pam and Beckett to come off Space Mountain, Carson and I were eating some overpriced popcorn and could not help but overhear a dad from Wisconsin dressing his son down in creative fashion.

“If you don’t stop making this such hell for everyone, your mom and I are going to get divorced and your entire life will change forever,” he said.

I had to pull Carson away after I heard the kid reply, “you’re lying, I’m going to tell mom you are lying.” The dad looked like he was going to explode so Carson and I quickly shuffled away.

As luck would have it, Carson got an ear infection on our trip.

Since it was clear he was not well the first two days of our trip, we called our pediatrician at 10 the second night and she was wonderful, calling in a prescription to a pharmacy near Disney.

Just in case anyone is unaware, as I was, there is a pharmacy that delivers to all Disney resorts. It’s a wonderful service and will deliver during unusual hours. Within an hour of contacting our doctor, the prescription was waiting for us at the hotel’s front desk and we were able to wake Carson up to get him started.

Within 24 hours, he was himself and was bunny hopping around the shallow areas of the pool because he couldn’t swim for seven days.

Many families struggle with the right ages to take their kids to Disney. We gave it a lot of thought as well, and I think our boys’ ages, 6 and 5, was just about perfect.

It was important to me that the boys be old enough to remember the experience. The first trip to Disney is too special of an occasion to not have lifelong memories, in my opinion, and that has nothing to do with the money.

Okay, maybe just maybe, it does just a little bit.