Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Easiest choice I've made all day

Big productions like Disney on Ice and large circuses are held in the Civic Center. I took Teen Queen to Disney every year from 6 to 14, she was just mesmerized and I was nauseous at the amount of money we spent. But she's never asked for much and there aren't a lot of things that she enjoys. Our main goal was for the Cute Chicks to have as much fun and as normal a childhood as possible.

Now, her 6th grade year, a large circus came to the CC and gave out student tickets at the local schools. Pretty smart, huh? Kids get in free, must be accompanied by a parent at $20 a pop. Then all the concessions you HAVE to have. So naturally, I had to suck it up and get over my deep set fear of clowns, and take her to the circus. Oh joy. One fun thing was the elephant rides in the parking lot, not that I could get her on one, but it was still cool; and they had a smaller elephant inside on the concourse that you could sit on for pictures. It was this that puzzled TQ. Up till now, every show she saw at the CC was something or other on ice, and here were elephants. She came to an abrupt halt, staring at the large beast, and I thought, "Oh crap, meltdown in 3...2...1..." But that wasn't the issue. You could see the wheels turning in her curly little head. Oh so quietly, I heard her question, "Elephants....on Ice?!" It was all I could do to keep it together.

We got in and found our seats, got a snow cone and a glow stick necklace in purple and settled in. Well, I settled, she sat on the edge of her seat for two and a half hours. Acrobats, motorcyclists, aerialists, the whole shebang. And.....clowns. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, her smile was ear to ear, and her squeals were happy and joyous when one of the clowns came up to us (did I mention we had really good seats?) and interacted with her. I kept a lid on my terror for her joy. Then there were beautiful Arabian horses, and lions and tigers and bears, OH MY! Well not bears, but there were lions and tigers.

When it was finally over and the lights came up, I looked over at her and she was glowing. She had seen and experienced something in person for the first time and I got to experience it with her. We saw a few more Disney on Ices after that, but we've been back to the circus every year since then, and every year it's the same. Joyful Cute Chick.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a lovely memory! I still remember the joy & awe of first seeing B&RBC at 6, there is nothing like a circus! (And re: Disney, well, "Dumbo" really is his masterpiece.)

JC said...

Bless you darlin'.

Anonymous said...

Way to go Mom - you are doing it right. My autistic son isn't into animals much (in fact, other than our house cats, he is scared of them). He's terrified of dogs and we are attempting to get him over that slowly.

His obsession is WWE (wrestling). He knows all the stats, weights, ages, birthdays and can go on and on about it. When WWE comes to town, his request to go is too much to ignore - he enjoys it very much.

So I gotta endure watching big guys in underwear act like they are beating the hell out of one another - if it makes him happy, I can share the television for a night a week, easy.

da_truth36 said...

Truly awesome story. Thank you for sharing such a memory with us!

Anonymous said...

What a Mom you are! Wishing you and the Cute Chicks the very best from this very DUSTY boat!!

Cap'n Jan

Pineslayer said...

Great story. I too can't stop my disdain for clowns, remember those 'Willy Talk' dolls.

Our compromise is amusement parks. Mom won't do some rides, but I do them all and my daughter is fearless. So we ride until they kick us out, her smile would make me walk through a black hole.

Heathen said...

Too cool,but the circus elephants are a thing of the past now.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160111-ringling-elephants-retire/

I sincerely hope your daughter isn't too upset by it when next you go.

Anonymous said...

nother star in your crown, and nother vote for "Mom of the Year".....and nother reason we love you.....

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