Do you like thrill rides?
We went on vacation and were fortunate to have our nephew join us. Our nephew and my boys cousin live far from each other, so getting to spend this extended time with him was special.
We decided to check out an amusement park one day while we were together. It was large park, but not too large. The first ride my son and I did was a ride where you sit in a swing, get lifted a couple hundred feet in the air and spin. It felt like flying. My nephew wasn't a fan of heights and decided to pass. Since our youngest and his cousin are close in age, we allowed them to go off on their own to explore the park and agreed to meet up later.
My husband and I decided to ride a roller coaster. It had been forever since I'd last been on one, so it was fun to find out I could still do it. 😊 After walking around a bit, we realized a lot of rides were closed and we weren't finding a whole lot of things we wanted to do at the park. We met up with the kids to find out how they were doing.
It turns out the kids were as bored as we were and hadn't found much to do (frustrating after paying so much money and hoping to have a fun day). We agreed we'd do the log flume ride. Of course, it was closed. 🙁 Then my nephew suggested we all ride the wooden roller coaster. I was surprised he recommended it since it went high and I knew he wasn't a fan of heights. My youngest, who has only recently done a roller coaster was game, so we were off.
We walked towards the roller coaster and went into the entrance. We were talking excitedly about the ride when my husband asked where our nephew was. I thought he was still with us. We turned around and walked out finding him on a bench just outside the ride. "Nope, I'm not doing it," he said. Getting up close to the ride made him rethink wanting to do it. We discussed the ride. I looked at my son and asked what the good part was about coming to an amusement park. He looked at me quizzically and after some prompting said, "oh right, it gives us a chance to be brave." We talked about the ride and how it works, with gravity mainly thrusting the ride forward in hopes it would calm our nephew's anxiety. He seemed good, so I said, "okay, so are we going to do this?" Thinking it was a done deal and we were going to go. My nephew responded, "are you crazy? I'm not doing that!" I found it both shocking (because I really thought we'd convinced him he could do the ride), and humorous ( how wrong I had been!). I loved how he advocated for himself though and was firm on what he was comfortable with.
Life can throw scary things in your path. Sometimes you get to be brave, and sometimes you opt-out. It can be thrilling but also terrifying, and but there is nothing more important than knowing what your limits are.
How does your child advocate for themselves? How have you helped them overcome a fear?
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