<p>Life is going to be pretty miserable for you if you can’t just relax and go with the flow. You’re going on an enjoyable outing with your family, but your thoughts are centered around how they MIGHT react over rides that haven’t even been taken yet, and the anxiety that results from how you MIGHT react. </p>
<p>Cartera is 100% right. Do you think it is a good strategy to not allow any rides on the chance that they might have so much fun that they’d want more? By that same token, never take them out for ice cream - they might want to go back again. </p>
<p>Buying multiple tickets in a row might be an annoyance compared to buying a pass, but if you can’t “relax” over it, then I think you’re moving beyond normal reactions here.</p>
<p>and I really agree with Slitheytove’s suggestion of one ride. I would tell them this long in advance and tell them there will be more parks in the future (if that is your intent). This has the potential to make it seem a treat and special experience. If you are concerned about whining, that is a different parenting dilemma, imho. and one about which I imagine we would have lots of advice.</p>
<p>How does your wife feel about this? Does she get a say? A friend had a husband who didn’t like to spend anything on entertainment at all. Her kids weren’t allowed to have ice cream when a group of us went to the (public) beach. They had plenty of money, but he thought an entertainment budget a waste of funds. She got a divorce and when we asked her, “what are you going to do now?” she answered “we’re going to Disneyworld!”</p>
<p>I loved the rides as a kid and into my young adult years. When I was in graduate school, my boyfriend had a part time job at Busch Gardens and on “employee day” we could ride as many rides as we wanted over and over again. They practically had to forcibly remove me from the roller coaster. I was so disappointed when I rode a ride one year with my brother (I was in my 40’s) and I felt sick. Something had changed with age and I couldn’t handle them any longer. I felt like I had really lost a piece of pure joy. I did get stuck on a ride at the county fair one year in high school. For an hour, we sat almost perpendicular to the ground - fortunately in a reclining position so we weren’t worried about falling out. I was with my best friends and we were never afraid - even though they kept physically jostling the ride fairly violently in an effort to unstick us.</p>
<p>Gotta say…this thread has me laughing out loud. My husband and I will be attending his company picnic (an engineering firm) at an AMUSEMENT park this weekend.</p>
<p>Don’t blame you engineer–the rides are expensive and unless its great then it doesn’t seem worth the money at all. My H would disagree with me though. And my kids. So I send H on these jaunts with the kids and they all have a good time. I tend to find a bench and hold all the stuff.
If you have other opportunities to do rides at venues that have wrist bands or better amusement parks then just wait and go then–this certainly won’t be the last time your kids will be able to go on rides–they might not even like them much and you’ll save more in the long run.
Favorite memory: being on a Ferris Wheel for the first time with my dad in the JM Fields parking lot.</p>
<p>If I was a kid and my parents dragged me through the “boring” exhibits of 4-H project, wilted vegetables and grandma crafts without a ride, I would have accidentally dropped a vase or two the following week. I grew up with those little fairs and buying the tickets isn’t a horrible deal. If you can’t set limits now, you will have a really tough time in a few years. </p>
<p>And I agree that you may be able to get deals if you read the paper beforehand. I noticed that wristbands were at our fair, but only at certain times. Carefully read the schedule and you may be able to find a block of time when they can ride to their hearts content, then be satisfied with sitting down and stuffing themselves with cotton candy and elephant ears while they watch the rodeo.</p>
<p>My suggestion it make family wristbands … give each kid an allowance equal to the amount you’d pay for a wristband. And also tell them allowance is all they get from the parents and if they start to whine we’re leaving the fair … and that they can, of course, spend their own money above their allowance from you.</p>
<p>PS - as a parents Mom and I often get two (unsollicated) comments … first, that our kids are so well behaved and well controlled … and second, that we’re “tough” parents. It seems to me they are related … we give our a lot of freedom and opportunities with limits … limits they know are real.</p>
<p>When my oldest was in HS we were in SoCal and invited their local cousins to go to Magic Mountain. We were south of LA and Magic Mountain is north of LA, so probably a two hour drive through LA traffic. He was planning to have 7 kids and 3 adults, one parent from each family, somehow the parents both had to cancel, but the kids all still came. Just Dad, seven kids, driving though traffic, all day & all night at Magic Mountain (now six flags). What a guy.</p>
<p>OP- why don’t you set up some way your kids can earn some money at home, say $20 each, then let them pay for the rides. They get the memory and they spend “their” money?</p>
<p>Who, besides me, remembers the A-E Disneyland tickets? You went to Disney. You got a book of tickets of different value. All of the seriously cool rides required an E ticket, and there weren’t enough E tickets to go on all of the seriously cool rides. There were some fun C ticket rides (Autopia, if memory serves), but by the time you got down to the A tickets (the double-decker buses on Main Street) they were pretty much useless. Once the tickets were used up, that was it. Sure, you could buy more tickets of a specific value, but I don’t think any self-respecting parent actually did that. You finished the day exhausted and happy, with leftover A and B tickets that your father kept with his cufflinks for use on the next Disney trip (the tickets, not the cufflinks :)), which was really silly because that would mean you’d have to use those older A tickets along with the new ones that you were going to get in your ticket booklet the next time. </p>
<p>We learned a lot from those Disney trips. We learned that resources were limited. We learned that you couldn’t have it all. We learned that we had to prioritize. We learned that we couldn’t whine to our parents about one more ride. And we were rewarded! Lines were not impossible. Crowds were not huge. The cost of a day at Disney was not as insane as it is now. Ruined, all ruined, because Disney went over to in essence a wristband system.</p>
<p>engineer4life, if you can’t stand firm against the whining about one more ride, then you’re never gonna be able to manage it when your kids want to attend their $600,000 a year dream schools, or when they want their third bellybutton piercing. And the wristbands aren’t going to make it any easier for you, because your children will insist on trying to win one of those ginormous stuffed animals at the carnival booth where you get three chances to knock over the milk bottles, but the milk bottles are bolted to the surface so firmly that they’re not going to be dislodged even in a hurricane, and you will spend $32 per child before they finally agree with you that it’s impossible and stop whining about needing just one more chance. Honestly, you’re complaining about being able to relax…at the carnival section of the fair? If you wanted to relax, why did you have kids?</p>
<p>Let them choose 2 or maybe 3, and stick to your guns if there is whining for more. Growing up with limited funds, we had limited rides, and REALLY loved those few. Try to relax enough to do the ferris wheel or 1 ride or fun house with them. My cousins loved my dad for being game enough for rides with them at their county fair, back before I was old enough. I wanted to grow up to be that person, but realized at the first amusement park with my son, that my aging inner ear did not agree. Have avoided Disney though, as my kids got plenty with the grandparents. And I’d also far rather hike, go to museums or a zillion other things. </p>
<p>However, those rides must have made a big impact, as my only recurring, if rare dream has to do with amusement parks.</p>
<p>I was in 4-H as a kid and have fond memories of the county fair. Even the livestock! One of my great childhood memories is going to the Ohio State Fair, butter cow and everything.</p>
<p>This borders on a ■■■■■ post . Are you obligated to hug kids ? How about read them a story at bedtime ? I am sure your kids will be seriously damaged as adults because they were APD ! That’a Amusement Park Deprived !</p>
<p>I remember the family RV trip to Disney World at age 6 or so, in which we ended up at a Midas because Grandpa’s RV had some ‘issues’. I remember riding the teacup ride over and over and over and over and over and over…and over again. </p>
<p>Not long after, we went to Six Flags Great America up in Gurnee, IL and my mom went on the now-defunct Shockwave. She hit her head in such a way that she busted the bones in her inner ear and couldn’t even be on a waterbed/look at a dryer for months, so that kind of knocked any chance at amusement parks out of the way for a long time. I remember I was always so jealous of the kids who got to go to Six Flags, or their parents would go on rides with them at the fair…so while you may fret about money, your little kids don’t quite understand that concept yet. </p>
<p>If it’s anything like my county fair, $5/ride seems extremely steep. Ours are all tickets, and you buy X tickets for $5, $10, $20, etc. Wristbands are only for 2 days of the week long event. I’d recommend walking with your kids around the whole carnival area and letting them pick out their favorite 2 or 3 rides, that way they’re not upset when they rode the bumper cars and the fun house and see the tilt-a-whirl and the scrambler and have no rides left</p>
<p>ST- does the rest of the country have “E-ticket” as a part of conversation when describing something exciting and desirable?</p>
<p>Yes, my Dad kept the old A tickets with his cufflinks, too. What did we think, we would just ride 'round & 'round on those main street buses some day using all the stored up A tickets?</p>
<p>Slitheytove—Everything I know about personal finance I learned through the old Disney ticketing system. In our family, we still describe great experiences as “E” tickets.</p>
<p>Also - although I love everyone’s Disney stories (can I talk about how my husband developed shingles from the stress of waiting in line?), we’re actually talking about carnival rides at the local fair, right? Some of my fondest childhood memories took place at the carnival: the thrill of going up in the ferris wheel and rocking the seat back and forth (and making my sister scream); later, the intoxicating feeling of sitting at the top of the ferris wheel with my first “real” boyfriend and seeing the town spread out below me; running and giggling with my siblings, arguing over what to ride next and who would sit on the “squashed” side of the scrambler.</p>
<p>I still have disney books with a-c tickets…
If you were “special” (employee or contractor in some way) you got an extra 2 “E” tickets in your book and then it got upgraded to ALL “E” tickets!. Whoo-hoo! Good times!</p>
<p>Haven’t read the whole thread so apologies if this is redundant. Today happens to be my late dad’s birthday, so I find myself thinking about him and musing over fun things we did as a kid. One was a funny practical joke he pulled at the State fair we visited. I remember it like it was yesterday, and it ws probably 50 yrs ago. So yes, these memories STICK with you. I dont know how old your kids are, but if you have a booth you have to man, why cant mrsengineer4life take the kiddos to the rides? Most of these fairs use a ticket system (3 tickets for this ride, 4 for that) so just let them byt $20 worth of tix and decide what rides they want to go on. Its a small price to pay for their happiness.</p>