<p>"From your posts, it sounds like this would be time well spent, and I don’t mind spending the time doing that, but as a parent, i do need to set priorities and plan out the summer and figure out what activities we will do. As parents, each of you do that all summer long. perhaps you don’t ask questions like these on online forums, but it is something that every parent has to do - manage time and money to provide the maximum experience for your kids. "</p>
<p>I doubt very few of us, even the most frugal of us, attempt to exert this sort of control “all summer long”. And that is the point we meanies are making. Loosen up, your precious time with your small kids is even more limited than your funds. Don’t make them suffer at the fair because you want all the rides or nothing.</p>
<p>Let me bow out trying this is a different why.</p>
<p>Engineer imagine for a moment I was your Dad and we were headed to fair. I think spending $20 for 4-5 rides is OK (although I like $20 wristbands better since I love rides). That said I think the $20 to enter or visit the exhibits is an inefficient use of money. Actually, I do not believe the exhibits have any value if one has to pay anything at all to enter or visit them. So for you as my kid … I’ll spend $20 for rides (which I like) … but I will not spend $20 for exhibits (which you, my child. like). I’m sure you would not feel this is fair … and IMO it is not fair.</p>
<p>Overtime we’ve wondered into a pattern of defining how much we’ll pay and let the kids decide on which the money will be spent.</p>
<p>I don’t know why it doesn’t occur to you that a kid could enjoy 2, 3 rides and then on to something different - or a kid could enjoy an entire day of rides. Why do you have to rank those experiences?</p>
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<p>You seem to be under the assumption that once you figure something out, you can’t ever change. If you had decided to go to the zoo in October, but you see an ad for a haunted house that looks fun, why can’t you switch up your plans? The zoo will be there in November. You seem to have a real need to come up with closure on these kinds of things. Now, I love closure, myself. But you have to allow for serendipity in these things. </p>
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<p>At the MACRO level - yes, we have to manage it - are we going to spend our discretionary income going to Disneyworld or to the beach or to the lake? Are we going to drive to our destination or fly? But no, we don’t have to manage time and money at the MICRO level that you are doing so. You don’t need to overthink going to these rides any more than you need to overthink whether or not you’re going to take the kids for ice cream sometime in the next time. You do it, or you don’t. Not every decision is worthy of having a grand strategy behind it.</p>
<p>How do those around you tend to view you when it comes to decision making?</p>
<p>The couple of times we took our kids to the state fair, we looked around at the animals,exhibits,etc. for awhile and then saved a few rides for the end of the day, as the sun was going down and the rides were all lighting up. All of this is doable, engineer4life. As others have said, just don’t overthink it. Just go and have some fun and make some memories!
And yes,thumper, I remember the french fries at Cedar Point! Yum.</p>
<p>No one is trying to harass you, Engineer. You posed a strange question and you have gotten 12 pages of responses. If you didn’t want this sort of feedback, you should have just done your own thing with your family and the fair and not asked for advice on a public message forum.</p>
<p>I for one would be most disappointed if this thread were closed. I am truly enjoying the beautiful memories people are sharing about their childhood carnival experiences. I think they demonstrate beautifully how important these events are in a child’s life. OP, please consider the volumes of helpful feedback you are getting, give your kids a fixed dollar amount and watch one of their early money management lessons unfold.</p>
<p>I would love continuing the park memories idea and ditching the “let me tell you how to be a better parent” vibe. I HATE those, and they always seem to be the most popular.</p>
<p>I also enjoyed hearing about what kids liked about the amusement parks. The actual storeis were interesting, and give me ideas on what kind of memories I would like to make with my family.</p>
<p>My original question was pretty simple. If I don’t provide xyz to my kids, is this a big deal. We all ask ourselves those questions. But few people chose to actually answer that queestion and instead took it down tangents that I was not interested. All about my personality and outlook toward like. This thread was not about that. </p>
<p>I am ok with keeping it open, but only if people stop harrassing me for my view on life. It may not be your view. But I will never try to be someone that I am not. I will only be me. If you dont’ like it, do not read my threads.</p>
<p>Great, engineer4life, Do you have any memories or stories yourself about any amusement parks when you were little? The parks I went to when I was a kid were Kennywood and Idlewild. Great times (except the time I threw up on the Rotor!).</p>
<p>I agree that there is no harassment here. A question was posed, and it seems the person posing it did not get the answer expected. That happens when you ask for opinions. </p>
<p>I still say…if you don’t want your kids to go on amusement park rides…don’t take them to events AT amusement parks. OR if you insist on going to amusement parks remember that it’s not an “all or nothing” thing…kids can be told to pick their two or three favorite rides or junk food…and you fund those…and nothing else.</p>
<p>Those French Fries at Cedar Point were absolutely delicious. I wonder if they still serve them. We used to take enough money to go on a bunch of rides, eat a lot of the fries, and have lemonade (that was also REALLY good).</p>
<p>I think they still have the french fries (Berardi’s) at Cedar Point.
Kennywood has the Potato Patch-also great fries.
One of the fun things was taking our kids back to the parks we went to as kids. Places like Disney were fun too but it was special taking them back to our childhood parks(Kennywood and Idlewild) and the park their parents worked at and met at (Cedar Point). Also worked a summer at Kennywood’s pony track (which no longer exists) so this thread has been very interesting to me!</p>
<p>E4L, I think what people are reacting to is that there is an obvious win-win solution here – give the kids 2 or 3 rides apiece (whatever suits your budget). </p>
<p>Kids get to enjoy the fun of some rides (win), your budget isn’t broken (win). And for some reason, you keep rejecting what’s the obvious win-win solution. </p>
<p>We’re perplexed. Because there is a lot of all-or-nothing, black-or-white thinking in how you phrase things. A good amusement park day HAS to be 20, 30, 40 rides or else it’s not fun. The content of a day at a county fair HAS to be thought about and planned in advance or else everything spirals out of control. You HAVE to know your children absolutely won’t cajole you for “just one more ride, dad” or else the whole day is ruined. It’s the all-or-nothing, black-or-white thinking that we are calling out.</p>
<p>What are you concerned might happen if you went to the county fair without a specific agenda as to what activities you were going to partake in? (Because I’m betting a lot of county fair attendees indeed do just that.)</p>
<p>What are you concerned might happen if you gave the kids 3 rides and when they were done, they said, “Aw, dad, can’t we have just one more”? (Because I’m quite sure that happens in a lot of cases.)</p>
<p>You might want to reflect upon what you’re so fearful about and why that is.</p>
<p>Go to an amusement park / carnival that provides an all day pass, and skip rides at places that don’t provide all day passes. It’ll be easy to explain (we don’t do rides here because we can’t buy a all day pass) and the kids can get their rides in, and I can go too.</p>
<p>When I was in 5th grade, a new theme park opened in our state. It was five hours from our hometown. I don’t remember asking/begging to go but my parents (who rarely drove more than an hour from home) decided they would take me. My cousin was invited along to ride the rides with me. My older sibs were 18 and 21 …no interest in going. </p>
<p>It was near the largest city I had ever seen. We spent two nights in a hotel, only the second hotel stay of my life. It was a pretty low rent place with the beds that vibrated! My cousin and I had a ball dropping quarters into the bed to make it shake!</p>
<p>The theme park was great…heaven to two eleven year old girls. One of the rides was the old timey jalopies. We were too short to drive so my parents each rode w/one of us.
My Dad rode w/ me, a first ( as one of my older sibs usually did it). I still have a picture my Mom took of the two of us in the old jalopy ride, smiling and happy. </p>
<p>Nine months later, just was I was finishing 6th grade. My Dad died of a heart attack.
I’ll never forget that trip and treasue the pic of the two of us on the ride together.I know he did that long trip just for me.</p>