Zoo, Schmoo

The weather was beautiful here last weekend, so we took Jake to the zoo. Madison has an awesome free zoo; not very large, but a good variety of animals and it's very kid friendly.

Normally, we have a fairly set routine of how we walk through the zoo. Last weekend was the "Zoo Fun Run" so we knew we had limited time before all the runners returned and the zoo got crowded. Poppy really likes the herpetology house (snakes, lizards, bats, etc.) so we decided to head that way.

We spent a lot of time on the way admiring the flamingos (because they're pink) and the badger (because it's Wisconsin and my child has been brainwashed to think badgers are cool). We also checked out the rhinos and the new giraffes--a bit hit. Jake loves how tall the giraffes are, and we got really close to the baby giraffe.

We arrive at the Snake House but....it's across from the new carousel and kids' play area. Of course, we had to go. Jake loves choosing an animal for the carousel ride, and waving madly every time he goes by. Then we did a penny race with one of those huge funnels; big fun to see whose penny would go down the drain first.

Then, on to the brand new play area. It's huge; a three-story tower of parental terror, with lots of rope bridges and tunnels and hidey-holes. It was absolutely crawling with kids.

Jake can be adventerous, but he's a "hang back and check it out" kind of kid. The first time he climbed up the rope ladder, it took him five minutes of cautiously testing it, and figuring it out how it worked. He was been literally crawled over by other kids. He didn't seem to mind, but it bugged me. Of course, when he reached the top we cheered him wildly.

There was a part of the structure that involved stacked rooms made out of thick plastic webbing. The idea was that you would crawl up into one through an opening at the bottom left, and get into the next one through an opening in the bottom right, and so on -- fairly safe, because a kid really couldn't fall down more than one small level. But the "rooms" were about shoulder-height on Jake--he had a really hard time climbing up. He tried the first one and said, "I can't do it, Mommy!" Through lots of patient coaxing and coaching, we got him to climb through. It was hard work though, made harder because a lot of much bigger kids would literally push him out of the way or crawl right over him, knocking him down when he had hauled himself halfway up.

It's very frustrating as a parent to watch that. Here's your little guy--who is little for his age, anyway--being tromped on by bigger kids. But you can't show your frustation or fear. No, you have to stay positive and encourage your kid (who's natural inclination would be too give up anyway because if he can't do it the first time, perfectly, he doesn't want to do it all at all) to keep going. Jake was SO proud and happy when he finally made it up to the top. He knew his limits though, and didn't go all the way to the very top level, where all the really big kids (and the big slide) were.

So we took him to the zip line. That was scary (for us). The zip line platform was over my head. Jake got to watch other kids go on it while we were waiting in line, so we explained what he needed to do. Poppy lifted him up and Jake grabbed on tight, then....wheeeeee! Off he went. At the end, he was probably three Jake lengths off the ground. Talk about scaring Mommy! But Poppy was there to catch him. It was so worth it to see the look of excitement and pride on Jake's face.

That's the hard part about being a parent, I guess -- not letting your fears get in the way of your child learning new things or stretching themselves. And not letting your protectiveness make you rude to other kids and/or parents! I mean, really: some of those kids were old enough to know to be gentle with littler ones, even if they didn't help them. I try to teach Jake that he needs to be nice to smaller kids, and help them out. While Jake was climbing the Webbing Ladder of Despair, only one little boy even noticed him and actually waited for Jake to pull himself up to the next level.

At the zip line, one other mom and I had to constantly go and fetch the handles and bring it back to the deck. Common courtesy would tell you, once your kid had done the line, you should bring it back for the next child, right? (Most of the kids had an adult with them.) But no....the kids would jump off and the parents would walk away. We told Jake when he was done, "Okay, let's take it back to the next person in line for their turn."

I can't believe we are the only parents trying to teach our child manners, respect, and kindness...are we?