When things don’t go to plan

Yesterday should have been a lovely, family day out at a Theme Park.  The picnic was made, discounted tickets had been purchased, the waterproofs were packed and Daddy P was actually ready to leave at the right time – what could go wrong? When you have children, you’re never entirely sure how they will be on the day, well I’m not anyway.  My son can be very unpredictable at 3 and a half. Yesterday was going to be an exception.  We started the day full of excitement and promise.

We went to Thomasland, I’ll do a full post about the day soon.  We went last July and he loved it, so as soon as Tesco put their special offer on for tickets, I ordered them for this year. He was so excited when we arrived and made a beeline for James, and then was happy to queue for a train ride on Percy (his favourite).  Everything was fine until we caught the train back and he realised that the Vintage Cars weren’t working.  Last year he lived on those cars! He was not impressed and the meltdown began.

For the rest of the day we had kicking, screaming, biting, running off, not wanting to go on anything, wanting to go on something right until he got on it, and then screamed that he didn’t want to go on it.  When we said, it’s fine, we’ll just go home then, that was wrong too.  At one point I just had to walk away, leave Daddy P to deal with him and have a few minutes to chill out.

Writing it down, it doesn’t sound as bad as it felt on the day.  In the end, we left with him in tears, me virtually in tears and Daddy P wishing he’d never booked the day off. It was such a shame that the day was ruined because of one ride that wasn’t working – the reaction to that was just epic! Even this morning I could have cried, just thinking about the day. It’s such a shame, he doesn’t see much of his Dad, and he’s so lucky to have the opportunities he does but too young to appreciate it all I guess.

25 thoughts on “When things don’t go to plan

  1. I think we get disappointed when we hope for a really nice day, and in our heads it all goes perfectly. Hope you’re having a better day today

  2. This happens nearly every time we plan a nice day out. I think it’s quite common.

  3. Oh no! Sorry your day didn’t go as you had hoped. Tantrums aside, would you say Thomas Land is good? Completely forgot this is at Drayton Manor – my mum lives in Tamworth so might be worth us checking out to do a combined visit at some point 🙂

    1. I think Thomasland is great really, we went with Tesco vouchers so saved a lot of money. There’s the Thomas and Percy train rides which run all the time, you never have to queue for long, there are 3 rides which go up in the air, and 3 train rides that go round and round, a farm, a zoo, model railway, Terence Tractor rides (over 1m), a runaway train ride, Bulstrode boat ride and a Cranky lift ride (not sure Monkey will ever be brave enough for that), you also have access into the main park. We went on a paddle boat ride last year and on the rapids – still can’t believe he did that at 2 and half! So plenty to keep little ones amused. I don’t know if the Vintage Cars are closed forever (sob sob) as Thomasland haven’t replied to my tweet but they are opening a monorail ride in the summer holidays.

  4. such a shame the day didn’t work out so well 🙁 Thomas Land is great, hopefully next time he will be able to enjoy it more!

  5. They call them the terrible twos and I reckon that’s because the parent who called them the terrible twos ran off before they reached the terrifying threes. It’s just a stage in their life, they know what they want (even if sometimes it feels like they don’t) and it’s the small things that matter to them. It’s a real shame the ride wasn’t working on the day though, especially if he loved him so much last year.

  6. It’s so hard when you have a day planned out in your mind – then it all crumbles! As you say, writing it down often makes it sound better than it was… but I do know how frustrating children can be!

  7. I remember Little Mr A at 3, he was a little sh*t whenever we took him out anywhere and we often wondered why we bothered. In fact I was talking to my Mum about it the other day and she was commenting how much better he was now. So, hang on in there, 3 seems to be a terrible age but it really does get easier. Soon you will look back and laugh about it, I promise! xx

  8. I think MummyOfTwo put it best – they really can be absolute 5h!ts at the best of times, and you never really understand why, but it’s really common when they’ve got excited and are expecting a certain thing, and it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t even need to be that a ride is broken, it can just be that it wasn’t as great as they remember.
    It’s a very frustrating age – for everyone, and walking away to cool and calm down is an option I also prefer. It does get better – and then they start on something else! 🙂 x

    1. At this age they’re forming permanent memories but it isn’t yet perfect, and it’s a brand new thing to them. They get a bit overwhelmed by being able to remember events, and then when it isn’t exactly how they remember or imagine there’s no way they can fix that.

  9. hope things calm down soon, it always feels worse in the moment, All will be better when he gives you a cheeky smile! I’ve had one of those upsidedown days too!

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