I don’t want to dime anyone out or blow up any of my kids’ spot, but today was accompanied by a lesson for all of us.
We got up early and headed out to a rescue ranch where there were pigs, roosters, llamas, horses, some angry ducks, and a very sweet lame cow. My kids have been BEGGING to ride horses lately because they were avid riders in Kansas and really miss it. I’ve been trying to get ahold of the barn at the AF Academy but I can’t ever seem to catch them and I’m always busy when they call back. I made a reservation for the rescue ranch and we headed up. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that. Still, we bought lots of bags of food and we set out to feed all the animals and ride horses.
Clara got hooved to the stomach about a billion times by the freakishly large one horned goat named Spike. He was super duper fired up about the hay and feed and wanted to be the top rectangled eye contender. Two goats were also bullying Kevin Bacon, the rouge pig in the goat pen. We also ran across one single perfect egg in the goat pen but I didn’t see any hens- only roosters… the mystery of science.
We fed all the animals, got head butted by a few, almost peed on twice, and were ready to ride horses. They had one pony and one horse. All of my kids are experienced in riding somewhat and expected to ride the horse. The horse was injured and they were trying to ride him minimally. Some of my kids HAD to ride the horse because they were too big to ride the pony and some of my kids needed to ride the pony so the horse didn’t take as many laps. There was a near coup. One of the kids accordianed herself to the ground and had a proper meltdown. The cowgirl offered to let her ride the horse but she was so busy being angry that she missed the whole thing.
I was really rooting for her to snap out of it, but I wasn’t scooping anyone up and making them act a certain way. She wasn’t being disruptive or rude. She was just angry. Kids are allowed to be angry, but sometimes we miss out on something because we let our anger get in the way. I am stealing the words from my friend and coach, Ann, here but “our kids have the right to have the whole human experience.” I knew we wouldn’t be back or able to ride horses for a long, long time and I wanted so badly for her to calm down and get her opportunity to ride. But. Bottom line, she has the right to experience disappointment. I was disappointed for her too, but what I thought would be a catastrophic day ruiner was merely a bump. I do think she learned from her experience and I hope the number of times she has to learn that lesson are fewer because of it. It’s very hard for me to let my kids be disappointed. Parenting be like that. I still think I did her a favor today in the long run even if it felt like sandpaper on my heart at the time.
We listened to Church on the way back from the ranch since it was about 45 minutes. We have been watching our Church on YouTube since March. I would love to go back but 1. You have to have reservations, 2. There are no bathroom breaks allowed, and 3. They’re singing (which is like the number 1 COVID spreader). Its just not for us at this time. Clara and Jerry have their first communion in October and I’m trying to be real zen about it but I’m hashtag not. Clara’s dress that my mom made sure is beautiful though! I’m going to get her a satin mask to go with it and I need to order Jack’s suit and matching mask. What a time to be alive.
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