How Roles Were Reversed One Fun Weekend At A Theme Park

They say that as we get older, our roles with our children reverse. The child becomes the caregiver, and the parent becomes the child. I got a taste of this last weekend and it made me smile.

An Adventure For The Moms

My daughter and son-in-law treated me and his mother for a weekend at Universal Studios in Orlando. It was a Christmas gift. They made all the plans, booked the hotel, bought the tickets, and made the reservations. They even created a group text to keep up with everything, including each other.

The three of them flew in from Birmingham, and I picked them up at the airport in Orlando. Even though I had left my house early, in plenty of time to wait for them in the cell phone lot, the typical bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 4 put me at the arrivals pickup right when they were getting their bags. Can you say “perfect timing?”

We went straight to lunch and then checked into the hotel near the entrance to the park. (Staying at this hotel allowed you entrance to the park one hour before everyone else.) The moms were in one room and the “kids” were in the adjoining room, and yes, there was a door connecting the two rooms. We enjoyed a relaxing hour by the pool before our dinner reservation. After dinner, we played a game, and then they sent us to our room, reminding us we had to be up early the next morning.

We went to our room, but we also had to get caught up on the last few months since we had seen each other. The moms also enjoy working on jigsaw puzzles, so we stayed up a bit late working a puzzle. The following morning we heard “You stayed up how late”?

Let The Fun Begin

We followed the mass of other hotel guests into the park and made a beeline back to the rides we were interested in. Another benefit of our choice of hotel was the included Express Pass, which allowed us to skip the long lines. Of course, that didn’t work on the newest ride. We had to wait for that one.

That’s where I got tickled with the exchange of roles with my daughter.

The moms weren’t too sure about this new ride. The warnings were a little ominous, although none of them applied to me. Still, I was a little nervous since I’m not a huge fan of roller coasters. The plan was to wait in the long line, observe the ride, and then decide when we got to the front. We knew there would be a place to bail right before you had to get on the ride.

We were in line for around an hour, so my daughter had plenty of time to look up information about the ride on the internet. She checked out reviews that described the ride and compared it to other rides in all the theme parks. It was like other rides I had experienced and enjoyed. She encouraged me.

I had a twenty-year-old flashback while waiting in that line.

Back In Time In The Roller Coaster Line

Since we live in central Florida, going to the theme parks with my kids was the norm. My mom and I bought annual passes several years in a row and when they were pre-schoolers, we could take them for a few hours at a time. Disney and Universal Studios were a regular part of their childhood.

As she got older, my girl wasn’t a big fan of thrill rides. It would take her a while to warm up to a ride, even the tamest of rides like the Barnstormer and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Walt Disney World. It often took months for her to build up the courage to try a new ride.

One such ride was Rockin Roller Coaster at what was then MGM Studios. Her older brother and I had already discovered the ride and loved it, but it took her quite longer to embrace it. She would say she was ready, then opt out at the last minute. I tried to encourage her, telling her how much fun it was, but she wasn’t having it, at least for a while.

On one visit, she finally mustered up enough courage to go on the ride. We waited in the long line and watched as people boarded the ride and took off. The sounds of music, laughter, and some screams of delight filled the air. When it was our turn to board, my daughter took her seat beside me. The large shoulder restraints prevented me from seeing her face, but I saw her hands clutching the seat restraint.

On this ride, once you secure yourself in your seat, you experience a few seconds of waiting before the ride begins with a zero to sixty-mile-per-hour launch. Sometimes those few seconds seem like minutes. It was in those few seconds that day that I questioned my mothering skills.

I had a moment of panic, and thoughts swirled through my mind. “Wait, I changed my mind. She’s going to hate this. She’s going to be terrified. What have I done? Let us off.” But, we were past the point of no return. We were committed.

Something endearing happened on the ride. Yes, we screamed as we twisted and rolled in the dark. Yes, we could not contain our laughter. But, as the ride ended, I leaned forward as much as I could and looked at my daughter. I wanted to make sure she was okay. All I could see were cheekbones, you know, like when your smile is so big that your cheeks seem to move a few centimeters up your face. She loved it.

Roles Reversed

How ironic that all these years later, it was my daughter who encouraged me to try the new ride and assured me it was something I could handle. The roles reversed.

We had a great Harry Potter World Mom trip. Our hotel was pleasant. The food was delicious. We rode rides, poked through shops, and snacked on ice cream and other treats. We even bought souvenirs. And since we’re the older ones, we had the freedom to pick out more than just one thing.

This past year was a difficult one for all of us, so it was refreshing to put 2023 on the shelf for a couple of days and simply enjoy being together in a fantastic, magical place. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if this becomes a recurring event. Stay tuned.