Patience
Children don’t have a lot of patience. I know I didn’t. I distinctly remember, as a six year old, throwing a tantrum while wait in line (or on line, if you’re from a certain metropolitan area) for Peter Pan’s Flight for twenty minutes. Well, to be honest, I don’t remember throwing the tantrum, but I do remember my punishment: being pulled out of the line, getting a good talking to, and then getting back at the end of the line. This was over twenty years ago. Nowadays, waits of twenty to forty minutes is the norm.
I was standing in line at the DMV last week and an employee was walking down the line and telling people how long the wait was going to be. “Ma’am, your wait is approximately thirty minutes from here. Sir, your wait is approximately forty-five minutes from here.” I was at about the fifty minute mark. The lady in front of me was appalled when she heard that she would have to wait fifty minutes, she began to yell at the employee and tell him how that was unacceptable and they needed to call in more workers t help the line move faster, how she pays her taxes, and blah blah blah. I couldn’t believe it. Fifty minutes once every few years at the DMV? What’s the big deal? I just waited in line for eighty minutes to fly over a model of London and mermaids in a miniature pirate ship for ninety-seconds! I can handle fifty minutes.
My wife won’t even go to the grocery store on the weekend because there might be two people in front of her at the cash register and she’ll have to wait an extra ten minutes to check out. Please!
Time management
Pop quiz, hot shot. Your dad hates thrill rides. Your mom likes to go to bed at 8:00 pm. Your older brother is bossy, and you just want to go see Mickey. What do you do?
My parents did their best to make everyone happy. As an adult, I realized how difficult that must have been. I now have to manage my favorite rides, my wife’s relaxation time by the pool, my mother’s favorite shows and dark rides, and everyone’s differing food preferences. Since I’m always the planner, I need to make sure that everyone is happy and doesn’t feel as though they wasted thousands of dollars. We try to hit a show in the morning and a few slow rides in the morning, relax by the pool, choose a restaurant that has at least something on the menu for everyone, and get to my favorite rides after dinner but before it’s too late so mother can get back to the hotel.
I believe this planning and experience has helped my time management skills in life and in the workplace. I work a 9-5 for the big banks. I can have Wells Fargo breathing down my neck for files while PNC is asking for the same. Sorry banks, not enough time in the day to do everything that everyone wants. I’ll make sure to do enough to make sure everyone is happy at the end of each day and by the time the week is over, everyone’s goals are completely met. Time: managed, and I didn’t even have to shoot the hostage!
Importance of family dinners
Do you want to know what I remember the least from my Disney trips? The rides. Okay, I remember what Test Track is and I can visualize every scene from Soarin’, sing the entire song from Pirates of the Caribbean, and recite the entire scripts from the Great Movie Ride and the Jungle Cruise. But what has always meant the most is the dinner at the end of the day.
Sometimes running through the park from one attraction to another can just be exhausting. I’m not talking to my family or really enjoying my “family time” with them. Most of the conversation is “what time is it? Boy, it’s hot. Where to next? What way is that? Do we have to do that again? When can we eat?” Not only that, but it is likely that only the person standing directly next to the talker will even hear the questions. Then, we stand in line, which no one likes to do, and make a little chit chat with each other while squeezed like sardines between hundreds of other perspiring, exhausted vacationers. Then we hop on an attraction, the whole family likely separated in separate vehicles, and then do it all over.
Finally it’s dinner time. We get to sit down in an air-conditioned dining room, be served on, and do things at our own pace. More importantly, we can talk to our families. That’s the whole reason we go on vacations with our families. We have a chance to sit and talk face to face, share our stories, and laugh with joy and humor at the things we saw and did throughout the day.
We have done our best to bring these family dinners back home. While not a daily event, we dine out weekly with our families to make sure that we maintain that close family dynamic. With the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, while we may chat during the week or see each other in passing, the time to sit and relax with our families without distractions is highly valued.
Selflessness
I visited Disney World as a teenager with my aunt in 2004. She had also accompanied me as a three year old in 1989 on my very first trip. She was always a little bit on the slower side this time and she couldn’t really handle the rides that I, as a teenager, wanted to ride. Add to the fact that she tweaked her knee stepping off a Disney bus and needed a wheelchair on and off for a few days, and my dreams of a teenager at Disney appears to be scratched. There were no roller coasters that trip, no rides with drops more severe than Pirates of the Caribbean, nothing that spun in any manner except Buzz Lightyear but I wasn’t allowed to touch the controls, and certainly nothing that would get us wet. I had never encountered this before. When visiting the parks with my parents, I always got to do anything I wanted. I got to ride very coaster, drop, and spin all I wanted! What was I going to do now?
By the end of the trip, we had seen (almost) every show, rode every dark ride multiple times, pushed my aunt through the walking trails of the Animal Kingdom and been in-and-out of every country in the World Showcase. This isn’t the most exciting trip for a teenager, but my aunt was happy. By the end of our vacation, I was happy. I had given up something that I really wanted to do just to make sure that she had enjoyed herself. She didn’t have to force me to do it even though I was reluctant to give up my teenage dreams at first. Now, as an adult, when my wife wants to see the latest Katherine Heigl rom-com instead of the new Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson smasher, I can happily say “sure, I pushed my aunt around Animal Kingdom in June for 7 hours. I can handle a ninety minute rom-com in an air-conditioned theater.”
Don’t take things for granted
We always assume that we will go back to Disney one day. For most of us, that day will be soon. We will continue to go back, year after year, and we love to take new people with us to see the look on their faces when the walk onto Main Street for the first time. We bring new family members, girlfriends, boyfriends, our children, nieces and nephews. Visiting with families and people we care about is important. Don’t take these moments for granted.
The above mentioned trip was one of my last memories of my aunt. She passed away last year, ten years after our vacation. Unfortunately, we lost touch after that trip. I went off to college and she got re-married and moved away. I received a Christmas card each year and she even attended my wedding three years ago, but weddings are so hectic I barely had time to say hi to her.
I could have easily made my trip as a teenager with her an absolute nightmare. I’m glad I didn’t.
