I’m sitting in the indoor playground at Dollywood today.  I’m here with my husband and my 2 youngest children.  It’s a hot day but we are having a good day.    We are riding rides, enjoying the atmosphere at the park and it’s not the first time we have come in the year and a quarter that we have been married.  This is the third child’s 3rd visit and the youngest one has been here 4 times.  We have season passes for me and their stepdad so we are able to use our guest passes for them. 

It’s amazing how people’s viewpoints make experiences either easier or harder.  My kids Dad has the perspective that anything you do with kids is super challenging and it’s just easier to avoid situations than to try different activities. My husband has a different point of view that children need the opportunity to do things and if you end up with a challenging day then you figure it out and deal.  My kids have challenges…the 13 year old has  Type 1 diabetes and the youngest has Autism but it doesn’t slow us down or that we exclude doing things…we just deal. 

So it can mean divide and conquer, it may mean finding chill zones to sit and relax.  It may mean taking turns riding preferred rides.  But it doesn’t mean not going, not attempting and not being active members of life.  I’m really grateful for our new life and the enjoyable family experiences we get to do together.