After a late afternoon birthday party in Santa Clara, I decided to swing by Valley Faire Mall to re-stock on my Philosophy skin care line at Sephora. Yes, I said swing by. With a 3 year old boy that had pent-up energy after being at a “gurrl bird-day party.” The girls couldn’t handle him, so we left early. One the way home and to the park, it struck my fancy to run into Valley Faire for a little errand.
Why is it that when you have a good kid, you get all expectant that they will be good all the time? Even when that means doing something totally boring – like run an errand with mom. Not my brightest moment. I’ll blame it on the euphoria from eating really tasty chocolate cake.
As we got lost in Valley Faire (when the hell did it require its own zip code? That place is HUGE), we found a little island. An island filled with barefoot, wild children. Before I could turn us around (seriously, where was Sephora??), D had jumped ship and was swimming to join this crazy clan of kids.
The children were seriously wild. Feral versions of what I’m sure are well-behaved children any other time. They were climbing as high as they could, jumping anywhere without any regard for who may be underfoot, running with abandon. I kept looking for the leader with the conch shell, but alas I never found that kid. Maybe we were past that point and nearing total and utter chaos.
At first, I would shout (it was LOUD with all that screaming) at D to share with another kid or to watch out for the smaller kids. But then I looked around and noticed that most parents – sitting on the sidelines and out of harm’s way – were totally not paying attention to their kids. They were relaxing, enjoying a Starbucks, having an adult conversation. Being a kiddie-island virgin, I wasn’t comfortable with going that extreme. So I sat on my hands and bit my tongue and just watched.
I saw my well-mannered little boy taking turns on the slide, making friends on the cars, and keeping mindful of the littlier kids. Yes, he was screaming and making barfing noises with the other boys. But he was also kind, playful, and having a blast.
We stayed for over an hour. I eventually did make it over to Sephora for my purchases. And with D totally wiped out, it made that trip into the store a breeze. I’d say this ending is far better than the original book, hands down.
Cross-posted at the Silicon Valley Mom's Blog
