Ride This.

babywhumpus is not a fan of rides. babywhumpus does not even like bouncy houses.

I think this is fine. I didn't ride on my first roller-coaster until I was in my twenties. For me, it was a combination of fear of the unknown and not being in control that kept me bemused by amusement parks.

babywhumpus is three. I don't think he's going to have an explanation of why he does not like rides, but I suspect it's similar in its roots. He loves to jump on the couch and race around, but bouncy houses might simply be too bouncy and unpredictable.

Apparently, it was OK for me to dislike rides and such when I was in junior high because I was a girl. Apparently, being a junior high boy who does not like rides is going to open FJ up to endless ridicule and scorn from other junior high boys. This is what I have heard from one source, at least.

Isn't ridicule and scorn what junior high is all about? After all, you could not pay me a million dollars to go back to seventh grade, even if you let me keep all the knowledge I have gained since then. Just dropping me back into those putty-colored halls, into that awkward body complete with home perm and glasses, wearing my pale yellow Izod shirt and tapered, mauve, faux suede pants with the pleats would be enough to erase all the self esteem and relative security I have gained since then. Between socially debilitating "Fun Nights" where I pined after the boy of my dreams and sometimes insufficient bladder control, junior high was a nightmare of bad fashion, appearance issues, and generally devastating social failures.

(Point learned: good grades don't make you popular.)

So far, FJ is an outgoing yet reasonably cautious, engaging child who does not seem at all tempered by a character that could be termed nervous or worried. (When I think about being a child, the terms "nervous" and "worried" are the first that come to mind.) I do not consider "does not like rides" to be a character flaw, nor do I think that this is necessarily a fixed state. Before he went to the state fair with his friends, I actually told him that he did not have to ride and rides if he did not want to. He rode two. When we went back with him, he went on none, except for the Sky Ride.

He pet a cow. He was unfazed by hordes of humans. If he did not want to get into the bumper boats again, that's just fine with me. The possibility of future humiliation is not going to alter my choices for him today. If that were the case, I would be busy trying to cover a whole lot of bases.

I would probably have to quit my job in order to cover dating, class pictures, piano recitals, choir solos, and musical theatre alone.