Holiday World and Splashin Safari

It's Fathers Day, and Mr. Twinkle and his dad wanted to go to Holiday World with the girls, so I was a good sport and went along with it. At 5 months pregnant, this involves a lot of walking around in the sweltering heat and waiting while others ride the rides. Good thing MIL was there to keep me company--there was no good reason why she couldn't have ridden a few of the more conservative rides, but she didn't want to risk tarnishing her spotless reputation as a fun sink. It was fine. Whatever. Fathers Day.

I just have a few grievances to air, actually, and they're small. MIL spent much of the day with her granny panties all in a wad about the fact that Mr. Twinkle and my FIL were wearing socks and shoes on rides where they might happen to get splashed (this wasn't even in the water park, this was just on the regular rides where a little water might be involved). The dryness of someone else's socks is the sort of thing that I put into the "not my problem" category, and I don't waste time worrying about things that are not my problem. FIL is 66 and Mr. Twinkle is 36, so I sort of expect them to know the preventive measures to take to keep their socks dry, and I guess they'll be OK even if they choose not to take those measures. It's not a topic I care to discuss repeatedly throughout the day, or at all.

Another thing was the damn suntan lotion. I put suntan lotion on my girls, like any halfway decent mom. I don't want anyone to be miserable with a sunburn (least of all myself, when people start to whine about their sunburns). But I don't feel the need to reapply every hour on the hour. I like my girls to be a little bit brown in the summer. If they were pale and prone to burns, I might slather them up more, but they get all golden and tropical and look adorable. A little brown looks healthy. It looks like they've been swimming and playing in the sunshine, which they have--and that's what kids should be doing in the summer. If I applied sunscreen to my girls as much as MIL wanted me to, they'd be as white and pasty as, well, my MIL. And my sister-in-law. And, I'm sure, her kid. And, for the record, neither of my children has ever had a sunburn, so that tells me that my sunscreen application process is working just fine for everyone involved, and others need not worry about it. Put it in the "not my problem" category, and move on.

One last thing: a difference between my MIL and me. Mr. Twinkle was always asking for and misplacing a map of the park. She b*tched at him about it ("I keep giving it to you--what do you want from me?"); I just handed it to him nicely, at exactly the same time. Two totally different reactions to a simple request.

Thank goodness for me or his life would be joyless, his children would be pasty, and the only thing he'd have to be happy about would be dry socks. Happy Fathers Day to him, indeed.