Epic Fail Parenting Moment

My kids love Dinosaur Train and Buddy was coming to the Museum of Nature and Science for the new dinosaur exhibit.  We got the flier last month and my kids have been so excited.  Kevin and I  might have exploited that a few times to get good behavior out of them.  Like, "you need to go to bed or you won't get to meet Buddy."  Or, "kids that don't eat a good dinner don't get to see Buddy."  He was almost as good as Santa Claus.  Please note I write about running, not good parenting.

I must admit, I had been pretty excited too.  Not exactly to see a cartoon character, but to see my kiddos get excited.  I also thought they would love the exhibit that has robotic, very realistic looking dinosaurs.  It was going to be a great day.  I had my camera ready.  I could almost hear my children.  "Oh mommy, this was the best day ever!!  Our life is the best and you are the best mommy!!!"  It was going to be epic. 

Well, we can put this trip in the "epic fail" category.  I would like to reference the picture above as my first piece of evidence.  Notice one child is hiding behind me and the other child is clinging to me, refusing to look at Buddy.  To Mason and Emerson, this was 5 feet of orange terror!  Instead of "mommy you're the best" I was hearing "mommy why are you doing this to us!" 

"Open your window little boy!!"

I am not quite sure why I thought they would like this.  Although they love Dinosaur Train, they do not love people in costumes.  The Chick Fil A cow?  Causes tears and shrieking.  Once he came up to our window in the dive through and my son yelled, "DRIVE, he's gonna eat us!!!!"  Chuck E Cheese?  I have literally never seen my son so terrified.  He requested to never return to Chuck E Cheese.  It has been a real sacrifice, but these are the things we do for our kids, right?   I was hoping this time would be different.  It wasn't.


 There was still the dinosaur exhibit.  We could still salvage the day!  When we walked in we saw something that looked like this:

I am pretty sure that in my son's mind it looked like this:

Do I even need to say that we left immediately?

I am not going to lie.  I was disappointed that it was a potential therapy inducing experience.  As a parent, is there anything better than seeing excitement and joy on your child's face?  Is there anything worse than scarring your child for life?  When you go expecting joy and get terror, it is an epic fail. 

They each got a dinosaur toy and that seemed to save the day.  Nothing eases mommy guilt like buying the kids toys, right?  Mason proudly showed his preschool class the picture of Buddy posing with his legs.  And no one had nightmares.  So disappointing, but hopefully no long term damage. 

Toys make everything better in the preschool world.