When Parents Can't Fix It

Today I took Miss Priss to a place called Splash Pad. It's a free park that has all kinds of water fountains, waterfalls and sprinklers for kids to play in. I knew Miss Priss was going to love it, but I had no idea just HOW MUCH she would love it until we got there.

At first, she was a little reticent. She wasn't quite sure what to think of all the kids running around, the water spraying everywhere and the general feeling of pandemonium.

Fast forward about 5 minutes and she was ALL.ABOUT.IT.

I guess we had been there for about 45 minutes when suddenly out of nowhere, the water just shut off. What the...?!

At first we figured some kid had found the faucet and turned the whole thing off, and then we were told it would be about 15 minutes for water pumps to re-set.

The whole time we were waiting, Miss Priss kept asking, "Is the water coming back on?"

Finally, after about ten minutes, it did come back on...and I wish you could have seen the look of total ELATION in my child's eyes as she ran back toward the sprinklers. Then, two minutes later, OFF AGAIN!

After about another ten minutes, a representative from the Parks Department came by to tell us that an accident had knocked out the power for that entire area and they didn't expect to have the water back on for at least another two-and-a-half hours.

Poor Miss Priss, she was so disappointed. All she has done today is ask about Splash Pad. "Will they fix it, mama?" "It broke. Didn't it, mama?" Then at dinner tonight, she told Hubby about Splash Pad and that it was broken. You could tell, it really ruined her day.

Now, I know in the grand overall scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal that Splash Pad was broken today, but there is just something in a parent that aches when you see your child disappointed...even when it is something silly like no Splash Pad today.

I also know that the best parents are those who don't try to shield their children from every possible disappointment, but rather help them learn to cope when things don't go their way...but DANG! it's hard when you see their sad little face looking up at you with a look that says, "Mommy, can you fix it?"

And all you can do is shake your head no, give them a hug and promise you'll go back when it's fixed.