Gotta Love Those Parents!

What happens when there is a huge wind storm and no one shows up for work the next day?  The one supervisor, one sales girl and the owner's wife get to clean up the entire front of the property.  My plan to sit every time I could find a hiding place, didn't work out so well.

I don't get paid enough to clean these (which are all flush toilets by the way), so all I did was grab a hose and spray the insides.  I'm pretty sure I just made mud ... but oh well.  Oh well has become my mantra!

The screens were re-laced and hung back up at the Barnyard Bounce and the speaker rewired.  We play a loop tape of "barnyard" music that also relays the rules before anyone can go on, not that they listen.  When the music stops, everyone has to get off so the next group can climb on.  

It's pretty fun to bounce on this, except within the first 30 seconds, parents are out of breath, leaving their kids to crawl around the bottom grey rug.  This is the babysitter station ... most people drop off their kids, then wander around the property by themselves. 

On this day, Mom wasn't paying close attention and her little boy took off running at full blast to the end of the staging area.  He ran smack dab into that 2 x 6 at the end, causing a bloody nose and I'm sure two big black eyes.  The crying could be heard clear across the property.  He survived, but I bet he has a big bump this morning.  

I guess I'm old fashioned, even though raised on a ranch where we walked the tops of fence lines for hours, 7 feet high in the air.  Why would you want to make your child go down this slide when they are maybe 3 years old?  

Believe it or not, it seems to be so they can get their monies worth.  "I paid for my kid to get in and now you're telling me they are too small to ride the 30 foot high slide?"  Seriously?  Why would you think it's okay?  I fought them all day long.  Getting every ride for their dollar was apparently more important than the safety of their kids.

Insurance rules forbid you to ride with a kid in your lap and they must be 38" tall.  They pass three signs saying this before they get here.  Many 38" tall kids are still in diapers!!  They also cannot hold their hand, since heavy adults will go down much faster, dragging their kids off the rug and causing something akin to carpet burns.  

Heaven forbid the kids running the thing should let someone go without measuring.  Of course they did several times yesterday, and every other parent on the property was watching and now wants THEIR kid on the slide.  I fought with them all afternoon.

I finally got smart and referred them to the front office!!  I know, bad Nancy, passing them off like that.

Finally the day was coming to an end, and as usual, I was exhausted.  Still, I had to make one more pass through the property to be sure everyone was out.  What should I find but a man opening a locked gate so his kid could go inside with the goats.  Ummmm sir ... there's a reason that gate is locked.  How he got it open, I'll never know.  I ushered them all outside.

And so the end of another beautiful day.  This is the last thing I see every night as I leave, breathing a big sigh of relief as I head out the door to my truck.  It's a good thing I get to park close to the entrance because I don't think I could walk another 20 feet!! 

Total Miles Walked (10 days):   88.20