November 15, 2006

Hello Friends!!

Sorry about the vanishing act!  I have been so yucky sick!  But that will be a blog for another day, because, truthfully, I am tired of being sick and tired! So, no more time or energy on that sad subject!

I am going to vent about something else…..

Ready?

OK, so Eldon (the knifemaking husband) works on the weekends, so I am usually alone, however, a few weeks ago my parents called and wanted to meet up somewhere.  We decided to meet at Thanksgiving Point, which is about half way between their house and ours.  Thanksgiving Point…..this is a place a very wealthy software developer built, to give thanks to the community he was from.  There is a farm, a big garden area, a gift shop, a dinosaur museum…you see, the whole idea, in the beginning was to build a place families could go, for free.

WELL…it got really popular.  Soon the little gift shop that used to sell gardening tools, dinosaur and farm figures grew bigger and more expensive.  Then they opened a fancy-shmancy resturaunt.  Then a movie theatre. 

So, we met up, me with my four kids, my parents, my sister and her two kids.  We had planned on walking around the pumpkin patch, looking at the farm animals, maybe buying a sandwich for dinner….Well, apparently they had something going on called Boo at the Farm.  It cost $5 to get  in, you could look at all the animals, play games and get your face painted.  So, we go in.  $35 it cost me, to get myself and the girls in…..the whole thing was  really crowed…REALLY crowded.  It seemed as if every yuppy couple and thier toddlers (dressed in Baby Gap halloween costumes) were there, pushing around their $700  strollers.  The games were pretty dumb, they were very understaffed for face painting, and the topper, you had to pay AGAIN to go in the pumkin patch!  $4 for a small pumkin, $5 for a medium sized, and $7 for a biggish one!! And you couldn’t just go in the pactch and look around, maybe take some pictures of your kids on a hay bale……NO, you had to pay! ( I had already  bought pumpkins at the grocery for .13$ a pound…less than $4 for 4 pumkins!!)

So, my rant is this….Why is everything about money??  More and more money?   Apparently Thanksgiving Point is quite the money maker..But what happened to the thankful part of it?  And what is with this yuppy parenting thing?  Kids don’t care how much a silly costume costs…and the strollers!

One mom totally cracked me up, we were over by the Jersey Cows, and a baby calf started to pee, she whisks her little boy up and says “oh, turn your head.  don’t look!”  Then she turns to her husband and complains that maybe they could keep better  track of the animals and take them out of public view to do that!  UM…lady, this is a farm!

I did, however, learn a good lesson while we were there…..It is time for me to just go ahead and move out of the city.  I am ready for my own farm.  And belive me, any little city kids will be welcome to visit, anytime.  For free.