On the Line

Standing at a Disney attraction can turn into a marathon, not a sprint…but it can also be an opportunity.

Jane and Tim, a professional working couple, spent untiring hours each day, week, month and year trying to be the perfect parents.  In spite their hectic work schedules, they endlessly scheduled every waking and unwaking minute of each day to ensure their 2 kids had the ideal childhood.

They attended concerts and sports events, volunteered for room parent, soccer coach, and scout master, plus so many “mom taxi” rides shuttling back and forth, balding their minivan tires.  But Jane began feeling her kids’ lives were passing her by with each mile.  She was there each day, but still she didn’t know her kids.  What were their hopes and dreams?  What were their daily woes?  Even the syncopated banter of preteens in the minivan didn’t add up to anything except a virtual tally of the number of times they said “like.”

The answer…a pilgrimage to pay tribune to the magic mouse.  Yes, a Disney vacation could provide innumerable bonding opportunities, so she thought.  But several days into the trip, the only feelings shared were frustration, impatience, exhaustion and fear of the poorhouse from the fortune spent on shoeleather Mikey burgers and golden park tickets…until the last day.

After 2,600 bored minutes she counted spent waiting in lines longer than the paper line in Soviet Russia, everyone’s eyes ,and thumbs were glued to their phones.  Despite countless attempts to start conversations, Jane was ultimately defeated by the almighty cell.

The last afternoon of the last day, they waited for the Buzz Lightyear line to get smaller, but finally they decided to get in the 1.5 hour line.  30 minutes into the line, a Disney miracle happened, no bars.  The interior of the attraction must have had some dampening effect on cell service.  Jane seized her opportunity.  She started asking the kids about school, sports…but only a spark…few word answers.  Then she remembered a game they played when the kids were small…I spy…but this time she added a twist.  She looked at someone in line and tried to guess their backstory.  What do they do for a living?  Where do they live?  What awful park food did they have for lunch?

It was working!  The kids were engaged.  They were making up stories, laughing.  Wow, she thought, her daughter is really funny and witty.  And her son was inventive and creative, coming up with scenarios she never would have seen.  And they were both so observant, picking up small nuances. It even continued into dinner and later to the plane ride home.

Weeks later, everything reverted as if the trip never happened.  Sports games, school events, all the same.  Mourning the loss of her new found connection, one day on the daily soccer practice shuttle, Jane heard a change to teen cadence.  Her daughter was teaching her friends THE GAME.  Success, she thought, smiling and not even counting the minutes home.