Hickory Dickory Dock: A Mini Vacation for the Kids, but a Nightmare for the Big People

As a one income family, with three kids to support, you can probably imagine how hard it is for us to be able to store away any kind of extra cash, and if so, it has to go to the things that we have put off, home repairs, car repairs/maintenance, etc. So, rather than take a long vacation with the kids, we take short day vacations, where we leave home in the am, and come home before nightfall.

We live in Wilkesboro, NC, which is about 45 minutes away from Hickory, NC, home of Hickory Dickory Dock, my kids favorite place to visit. So, to celebrate a birthday, we decided to spend a Saturday there. Our plan was to get everyone up early, and be down there by the time the place opened, which I think was either 9 or 10 am. Well, needless to say, we didn't make it as early as we wanted, because my oldest daughter couldn't find her jacket, my middle daughter was having a hair dilemma, and my youngest managed to have three major meltdowns before breakfast. Vowing not to lose patience, we kept on muddling through until we found the jacket, controlled the hair, and ignored the baby's drama-queen fits.

We manage to arrive about 45 minutes after opening, and the first thing I notice is that there are lots of entrances and exits, making me nervous, because these are just open doors that anyone can go in or out, not supervised like Chuck E. Cheese or anything. I fight my way to the token counter, and have to get three token cups and stand there and evenly divide all of the tokes. Each kid gets a cup, and the two oldest go off together, because my hubby and I know it will take both of us to keep up with Katie, the three year old. Once all the tokens are exhausted and the tickets cashed in, which was another disaster, we decide to let them go over to the climbing play area, separated by age. The older two take off in the huge jungle gym climbing maze, while we take Katie over to the toddler section, fully equipped with a ball pit, slide, and air-jump. Katie decides that all she wants to do is slide and play in the ball pit, so we stand there for like an hour while she enjoys herself.

The older two eventually emerge wanting something to drink, so I decide this is a good time to make an escape and head back home. Well, as you may imagine, this did not go over very well with Katie, the three year old. So, hubby herds the two older girls out to the van, while I am left to try and carry the screaming, flailing Katie to the van, and then manage to somehow get her buckled into her booster seat, all while not losing my patience... well, at least not much.

Katie is having such a cow that we decide to swing by McDonald's and get drinks for everyone and just go home. This is no simple affair, because Katie has decided she wants to go inside, and the middle child, who is seven, declares that she has to pee. At this point I have just about reached the breaking point, so we continue through the drive-thru with the screaming Katie and the not-so-happy middle child. Once we get our drinks, our drive continues in this manner for a good 30 minutes or so, when Katie falls asleep. All is well until we arrive home, and then of course, once Katie is awakened, it begins all over again.

So, now you see why we stick to day-vacations, nothing is simple in my household, everything is a battle.