How scaring the pants off yourself can be a good thing

I’m not a fairground ride kinda person (some jolly good self-talk there for you…!), so when one is in town, I dread my children finding out and wanting to go. I resist most times but every now and again, it’s good to take them for a bit of family fun. Sometimes though, the fun seems to be at my expense…

My family and I took ourselves along to a visiting funfair one Sunday afternoon. It offered the usual mix of rides to suit all ages so one of my children chose the sedentary ‘Teacups’, a more bolder older one liked the look of the reverse bungee jump and then the daredevil wanted to go on a ride entitled ‘The Orbiter’. I didn’t much fancy it as I’m not a big fan of rides that spin you around high up in the air, so my husband volunteered to chaperone.

I stood and watched as they spun around, waving and cheering and half-way through the ride, an announcement shouts ‘Are you ready?! Are you ready?!’ Whilst keeping a watchful eye on my other two, I wasn’t really paying too much attention to the ride so couldn’t quite see what was so different after the announcement. After the ride, my thrill-seeker of a child was desperate to go back on. My husband declared he’d had enough, which should have been a clue as to what lay ahead but looking at the pleading eyes of my little one, how could I refuse? I wish I had.

We got in one of the cars and the excitement was palpable although not from me I hasten to add… The ride commenced and we started to lift up and spin round. This I could cope with so I smiled and waved. Then came the announcement: ‘Are you ready?! Are you ready?!’ Then I realised why they built the next bit up… Suddenly the cars jolted and lifted through 90° into the horizontal position with the ride spinning. At the same time, each cluster of cars rotated around its arm's axis. I honestly thought we were going to fall out if we didn’t hold on tightly – clearly all rational reason had left me at this point. I’m clinging on for dear life whilst my little thrill-seeker is waving madly at Daddy both arms in the air! I was screaming ‘Hold on! Hold on!’ whilst trying to work out a way I could possibly defy gravity to keep us both in the car should anything terrible happen.

As we spun, for what seemed like minutes and minutes but was probably only 60 seconds, my child advised me - the grown-up, to close my eyes and relax because the ride would be finished any minute. Talk about role reversal! It took a lot of self-talk to calm myself down and to change the way I was thinking about the situation. The ride was safe (well, most of them are..) and would finish in about 90 seconds; my child was having a whale of a time so what was the problem? I steadied my breathing and smiled at my little daredevil and got a huge grin back in return.

Oh how my husband laughed as Mrs Jellylegs departed the ride. He got a scowl in return!

Since that afternoon, I have chuckled to myself at how ridiculously scared I was and that my own child had needed to talk to me in such a reassuring manner. The ride was outside of my comfort zone – the Teacups is more my kind of thing – but am I fine now? Yes and with a hilarious and funny memory to boot.

Sometimes it’s good to dare ourselves to try something a bit different – if it’s not illegal, or dangerous to you or anyone else, then why not give it a go? Change your job, put yourself forward for promotion, say no to the next request from a demanding friend or relative, or try a new hobby that challenges you. Weigh up what you want more, the new experience or to carry on with the norm. You’ll pick the one that sits the most comfortably with you emotionally.

I can’t stand fairground rides that spin or reach dizzy heights but I love seeing my children smile more and maybe scaring the pants off myself sometimes, so I chose the ride. I’m glad I did!

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." Sydney J. Harris