i’m “that mom” who gets creative, so one day… we made a rollercoaster out of a moving box
National Rollercoaster Day, 08.16.2021
Some days, parenting feels like a rollercoaster. If you're a parent, you totally get that analogy.
But other days, you turn a medium-sized moving box into the ride itself, shrieks and laughter included. National Rollercoaster Day in 2021 for Everyday Sillybrations was definitely one of those days for me and the minis.
We decided how to cut up the box and, with packing tape, put it back together. My black suspenders became a seatbelt, and we even made a height requirement sign from the balsa wood I used for a kissing booth (more on that another time). Once it was ready, omigosh, so much fun!
We squealed, bounced, and pretended we were flying. I even moved my phone while recording so it mimicked a real rollercoaster. Tiny apartment, huge creativity!
Here’s the truth: I’m really scared of real rollercoasters. Heights, mostly the heights, speed, the unknown. It’s never been my thing. I even think my fear kept me under 5 feet, at least sparing me a short-person complex (joking, a little bit). Back then, as a new single mompreneur with two minis at the tail end of a pandemic, every emotion and pressure were at an all-time high. And still, we found the thrill of the ride right in our living room.
For years, I've wished I could do more for the minis, like take them to places, like amusement parks. Some of it just wasn’t possible. Money (mostly money), circumstances, work, me (because I don't ride the rides, though I do love the food). But we had so many thrills and so much fun in that tiny apartment because of our unlimited creativity.
I learned that National Rollercoaster Day wasn’t just about me trying to figure out how to celebrate something I feared. It was about realizing that, with imagination, nothing was really impossible. That has always been a really special thing to celebrate and share with the minis, and my memory bank is full of more than millions of those moments.
Who knows, maybe I do like rollercoasters. I mean, after managing not just the emotional ones of being a single mom, I definitely conquered this cardboard one. And honestly, it might be my favorite ride yet.
