Finding the Mother Ship

March 25, 2010

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.  Kahlil Gibran

As a reward for their hard work at being children on an extended vacation in Europe, today was a designated play day.  Destination?  Prater, which is Vienna’s officially designated “city playground” since the 1780’s, when it was converted from the Emperor’s hunting grounds to a public park.  Prater is home to the world-famous and still-operational Riesenrad, as well as a slightly run-down amusement park (each ride individually owned and operated, like a county fair…).  It is also home to a pair of very tall, non-Austrian-looking rotating park sentinels named Fortuna and Calafati, a big creepy clown on a bench, and lots of walking paths and open park space (with numerous thrilling playgrounds all completely fraught with danger).

We headed first for the Riesenrad and the amusement park – mainly because I was disoriented, uninformed and too ill-prepared to manage to avoid it.   The Riesenrad is a tourist landmark in Vienna; it is a giant ferris wheel (220 feet high) that was built in 1897 and was one of the first of its kind.  It is on the “Things to do in Vienna… but not yet…” list.  The children were disappointed to discover that on this particular visit, we were there simply to observe and tour rather than actually participate in the rides and fun.  I just told them, “Maybe when Aunt Sarah’s here…” followed by diversionary tactic, “Where are the playgrounds, anyway?” along with a few subliminal prompts like “zip line” and “no safety equipment” and “danger” under my breath, and they conceded the battle without even putting up much of a fight. 

The climbing structures we found at this park should come with harnesses and safety nets (for the children) and blindfolds (for the mothers).   I found myself torn between my desire to be an encouraging “you can do it” mother who motivates her children to challenge themselves and take risks, and my natural maternal instinct to be a naysaying “you’ll shoot your eye out” mother who discourages anything that might have potential to cause serious injury.  After 40 minutes of nail-biting suspense, I feigned disappointment when some older boys came to challenge each other in climbing races and we successfully went in search of other playgrounds with equipment that was a little closer to the ground.