Comments on: You must be THIS tall to break my heart

By: Allison G.

Allison G. — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:27:35 +0000

When I was a kid, my sister and I went on the ride that’s like a boat/viking ship that goes way up high one way, then way up high the other way. I don’t know if I met the height requirement or not (no one stopped me if I was too small anyway). The lap bar locked down and there was a good 4 or 5 inches between it and my legs. Once the ride got into full speed/height, I felt myself lifting up and sliding! I was screeching like mad, and my sister and the man ahead of us were laughing so hard! The only thing I could do to stabilize myself was to slip down to the floor and brace myself between the seat and the back of the next seat and push up on the lap bar. I was terrified!

My 6 year old last year really started wanting to go on coasters and bigger rides. And Dh let our 2 year old (yes, 2) go on the little kiddie coasters with him, and he taught her to put her hands in the air and scream “Yahoo!”
Yikes!

By: Kymberly Foster Seabolt

Kymberly Foster Seabolt — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:10:32 +0000

Jessica I had no idea! I know our state has “ride inspectors” but honestly, I don’t know what that means! I assumed they meant some highly(ish) trained individual with a state sanctioned laminated badge (lanyard optional) came around and checked on it.

If it’s just the two teeth between them grizzled carnies known as Pork Chop and Bones, I’m not too sure about that.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:16:34 +0000

Our kids are really, really tall for their age, so my little guy, last year at age 4, was tall enough to ride The Demon roller coaster. Prescott went with him because I don’t do coasters, and I was freaking out. I remember my brother riding the same coaster 20 years ago and the over the head harness lock never locked in place so he had to hold it down the entire time. I told Prescott to check it and to keep his arm against him but he said that “G” did get bounced around a lot.

Do you ladies know that those rides aren’t even regulated??? I saw that on Dateline or 20/20 after that little girls feet were amputated by that ride last year at Great America. The government thinks it’s okay for them to self regulate. Now, I’m not a big regulations person, but when it comes to your life I sure as hell am! That’s some scare shit if you ask me.

By: Rita

Rita — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:59:13 +0000

Wow, that is scary, Kymberly. You just can’t be too safe with those rides.

I know, really everyone always has fun and walks away unscathed by it, but I just have a hard time letting my kids on those rides, for all the reasons you wrote about. It’s just scary, not thrilling, when it’s your kids. And, sadly, they love it. I haven’t had a kid yet who says, “Yeah, you know, that ride was too scary, I think I’ll stick to the carousel from now on, mom.” Trips to the amusement park are followed by evenings with the booze for me.

By: Kymberly Foster Seabolt

Kymberly Foster Seabolt — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:44:25 +0000

OMG Rita. I know exactly the ride you are speaking of because my one and only “scream until they stop the ride ’cause I wanna get OFF!” happened on the “Octopus.”

Same scenario only it was me (probably 10 or 11?) with my younger cousin (maybe 7?) And we both felt ourselves coming up and OUT of that bar.

Your advice to make sure we know what WEIGHT goes along with that “average height” is well-founded.

By: Rita

Rita — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:24:35 +0000

Oh, God, I know. I have been there. But to make it worse, my daughter (the second-born) had a near miss once. It was the summer between k and 1st grade, so she was six. It was that ride we used to call the octopus. It goes by different names at different parks, but you know, it has all the arms that go up and down and at the end of each arm is a little car that spins a little. This daughter has always been small for her age (in the 0th percentile for weight, her weight is charted on its own curve about an inch below the differently shaded actual graph), but she met the height requirement for this ride. They buckled us in together (thankfully it was me and not her father or anyone else), and I placed an overly protective arm around her shoulder. The ride started and we zoomed up and I felt her straining against my arm, so I applied pressure on her and if I hadn’t, she would have just kept rising right out of that seat. See, the bar across our lap didn’t come close to restraining her, she would have just slid right out of it. So, for the duration of the ride, it was MY ARM holding on to her (OK, after that first UP I put both arms around her) that kept her inside the ride.

I’ve been freakishly over-protective ever since, demanding that she reach the average WEIGHT for the height requirements. So, if a ride says 53 inches, then I will look up what the average weight is for a person that is 53 inches tall and she can ride those rides when she reaches that weight as well as the height.

Sometimes over-protective turns out to be just-the-right-amount-protective.