P is for Pumpkin Patch: The Infant Equivalent of New Year's Eve
- Alicia
- Oct 28, 2017
- 3 min read
In establishing holiday traditions, I found taking my infant to the pumpkin patch had a lot in common with my adult experience of the hype and subsequent let down of New Year's Eve celebrations.
1) It's really all about your costume
New Year’s Eve is an excuse to get dressed up and take pretty pictures for pretty memories. The pumpkin patch is an excuse to dress up your baby and take adorable pictures for memories and instagram, mostly instagram.
2) You wish you brought drinks in your purse
At any big NYE celebration I have always wanted a flask due to long lines and expensive drinks. At the pumpkin patch, I really needed an iced latte to help me keep my focus amongst the throngs of children running and screaming through my photo shoot, I mean, picking out pumpkins.
there's an easier way to do this like your husband told you but you wanted to make memories
3) You have to choose between questionable “all inclusive” and pricey “everything is extra.”
If you’ve ever paid for a New Year’s party at a big hotel, they make it seem like there will be never ending platters of food and drink passed around as you wander from dance hall to dance hall, or maybe lounge on some sofas in a stylish parlor when you are tired from dancing. All inclusive really just means that everything included is of lower quality.
If you choose to not go all inclusive at the pumpkin patch though, the petting zoo, the hayride, the corn maze, and that baby pumpkin your kid is trying to kick is all extra.
3) There is THAT girl in front of you.
We all know (and maybe have been) that drunk girl that cannot wait in line to get into the party, or the coat check, or for drinks, or something. She yells at the staff, turning to her friends with a “Can you believe this?!” shrug and eye roll.
At the pumpkin patch, this was a mom who could NOT wait for the 1:00 hayride because they had to leave soon. The woman behind the counter explained that school field trips fill up the dairy tour hayride all morning (just like it says on the website btw.) But this woman, she has two kids, and they need the hayride before they leave. Just like NYE, we are all tired and hot and have someone tugging at our arm that needs to go to the bathroom, but this lady seems positive that she is the only mother experiencing this right now.
4) You leave tired, hungry and dehydrated.
In both circumstances, you regret not having a camel pack hydration system as you leave.
5) You don't make it till 12:00
With the right people on the right night, you are partying away when the countdown begins, there are songs to dance to and memories to make, but there may also be that one year that you and your husband fell asleep on the couch watching a PBS LDS documentary, and then awoke after midnight and tucked yourselves into bed with a quick kiss and sip of champagne.
At the pumpkin patch, the sun starts to get hot, and although there are all sorts of games to play and memories to make, you just want a nap.
6) You will do it again next year and then it will be FUN
It is about the tradition. Establishing a tradition with your little one or looking back on your own traditions in years past, you still look forward celebrating next year. You just tell yourself you will do it a little differently next time around, and it will be so much fun.
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