Lessons from the Disneyland Disappointment

Dental, plumbing, and cars to pay.

Disneyland, we'll catch you another day!

Plans were in motion to visit the Happiest Place on Earth over the summer. Making it a designated stop for our California Dreamin' Trip, everyone was ecstatic, especially our youngest daughter. She spent hours combing through the scrapbook of our Disneyland trip from 2006. Obviously, she wasn't born yet and was slightly confused at seeing her older sister at a similar age and wondering why it wasn't her. She spoke of Disneyland several times per day and could not wait to see the "Princesses". 

Bushman Family Disneyland Trip - May, 2006

My 3 Oldest Girls with Princess Aurora - May, 2006

Unexpected Summer Disasters came, and kept coming. We were inundated with expenses that were beyond our control...car problems, plumbing issues, garage door repairs, delightful dental work...things that had to be taken care of. How would we pay for our Disneyland trip?

Oh, the painful decisions we have to make as parents! How could we disappoint our little 3 year old who talked about going to Disneyland every day? The trip was getting closer and closer, and the children were asking for trip details and itinerary. 

We had to break it to them: we just could not swing the Disneyland portion of the trip because of the expenses a fore mentioned. It was the perfect opportunity to discuss financial wisdom, debt avoidance, sacrifice, priorities, and disappointments. Our older children understood and accepted it. Our youngest three were sad, but the attitude of our other five was a fabulous example to them and they quickly got over it.

Our youngest daughter kept talking about Disneyland. Every time she did, I distracted her by saying, "We're going to the beach. We get to play in the water and build sand castles and look for sea shells." Over time, when California was mentioned, she said, "We're going to the beach!" Hooray - she got over the Disneyland Disappointment!

Life is full of disappointments...not making the team, low test scores, trouble with friends, inferior role in the school play, not placing in the spelling bee, cancelled plans, broken relationships, and more, and more, and more.  As parents, we try to spare our children as much as possible, but sometimes it's out of our hands. How do we help them handle these disappointments?

Pray for them, hug them, encourage them, VALIDATE their disappointment, distract, try to find a replacement, listen, cry with them, optimistically look to the future, or cheer them up with something special. Be patient with them, for it just may take some time to get over the disappointment.

Back to our summer, I was excited to find discounted tickets to a local theater company's production of Sleeping Beauty Kids. What a great deal to give my youngest daughter a "Taste of Disney".

She loved the show, except for the parts with Maleficent. After the production, we got our very own princess picture!

Four Pretty Princesses with Princess Aurora!

They also got a shot with Maleficent. However, Little Miss Muffet was too scared so she missed out!

Three Brave Princesses with Maleficent!

Our very own Princess Picture for $2 per ticket. Now that's a bargain, Disneyland. 

Today's Stick-to-it Tip: Dealing with disappointments is part of life. How we treat the disappointment is key to building character in our children and for parents, too.

More to Come...but until then, Stick-to-it!