A Roller Skating Party

Montgomery was invited to her first roller skating party this past weekend. She was verrry excited at the thought of skating and eagerly looked forward to the afternoon. She'd never been on skates before, beyond a couple of years ago on the sidewalk on the little plastic adjustable kind you place over your own shoes. We spent a considerable amount of time prior to arriving at the party "managing expectations" (a term I have never liked -- I personally tend to think expectations should always be high! yet, in this situation, well...) and discussing off and on that skating is tricky and often takes several visits to the skating rink to get the hang of it. She seemed to understand. We both agreed that there would be no "I can't skate" crying.

And to her credit, there was none. I think it probably helped that nearly every child there seemed to be at the same highly novice level of roller skating ability. Many times I almost felt that we were watching a live version of America's Funniest Home Videos. It was really too funny! Most of the parents were (and this was a birthday party where I think every parent stayed -- sometimes two parents -- I think the adults outnumbered the kids!), I believe, remembering our many, many skating nights in the '80s, when roller skating was very much a norm. What happened since then? Ahhh...that's right...video games.  But, I'll stand on my soap box another time.

When we first laced on our skates (yes, you heard me right, I did say "we" and "our"), I suggested Gommy spend some time getting her "sea" legs on the carpet by rolling back and forth clinging to the skate rental counter. When she stood up after I'd tied her skates, she also quickly realized that would be a good idea.

While I laced my skates, and that took some time, she counter clung skated back and forth.  Before we could actually get on the rink though (we were, uh, slightly late), they called over the loudspeaker for party guests to come to the snack bar.  Getting from the carpet onto the slick commercial linoleum snack bar floor, carrying our shoes and coats, and gripping onto Gommy for dear life so she wouldn't have the initial horror of a really hard fall on a really hard floor in front of a really large group of people, and gripping every snack bar table on the way to ours (of course Gommy wanted to sit at the very last table at the very end of the snack bar) so I wouldn't have the initial horror of a really hard fall on a really hard floor in front of a really large group of people, took SOME doing!

So, after some pizza...

...and some singing over birthday cake...

...we headed out to the roller rink floor.  (My camera skills from this point on are notably, understandably :-) less than stable...)

Thankfully there was that nice high wall around the whole rink...

  

I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking...



After a couple of times around (the wall), Gommy really wanted to try the main area of the rink floor...so we did...

There were indeed some moments on her feet...

 ...and her Mom's arm was always nearby.  I have to say that once I was on that wooden floor, the rollerskating muscle memory from my adolescence started to come back, and I really would have liked to have zipped around the floor a few times...but I was not leaving the Gommy Girl. Somehow, however, I don't remember gripping a parental arm when I first learned to skate, but then again, I learned in our driveway before I even got to a roller skating rink, from day after day on those little plastic (maybe metal?) adjustable kind you place over your own shoes, because...well...there were no video games.

So, Gommy was true to her word and did not cry because she could not skate well yet.  However, she did cry (at the very end) because she could not skate with her neighbor-friend Mara, the birthday girl, who had clearly been to a skating rink before, and was happily oblivious to her neighbor-friend Gommy trying desperately to catch up to her at least once to skate with her on her birthday. My poor baby. There were a lot of kids there, and probably only three who could actually be called skaters, and the birthday girl was one of them.  It hadn't occurred to me to "manage" that expectation.

Nevertheless, after that final heartbreak, and a bit of recovery with a huge slab of birthday cake in the car, Gommy told me on the way home that she'd like for just me and her to come back to the skating rink more times, not at a party, so she could learn how to skate really good for the next roller skating party. I told her it was like she was actually reading my mind.

Much love. Take care.