Family Day Le Troisieme

Sarah With her Penguin Ice Cream

Nathan playing American football (or leapfrog?)


Girls giggling about sharing a seatbelt as we began
the bus ride.


Getting ready to begin our day, still fresh and
smiling.

Two weeks ago our family endured embarked on our 3rd Family Day with Daddy's company. Yes, my attitude regarding Family Day could be better. I posted about the first one here and even referred to it as "Family Fun Day"...to my knowledge it has never been called that. In my everything-is-new-and-exciting honeymoon phase, I added "fun" myself. Considering we were moving into our house, unpacking loads and loads of stuff, dealing with stomach viruses and "culture shock", it probably did feel like a much needed 12 hour retreat from our real lives. Last year's Family Day only got one little blurb as well. The newer colleagues in the group do the planning each year and last year that was Daddy. Therefore we could have been slightly more biased, but the word "fun" was still used (though less often) in last year's description.
Some of the frustration last year was that we toured a local chocolate factory with a German tour guide. Most of the rest of the day was pleasant and kid friendly. The restaurant experiences (yes, there are always two meals) were fine. Both last year and the year before, the dinner part of the evening was the most challenging for our kids.
This year my attitude stunk from the day I discovered the date of the big event. I did try to get us out of it so that we could be with our friends and say goodbye, but wasn't going to happen. Part of the excitement (can sarcasm be italicized?) of Family Day is that the day's plans are kept under wraps until just before the event. Once Daddy finally learned a little bit about the plans and he shared them with me, I honestly thought he was kidding. The first part: we're taking a bus to Antwerp; I came to terms with after the initial shock. We considered driving on our own, but later learned there were bus tours involved. That was the part I thought had to be a joke. Bus tours with children? Not only that, but a bus tour of a chemical plant and then of the docks in Antwerp with children?
As I described these plans to our friends, who we would not be celebrating with, we all came to the same conclusion: this year's planners have no children, have never heard of children and possibly have no memory of ever being children.

There was no way out of it so we decided to make the best of it. Sort of. We were both incredibly grumpy the night before the big day and when we finally sat down to talk about why, we realized the impending Family Fun Day was indeed the culprit.
The day ended up being almost as tortuous as expected. We began our bus trip to Antwerp mid-morning and arrived around lunch time (at least lunch time for most people). Instead of lunch our kids were provided with baskets of candy, which of course they ate without restraint. The planners thought it would be best to park the basket in between our kids and another family's 3 kids. Great idea!
The plant tour was first. The tour guide said he had been asked to give the tour in German and then asked (in English) if the group would prefer German or English. AWKWARD! Our PC Daddy asked, "How about both?", to which the reply was: "That will take twice as long". I think we were all against that option. In the end the tour was given in English. Not sure that it mattered. Touring a plant in any language is not even really exciting for those who work there. No one in our group actually does work there, by the way. Once the tour ended, we went for a late lunch. (Kids were hungry and crashing from their basket 'o candy...adults were just hungry).
There was a place to play outside and lunch was nice. It was fairly warm by Belgian standards, but we ate, played and got somewhat sweaty. There was a point when one of the planners led us out to a fishing dock to see some boats. I ended up there with the girls on my own. On the plus side, it was so nice and cool and breezy by the water. However, that same breeze threatened to blow my children from the very high dock with child sized gaps on either side down into the rocky water below. Call me paranoid, but I thought it best to get Misses Independents I and II back to a safer place, no matter how sweaty I was.

Now time for tour number two. Not exactly sure what we were touring because again, this tour only had a German option. This tour was even more painful. Somehow we ended up sitting near the front of the bus behind the planners of the day. Somehow one of the planners thought it would be acceptable to shush our kids who were not doing anything, but playing in their seats because: a) they do not understand or speak German and b) it was BORING!!! Honestly, none of the other children were listening either and most of them do speak German. I found myself getting especially annoyed with certain people shushing my children and I might have said, "They are only 4 and 2 years old". However, my point was lost in translation and in the delivery as I used my super sweet, fakey I'm not annoyed voice and she probably wondered why I was telling her the ages of our children during the intriguing tour of whatever it was.

After the bus driver made a wrong turn or two, the tour guide repeated her tour to the back of the bus where some people were apparently unable to hear over the much needed air conditioning. Of the two choices, turning off the a/c and listening to part of the tour twice, the latter was much preferred (by the Americans on board anyway). Bored and hot much worse than just bored. Besides, the kids really did do great despite the opinion of "The Shusher".

Finally it was over. We arrived to a spot in downtown Antwerp where we were supposed to walk around and see some sights. After a lot of conversation we could not understand, it was decided we would skip the last part and move on to dinner. I'm pretty sure that this coinciding celebration might have had something to do with the decision based on some of the reactions I saw on the faces of certain colleagues. I must say that it looked way more fun than what we had spent the day doing and the music was great. Most of the kids started dancing as soon as we got off of the bus. But alas, NaviGayTion was not on the Family Day itinerary so we headed to the restaurant for dinner. Considering we had lunch around 2 PM, dinner at 7 was pretty early. There was a huge sand playground and the kids had a great time with all of the other kids. Nathan had managed to play both European and American football with the other kids most of the day. The most remarkable part was that they all spoke different languages. Didn't matter, play is universal.

Dinner was good and the kids were having fun, although our little one was getting tired. There were a couple of kids younger than Sarah and one of the toddlers had a complete meltdown during tour number 2. If it had been socially acceptable, I would have had a meltdown right next to her and I'm pretty sure there would have been others joining as well.

We spent a fortune on toilet visits (typical here), but this particular toilet attendant was one of the nicest I've met. She did speak English (as most do in Antwerp), but each time we went back she forgot and spoke Flemish until I had to remind her that I don't understand it at all. She told me that she has worked there for 7 years to earn a little extra money to buy gifts for her grandchildren. She even asked Hannah (after her second visit) if she really did have to use the toilet or if she just wanted a "sweetie" (candy) because she doesn't like to charge the 30 cents for a "sweetie visit". As close to good customer service as we get here, folks. The first time I took Sarah in (for possibly her first of the day) diaper change I was just going to go into one of the stalls and change her there. I did see the changing table set up in the lobby of the restaurant, but was trying to pretend I didn't. Who wants to see a 2 1/2 year old get her diaper changed as they walk into a restaurant? This woman was nothing if she wasn't persistent and I ended up changing my daughter right there in the restaurant lobby under the watchful eye of the toilet attendant. (Takes her job seriously). She asked if it was wet or dirty and when I said wet, she took it and threw it away for me. Nice to know it didn't stay in the lobby long.

Later when we smelled the familiar smell that can prompt a game of rock/paper/scissors, I insisted that I had already changed her in the lobby and this time it was Daddy's turn. Being the good Daddy he is, he took her without a word. I warned him about the location of the changing table, but apparently it bothered him less than it bothered me. He was more impressed that the toilet attendant also took the dirty diaper and got rid of it for us. (Now that is worth the 30 cents).

Dinner was wrapped up and we were on the bus between 8:30 and 9. Again, the kids did well. We did our best to encourage Sarah to go to sleep on the hour ride home. She fell asleep about 10 minutes before we got home and we returned back to the office almost exactly 12 hours after we had arrived.
And so we survived Family Day year 3. It wasn't easy, but when Family Day is the hardest thing we are enduring, I'd have to say life must be pretty good. Will our family participate in Family Day 2010? Only time will tell. For now we will just be thankful that this is only an annual event.

*I know you must be thinking that I am the biggest whiner ever. The pictures show happy people and especially happy children. It couldn't have been that bad. You're right. It wasn't that bad and we did photograph the good moments, but trust me there were a few moments that were less than good...and I don't photograph myself during temper tantrums. ;)

Sarah Playing on the Bus To Antwerp from tsechief on Vimeo.

Here is a video sample of some of the behavior that elicited "shushing"...I know I am her mom, but seriously she is TWO YEARS OLD! I didn't film any of the initial shushing which included her sister and was a bit louder, but COME ON!

(To be fair, The Shusher did compliment our daughters later on. She shared at seat with Hannah at one point and found her to be "delightful"...delightfully noisy? Most kids are).