5 Things I Learned From My Daughter’s First Trip to the Zoo
1. Everyone is a photographer. No really. I was never more than 5 feet from a DSLR lens. No one uses point and shoot cameras anymore. Camera phones are mediocre, and everyone wants to prove their photographic abilities by way of their professional cameras. I even saw people following parents around just to take pictures of them. Because, who has time to setup a tripod at the zoo? #weleftourcamerahome #clearlyweareamateurs
2. No one matters but your little. Clearly. This conclusion came pretty early in the day, when I went to the public restroom to change J. There was a woman changing her baby on the changing table who had no clear sense of urgency. I rolled my eyes as she carelessly carried on an entire conversation with her child, while calmly changing him and even stopped to talk to her other kid. She even had the nerve to hold up the table while she delicately placed her kid back into his stroller, slowly securing each buckle. Ignoring the sighs, eye rolls and foot taps of the long line of mothers that had now formed behind her. Because clearly, no one mattered but her little.
3. Parents really will do anything to please their children. You witness so many silly things at amusement parks and zoos. I watched a woman run over to the chimpanzee exhibit and begin jumping up and down while making monkey sounds. The things we do to entertain our kids.
4. Animals are cooler than people. I mean, I literally could have watched the giraffes and orangutans all day.
5. You’re never too young or too old to feed your sense of adventure. I saw babies in carriers, and elderly in wheelchairs. I loved seeing this. I’m so happy we got to experience this as a family because we genuinely had so much fun. We even saw a new side of J that day. She “oohed” and “aahhed” as she saw these animals for the first time- she even said “whoa!” We could tell that she enjoyed every moment of her zoo trip, and that’s what made us the happiest. Smile. Our little adventure seeker.