I'm Really Not a Bad Mother

I am REALLY not a bad mother, at least, I don’t think I’m a bad mother, but there are those times, when I shake my head and think that everyone else must think I’m a horrible mother.  I mean really, doesn’t everyone’s child fall into the Siberian White Tiger enclosure at the Miami Zoo at least once in their lives? It wasn’t like I pushed him.  It was his brother who accidently did that.

It started out as such an innocent day. The Miami Zoo was having a GRAND opening of its new Bird Cage, so I took my small children to the Zoo for the festivities.  We had a lovely time seeing the animals enroute to the Bird Cage and the new Bird Cage

As a souvenir of the day, the Zoo gave everyone who attended the grand opening a ZOOBook about Parrots and my children left the enclosure, in the highest of spirits clutching their ZooBooks as they ran ahead of me, toward the fairly new White Siberian Tiger enclosure.  The Zoo was soo proud of their new Siberian White Tigers as we were one of the few places where they could be seen.

When Brig and Nathan got to the Tiger exhibit, they climbed up on a bench so they could see over the fence and down into the enclosure.  Brig turned around to see where I was, then arms outstretched like an airplane, he swung himself back around to see the Tigers. Inadvertently, as he swung his arms, he hit his little brother and knocked Nathan into the enclosure.

I’m not sure I ever ran that fast before or since. Luckily, Nathan had fallen over the fence, and onto the grassy area (probably about a foot wide), that was between the fence and the very sheer drop into the moat where the Tigers liked to swim. Nathan, contrary to his normal habits, lay fairly still in the grass and I was able to reach over the fence and grab his arms and haul him back up and over the fence.

Nathan was obviously upset, but not at falling into the enclosure. Rather he was upset that his new ZooBook had fallen further down into the enclosure and was now on the “island” with the Tigers, rather than in his hand.  He WANTED his ZooBook back. I offered him mine instead, but he refused it. I explained that I couldn’t go into the enclosure and get his ZooBook back for him. He didn’t waiver. I tried to distract him with promises of seeing other animals, of ice cream, with my ZooBook (which was identical to his). It didn’t work. There was no distracting him, no comforting him, no bargains I could make with him. With a 2 year old’s fierceness, he screamed, cried and  demanded HIS Zoobook, all the rest of the way across the Zoo as I carried the struggling child to the car and got him strapped into his car seat.

I don’t even remember the rest of the day. Suffice it to say, we got home, the kids got fed and put to bed and by morning, Nathan had stopped complaining about not having HIS ZooBook. 

I don’t remember if I had started the subscription to ZooBooks for the boys before that incident or after, but by the time they were too old for them, they had the entire set of the magazine and they loved them – reading about the animals and birds and dinosaurs and doing the activities that came with the magazines. Today, instead of one magazine, they have “ZooBooks” based on age: Zoobies for 0-3 yr olds, Zootles for 3-6, Zoodinos for 5+ and ZooBooks for 6-12.  I ordered subscriptions for my 6 Great Nieces and Nephews today. Hopefully they will enjoy them as much as Brig and Nathan did and they will never fall into a White Siberian Tiger enclosure or any other dangerous animal enclosure (I’m ok with their being in children’s zoo enclosures and penguin enclosures).