It was one of those days when we felt like doing something cool ... and the zoo sounded just like the thing for that day. This was the first time we took the children - I know it is embarrassing, but somehow we always had excuses to just say 'oh, maybe next year' (mostly made up by me). It is just simple ... zoos make me sad. I just can't stomach to have fun and fully enjoy looking at animals that are pulled away from their natural environment and put in a fake one for the enjoyment of humans. I just can't.
So I worked hard on not letting these feelings spoil the day. The kids were super excited and of course talking about the zoo created sweet anticipation in them. When we stepped into the gate, I could already sense that they wanted to spot something 'look mommy, it's a bird'. 'Oh, would you look at that, a sparrow'. I had to fight off smiling, it was so funny that we are standing right front of a huge giraffe and the kids are looking at sparrows. I love them so much!!! They have no idea how much.
The rest of our zoo experience was similar - Vidor was only interested in feeling the water that the penguins were swimming in, but did not even take a second glance at the animals; Lutza kept finding spiders and spider webs, ants and all kinds of bugs just so all three of them can drop on their tummies and watch them crawl away. Forget the animals, the highlight of the day was the carousel ... that just brought smiles and excitement to all of their faces.
And my feelings about the zoo did not change ... a female orangutan put her hand on the inside of the glass where I put mine on the outside. She knew that I knew how she feelt .... she saw tears coming out of my eyes and she signed on her own face to show tears coming of her eyes ... broke my heart.
So zoo visit may be even more painful in the future .... next time I think I will wait until the kids ask to go.
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