I bought tickets for the Circus on Monday – in anticipation of taking Ali for the first time ever.
I bought them online – of course. I asked around on twitter until I found the best discount code (which, by the way, if you haven’t gotten tickets and plan to, use the discount code “JUGGLE” – it saves 50%!!!), used the nifty ordering system, told it what I wanted, paid, and printed out my tickets all in the matter of a few minutes.
Which, of course, is nothing especially notable in these wonderfully modern times.
But it took me back to my most vivid childhood memory of the circus…
We used to go each year, and it was one of those events that we looked forward to all year long – almost as much as our birthdays. It was just awesome. But, of course, in those ancient days known as the 80’s, there was no internet. And so, as archaic as it sounds, if you wanted to buy tickets beforehand, you actually had to drive 20 minutes downtown to the Civic Center ticket office and buy them.
Bizarre, ay?
AND there was no Twitter to find awesome coupon codes!!
Seriously. How DID our parents survive? Thank GOODNESS for Civilization as we know it.
Well, the particularly fateful year that I remember, my Mom took all three of us kids with her to purchase tickets – her own three-ring circus. There was the drive, then the long walk from the downtown parking lot to the ticket booth, and then the long line to buy tickets in that ugly, bland, concrete building with nothing to interest three energetic kids…
And, apparently, throughout all of that ridiculously laborious process, us kids were whining, arguing, and, in general, acting like the cavemen-children that you would expect to exist in such an anciently dark-age era.
And so, just as it was almost our turn at the ticket window, we apparently reached the limit of unacceptability.
And so, my Mom turned to us and calmly told us our consequences.
There would be NO circus tickets purchased – we’d blown it.
Of course, we immediately grew the most wonderful of Angelic Halos and began to beg her most sweetly to please reconsider her harsh (albeit deserved) judgment upon us.
But no – consequences were consequences, and we would not be attending the circus that year – she’d had quite enough of our circus, thankyouverymuch.
I remember that year’s non-circus trip better than any other actual circus event, and you better believe that I behaved myself when big things were being purchased for my benefit from that day forward.
And so, the moral of this story is…
I was an incorrigibly bratty kid.
Carefully chosen painful consequences stick with kids and teach them to behave in the future.
The internet and it’s efficient and quick purchasing abilities is the best thing that ever happened to kids!!!
What would we do with out instant access, social media, and what-not!
Love it! I remember going to the circus as a child, but don’t remember how my parents got the tickets. I am taking Little N for the first time on Friday and I might be more excited that he is! Hope y’all have a great time!
We are taking the girls Saturday. Thanks for the discount code because I was looking for one. Did you get yours on Ticketmaster?
Yup, I went through ticketmaster, and the promo code worked great – on all of our tickets, not just Ali’s like the other “CLOWN” code.
Oh, I bet that hurt your mom way more than you kids! Reminds me of a story that an older friend told me before I had kids. She told her kids repeatedly not to do something the week before Halloween and they kept on doing it. When the mom had finally had enough she said, “That’s it! No trick or treating!” The kids were hysterical and the mom felt terrible come Halloween, but she felt that she had to stick it out and carry through, or she’d lose all credibility. The moral of THAT story was to be careful with what you threaten or you may be left with some very uncomfortable choices. Being a parent is so hard sometimes. On the other hand, it does provide a perfect excuse to go to the circus! Hope you have tons of fun!
Props to your mom on the follow-through! That is something you don’t see alot of these days, but this just goes to show that it works really well! Have to agree on the fabulousness of online ticket-ordering though, you can definitely find other opportunities to use this lesson, lol!
We’ll be at the Sunday 1 p.m. show. Hoping our boys love it … it will be Jake’s first time to the circus!
Wow, way to go mom! If there is one thing I hate more than anything it is watching parents threaten their kids with no intention of follow through! I hate when I say something and then have to stick to it but if you don’t you can count on tantrums and meltdowns in the near future!
I’ve NEVER been to the circus! Sad huh? I’ve always been afraid of clowns so that might have something to do with never pushing for it as a kid. Maybe we’ll have to take the girls the next time it comes so I can see what all the fuss is about. :)
Oh and great idea on getting a coupon code! I never would have thought of that for something like tickets.
I wanted to take Luke to the circus this year, but Ryan thought it would be cruel not to take Aubrey too & I think she’s way too young, so I guess we’ll wait until next year!
I never went to the circus growing up…well not a “real” Barnum & Bailey type circus, just a small one at our local fair grounds. So, for my 21st birthday my best friend surprised me with tickets to the Barnum & Bailey circus, it was so much fun & in my opinion a great way to spend your 21st birthday :)
I really like your mom. She knew what she was doing. :)
Yes, she did. I really hope I picked up a few things here and there through osmosis. We’ll see!
I LOVE the circus. I am so excited for you. I can’t wait to read about how much Ali loved it.
I don’t mean to be critical, because I LOVE your blog…but as a Canadian, I feel a patriotic duty to let you know that the correct spelling of “ay” is “eh”. So it should have read: “Bizarre, eh?” That was a good attempt from you, a Southerner, to be like us Canadians.
:-)
Have fun at the circus!!
LOL! But if I spelled it “eh”, down here, everyone would think I was saying “eh”, sounding like “uhh” – as in short “e” sound — ehhh… that’s what we say when we don’t know what to say! However, I do feel enlightened now to know how to spell it correctly!
Lol, you’re hilarious, and your mom is awesome! Way to go strict moms everywhere!
I want to go to the circus! My boyfriend laughs everytime I tell him I wanna go!! Ha!!!
On a completely other note, would you be interested in doing a giveaway for me? I have some extra canvases that I have already painted laying around and I thought it would be great to give them away in a giveaway. Let me know what you think. You can go to my new blog for my canvases and check some out! :)
wow, your mom was hard-core! I admire that she was able to stick to her guns like that.
I remember having to stand in line for tickets to EVERYTHING I wanted to do. But oddly, that was part of the excitement. There was something fantabulous about standing in line with a bunch of other Motley Crue junkies (most that were slightly older than my barely-a-teenager self). And then you finally get to the window and get the tickets and you feel as though you have done something super important. And then you hafta wait FOREVER (two weeks to a month) to actually use them, but you are able to brag to anyone who will listen that you stood in line for 2 1/2 hours for awesome Motley Crue tickets and you have the most amazing seats in Section 721 Row 598,347 Seat A…and your Dad will totally let your borrow his telescope so you can see the stage…
btw, my mom would always drop everything and leave if my sister and I were acting up, even the grocery. She was famous for leaving full shopping carts in the middle of an aisle, calming walking us out to the car and instating the most uncomfortable and quiet rides home…leaving us to worry what would happen once we got there (the silent treatment). Then she would wait until Dad got home to go out and finish her shopping. Since this usually meant no new pack of gum at checkout, I learned very quickly to behave…one of my sisters, on the other hand, still hasn’t learned to this day to behave…