‘In my mind I always see that rod come loose’

Image: Nine IJf

Mariëtte Middelbeek is a journalist and author, and a columnist for Kek Mama. She and her husband Erik have two children: son Casper and daughter Nora.

There are many things I like about my children growing up, such as: being clean, dressing yourself and being able to explain exactly what is wrong with pain and discomfort. But one development I watch with fear and trembling.

Now that Casper is eight, and quite tall for his age, except for the very scary ones, he now easily manages to reach the green part of the roller coaster ruler in amusement parks. And that means that I can no longer hide in the floating baby elephants (which I usually find quite high as well) or the pedal cars, but have to seriously get on the roller coaster.

roller coaster fear

That’s a problem because I have a deep-seated roller coaster fear. Even if it’s a small, sweet, sugar-pink dragon roller coaster in a glorified playground, as soon as I get in line, I want to leave. When I step into that box, I feel like my leg is always at such an impossible angle that I get a double fracture at the first corner. And that would still be the favorable scenario, because in my mind I always see that rod come loose when we just hang at full speed, with all the disastrous consequences that entails.

Also read – These are the best unknown amusement parks in the Netherlands >

With squinted eyes

No, then Casper. He happily gets on every roller coaster – preferably with Erik, if it’s up to me, but apparently I can’t always squeeze my mustache because my child doesn’t like that – and as soon as the carts first go up slowly and then down at full speed (o , the horror), he even lets go of his hands. It’s a miracle that I see this, by the way, because by that time I usually sit with my eyes closed, hoping that it will all be over soon.

“Were you scared, Mom?” Casper shouted to me the last time cheerfully as soon as the carts finally stopped again, so that everyone could hear. Yes, Mom was terrified, but didn’t say that.

“Yes, Mom was terrified, but didn’t say that”

“No, I really like it!” I cried. I shouldn’t have done that. It was quiet in the amusement park, the man of the attraction heard it and thought: I will make someone happy. “Just sit down!” he shouted cheerfully. “Then you can have another round!”

This article appears in Kek Mama 08-2022.

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