Before the boat tour

Ever since we’ve arrived on Cunda, we have had plans to go on a boat tour. These boat tours can be on huge boats like this one

  

or small boats where the company is intimate and there isn’t Turkish dance music blasting the whole time. The boats take you to four or five destinations around the nearby islands for swimming and they feed you lunch. Some of these huge boat tours have themes. Usually they’re just general themes like “The Grand Ege” which means the grand Aegean, some of them have waterslides off the backs of the boats and I’ve even seen one called “The Bambi Tour” and next to the words is a cute picture of Bambi nestled in some grass.

We have decided to take the boat tour with a waterslide. I thought it looked really fun but the only kid of my five that seems excited about it is Sherman. I’m wondering what is wrong with my family. Is it me? Have I screwed up my kids? Or is it them? Are they weird? The reasons for lack of excitement are as follows:

Atticus: nothing is exciting unless it involves video games or friends

Sherman: he loves to swim and do ever more dangerous and death defying tricks to impress the adults around him

Cinci: nothing is exciting unless it involves watching stampy longbottom videos on youtube or being alone

Hector: he is scared of the slide and thinks there will be a big shark waiting with mouth open at the bottom of the slide

Helen: She’s three, she just wants to be with Mommy

Maybe I’m expecting too much when I think all five of my kids will be excited about floating around in a boat on the Aegean Sea the whole day and swimming in the water. I suppose they haven’t grown up hearing about the beauties of the Aegean, the Greek Islands, the white villages, the clear water, the lost city of Atlantis, the Greek mythology, eating freshly caught seafood, etc. Perhaps they don’t know that most people would jump at the chance.

On the other hand, one could look at it an entirely different way. The idea of spending six hours on the water is a bit confining. Listening to Turkish dance music is irritating. What if you don’t like seafood? What if you’re scared of sharks or of any other animal in the sea?

Personally, I don’t like seafood except for fish, I don’t really like Turkish dance music and definitely not for long periods of time, and spending a long time with the same people isn’t easy. I’m also frightened of sharks and don’t particularly like swimming right next to other sea creatures even though I probably do every time I swim in the ocean or the sea. But I’m willing to endure all those things I don’t like for two reasons.

1. To see places I’ve never seen before

2. To provide my kids with new and varied experiences whether I like them or not

So, even though my kids are displeased with my intentions, I feel a gratitude for them for keeping me open-minded to new things. It’s for them that I refuse to get too old to do new things. It’s for them that I endure experiences that I don’t really like, like Disneyland, going to children’s movies at the movie theatre, and going to certain restaurants. And I thank them for reminding me of things I used to like and still do, like petting and playing with cute kitties.