The Third Ride Is Different

By Babette, Germany.

Babette does not love roller coasters. Her children do. Somewhere between growing children, theme parks and one unexpectedly quiet day, she discovered that courage can arrive one ride at a time.

There are certain signs that your children are growing up which are easy to miss. One day you are helping with homework and reminding them not to guess the answers. Another day you find an old video and suddenly realise how tiny they once were.

Babette had one of those moments recently. Her mother had sent her a video from three or four years ago, showing one of the children on a ride. Watching it now, Babette could immediately see the difference.

“She looks so, so mini.”

The child in the old video had not been entirely delighted with the experience. Now things are different. The children are getting older, school is moving forward, and the rides they want to try are getting bigger.

For Babette, that creates a small problem.

She does not particularly like big rides.

When the children become braver than you.

Last year, Babette won two tickets to Europa-Park, and the family visited together for the first time. The park was enormous. Different areas represented European countries, and there was far too much to see and do in a single day.

There was also an immediate difference of opinion about what counted as fun.

One of the children liked the big roller coasters. Babette and another member of the family preferred the smaller attractions.

Then came a ride that mixed a roller coaster with water.

Babette tried it.

“I was screaming very, very loud.”

Her performance was apparently memorable enough that one of the children announced there would be no next roller coaster with Mum.

“Never. Never.”

Babette could laugh about it, but she also knew exactly where her limits were. The park had a Freefall Tower, too. That required considerably less discussion.

She had never tried it.

She never intended to.

“No, no.”

Children, unfortunately, have a habit of becoming more adventurous just as their parents become increasingly aware of gravity.

Three times in a row.

Something else happened at Europa-Park, though, and it began with something very simple: there was almost no queue.

On some attractions, the family waited only about five minutes. At one ride, there was nobody waiting at all. When their first round ended, the person operating the attraction asked whether they wanted to go again.

Some of the family said yes. One said no.

So they went again.

At the end of the second round, the question came once more: one last ride?

Why not?

By the third round, something had changed.

“I was a little bit brave,” Babette said. “I put my hands in the air.”

It is a wonderfully small definition of bravery. Nothing dramatic happened. Babette did not suddenly decide that Freefall Towers were a good idea, and there was no grand conversion into a roller-coaster enthusiast.

She simply rode the same attraction three times and, somewhere along the way, became comfortable enough to let go.

That probably would not have happened after standing in a queue for an hour.

The art of arriving on the right day.

Queues at a theme park, Babette explained, depend very much on timing.

Outside the school holidays, some days can be surprisingly manageable. During the holidays, it is another story. The park attracts visitors not only from Germany but also from neighbouring countries such as France and Switzerland. When everyone has the same idea at the same time, choosing a quieter weekday does not necessarily save you.

“Whatever day you take, it’s full.”

Friday and Saturday can be particularly busy outside the school holidays, while school groups also appear during the week.

For a family, this changes more than the amount of time spent standing around. Theme parks are expensive. Babette estimated that an adult ticket to Europa-Park costs around €67, with higher prices during the Halloween period. When a day already costs that much before food, transport and everything else are added, spending a large part of it waiting becomes difficult to ignore.

A short queue changes the experience completely. Five minutes means another ride. No queue can mean three.

And sometimes that third ride is the one where your hands finally go into the air.

Growing into the bigger rides.

There is another measurement running quietly through all these family trips: height.

Some attractions have age or height requirements, with Babette remembering 1.20 metres as one of the important numbers. For a child, reaching that mark opens another little piece of the world. Suddenly a ride that once belonged to the bigger children is possible.

Babette is watching those changes happen in other parts of family life too.

The new school year has started, and the coming months matter because another school change lies ahead next year. Homework has become more important. Babette wants the children to work through problems properly rather than simply asking AI for an answer they cannot reproduce later in a test. If necessary, the homework can wait until she has finished work, and then they can sit down and do it together.

There is satisfaction in seeing children become more independent, but something else comes with it.

“On the one side, I’m happy,” Babette said about moving beyond this stage of school. “But on the other side, I’m a little bit sad.”

The babies are growing up.

Perhaps that is why an old video of a very small child on a ride can suddenly matter. You remember the child who was once unsure, compare them with the child now interested in bigger roller coasters, and realise that the change happened while everybody was busy doing ordinary things.

The next project.

Babette has not finished with theme parks.

After the family’s recent holiday in Egypt, she came across a TikTok video showing a hotel in Hurghada with its own theme park. During the day, guests can swim; after dinner, there are rides, including a small roller coaster and a carousel.

Her reaction was immediate.

“Okay, yeah, that’s the next project.”

Not necessarily immediately. The family has also been discussing Turkey or Greece for a future holiday, and Babette is already thinking carefully about flights, transfers, departure times and how much of a holiday can disappear simply through travelling at the wrong time.

But Egypt remains on the list for another year.

Closer to home, there is another funfair coming first. There will be a Ferris wheel and another family outing, with Babette watching children who no longer look quite as small as they did in those old videos.

And perhaps that is the strange thing about growing up: children keep qualifying for bigger rides while parents are still adjusting to the last one.

Babette may never choose the Freefall Tower.

But give her the right ride, a very short queue and three chances, and by the third round, her hands might just be in the air.