Freak Out at the Water Slide

Newsletter 2020-08-24

I like to take my kids out to do fun things. Or, more accurately, I feel bad if I don't take my kids out to do fun things. Good parenting almost always comes down to equal parts love and guilt. This weekend, my wife Lola and I took our kids to a hotel with an indoor water park. The safety measures the hotel required—health screenings, masks, social distancing, etc.—were the same as what my kids go through at school five days a week, so I figured we weren’t changing our risk level much. Besides, the hotel was as empty as it’s ever been because it’s the start of the school year, and also corona. The end of the world isn’t all bad. It keeps the lines for the water slides short.

We did our weekend trip in two stages because it’s not really a family vacation unless you make your life as complicated as possible. Lola’s sister, Misty, lives near the indoor water park, so we invited ourselves over to her house. I’m sure Misty meant to invite us and just forgot. Lola and I picked up the kids fr…