A Bum Steer | Life Love and Hiccups: A Bum Steer
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Tuesday 1 July 2014

A Bum Steer

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Yesterday I had one of those awesome mum moments where a brilliant idea pops into your head and you just know you are on to a winner.... or at least you hope so.

It came about when I was trying to power through my morning's work so I could spend the afternoon with the kids. However my dear children who have the patience of a pea were not gonna let me get my work done without a few rousing renditions of "Im gonna die cause I'm sooooooo boooooored" Or something along those lines.

As I tried to tune out their moaning I imagined myself sinking into a big pile of warm sand, and then it hit me. We were gonna go sand duning.

I have not done that since I was a kid and from memory there were some great sand dunes at the base of Barrenjoey headland at Palm Beach.

So I decided to surprise the kids. Bundled them into the car and headed to my hubby's work to grab some cardboard boxes.

They had no idea what I had planned and it was sending them loco that I wasn't telling them. I may or may not of had a lot of enjoyment from making them suffer.



We arrived at Palm Beach and trekked our way up the tracks to where I remembered the dunes to be, except my memory failed me and we went on the wrong track and had to turn around and go back to the start and onto the correct track.

At this point my leg muscles were on fire from hiking through the soft sand and my lungs were threatening to force their way out of my ears. Clearly I am very fit.






We finally made it to the dunes and the kids raced ahead with their cardboard boxes.

"How do we do it Mum?" they screamed with excitement.

"You just kind of run down the hill and dive onto your cardboard and slide down" I explained.

One by one the kids tried and one by one they belly flopped into the sand and went no where. No sliding, none of the spine tingling thrilling rides I had promised. Just a face full of sand.

It seems the sand dunes have eroded with time and from all the people that do fitness training there. They are no longer the steep dunes I remember nor are they steep enough to slide down.

Watching the kids try over and over again in vain was funny. Don't worry I do feel a little remorse in saying that. Not a lot, but a little. Truth is I was laughing hysterically... perhaps a little harder than a mother should at their hilarious attempts to slide down the hills.

Eventually they stopped. Cold, defeated and exhausted.



Bless them, they didn't complain when I apologised for the bum steer. Although I could tell that they were being too polite to say out loud what they were really thinking - Yep Mum, best idea ever.

So duning was a flop. Literally. But we got to spend some time together and the laughs we had along the way were going straight into the memories bank.

I tried explaining that this is all part of being an explorer in the wilderness. You never know what you are going to find, but it's all part of the adventure.

I think I was convincing.

Kind of.

Have you ever taken led your kids on a bum steer?