As much as I love the breaks such as Christmas when I get to actually spend time with the kids for more than a full day, it also bring me extreme anxiety because I know that I am going to have to figure out what to do with them every day for more than a week. The minute that Kinsley realized she was out of school for two weeks, she started asking what we were going to do each day. There are so many things to do around the city almost any time of the year but when you need to keep them happy for two weeks straight and it’s just you doing it on your own, it brings a whole other level of stress on you.
As I start my Google search for “Things to do with kids in Toronto”, the first thing that popped up was Christmas Glow – an indoor light festival here in Toronto. Reviews looked great, photos on Instagram looked wonderful and it looked really fun. That was until I got to the payment page. I’m not one to worry about costs but $80.00 for the three of us after I just spent who knows how much on their Christmas gifts. Not only that, I knew this place was going to get packed since all of the other ticket time slots were sold out. Though I’ve been taking them places myself for years, when I have to take them places where I know they can easily get out of my sight from their excitement from what they see, it makes me feel very uneasy. Usually I use the Tile in order to keep track of them but I didn’t think it was going to be as packed as it was.
We had the first entrance time which was great because we were able to get to the things that would have had the worst lineups later on in the day. And at first, everything was great until they got off the light train and my yelling began.
“Kylan, get over here!”, “Kinsley, come here!” and “Kylan, where are you?” were the three phrases that rang through my esophageal chords the entire time. It started with acting like a fool and running all over the place and as soon as he saw the playland with the slides, it was all over; he wanted nothing to do with anything except that. I tried to get a few pictures of them with the sculptures but here were the only two I could get without blur because he wouldn’t stop moving!
Thankfully the creators of Glow were thinking of the adults in the house and might have even been thinking about parents specifically and knew that when anything that involves children will need alcohol…for the parents. That was the first think I bee-lined for. They have these cute light shaped cups that can really be used for any type of drink including some vodka and soda filled ones, which is what I went for, obviously. These glasses glow at the bottom (well, more like flash) so if you have a clear drink such as I did, it can be somewhat blinding but it’s really cute regardless.
Playlands are my horror but have become less because of the Tiles that way I can hear or see where they are but since I didn’t bring them this time, I was losing my mind. I knew he had to pee because he drank an entire lightbulb of orange juice 30 minutes before and he was doing the pee dance and I also had to pee. Heck, I hadn’t ate and it was already 3 PM and I was starving. Kinsley is a responsible 6 year old but there was no way in hell that I was taking my eyes off the entrance and exit because you never know what craziness Kylan (aka Houdini) can pull, especially in a playland. Eventually I had to take things into my own hands and pull him away. He was screaming, I was holding him with every ounce of strength I had because I only had one hand at the time. Parents were looking at me like I was a mean Mom, of course, but I wasn’t going to have my next vision of him in pissed filled pants so it’s what I had to do.
Sure enough, he pee’d and then he decides he wants to go home.
Hell no! I didn’t just pay $80 to get in then $50 for drinks just to leave again and thankfully during our “exit” that I pretended we were doing, we came across a few more exciting areas. First was a cool bridge type thing..
Then I saw a cute spot and wanted a picture…but he wouldn’t let me have one alone so he got into the picture. Thankfully Kinsley can take a good picture!
Then we turned around to an area that was filled with huge teddy bears ranging from 4 to like 8 feet. Piles of them lay everywhere and if you were one of the unlucky kids hidden under a pile while another kids came and jumped in, well….that sucks. This was a space inw hich I thought for sure I lost Kylan. While I thought he hid himself under a pile, when he was under it for a minute, I started to get concerned about suffocation so I start searching through the pile and he’s not there!
“Kinsley, let’s go we need to find your brother. He’s gone!” I shout to her.
After I realized this was going to be the time I was going to have to be that Mom that started screaming and shouting my child’s name while dragging their daughter behind them, I see another pile out of the corner of my eye with a small figure hopping over it. There he was. LITTLE SHIT! After I scold tell him he has to tell me when he wants to go somewhere else, Kinsley jumps in with him. This pile was bigger and even more kids were piled into it. The only thing coming out of parents moths were for their kids to stay visible or they’d get trampled on. I took Kinsley’s glasses from her, pulled out a teddy bear from the pile and laid on the floor and started sipping my Vodka Soda.
Before we had another melt down at the Playland and Ice Cream station, we cam across a few more cool and interactive areas. We found Bouncy Reindeer (think of those bouncy farm animals), live entertainment, Santa Claus, glowing swings, lots of Princesses walking around, more interactive things for the kids, a large section of hanging lights which was another nightmare because unless I could follow them both, there was no way I could see anything at all – there were simply too many lights! And more…
After a few hours, I decided it was time to pack up because I wasn’t going back to the Playland area. There were way too many kids which required a line up for the kids to get onto the structure which made kids miserable and everyone was butting. I had to keep myself away from it all because I’d probably yell at them all. How I decide to do these things on my own is unknown and even though it’s more stress on me than I’d like, I love being able to take the kids to see these things. And I’ll admit, it gives me a reason to do it for myself as well!
I’d definitely recommend this for others to do but if you can, go on a day during the week where school is still in because this was just WAY too busy, at least if you are a single parent of a family with lots of kids, I’d take my suggestion for sure so you can take your time and enjoy what this place has to offer rather than making sure all the kids are OK.
It’s open until Jan 4 so if you are interested in tickets, head to this link and see if tickets are still available!
I See Zen People 