The kids had a wonderfully exciting day today. Now, this is as extreme as this mother is going to get. Mommy goes Paintball, kids go mountain-climbing...I think I've fulfilled the criteria of offering my kids a fun and exciting life as a kid. :-)
It was one of their friends' birthday party and they're a little bored of KidzSports...that's for BABIES, anyway, they say. So, off to Camp 5 then, says the birthday boy's mother.
Camp 5 in 1 Utama is located near Neways Karaoke, for those who have never been there before. It's a neat little corner tucked up on the roof of the massive shopping complex. Anyway, the kids had tons of fun although a little apprhensive when they saw how high the 'rock' was.
It's actually quite neat and if I didn't feel like throwing up whenever up on higher grounds, I would have wanted to try it as well.
The highlight of this party came in the form of a rescue mission. As we all know, when one is frightened, there's always the fight, flight or FREEZE reaction. Most kids naturally choose the FIGHT instinct over the FREEZE reaction but some kids are just geared differently.
This boy, a very good-natured boy with an ever-ready smile, went up with a smile but nearly came down in tears. Actually, we were happy that he was down at all. I did not notice how long he's been up there until I hear one of the instructors asking my Elder son to go up and show him how to hold the rope with both hands and lean back with legs stretched out in front of him. Then I noticed this figure completely frozen on the spot, trying to decided whether to let go or hang on. He lets go, then grabs it back, lets go only to grab it back.
Elder son went up and tried to persuade the boy to let go. He told me that the boy told him, "I need some help. I want to get down" but clearly, he's terrified and frozen. My son failed to get him to budge.
A closer friend went up to tie a second rope around his friend so that the marshalls can yank him away from the wall and pull him down failed as well. Finally, one of the female marshalls was instructed to go up and unlock the boy from the wall. Even this was done with much difficulty. It took the girl two tries to get the boy to release his death grip on the hooks on the walls!
Anyway, all in all, it's been a fun experience for the kids. All I can say for myself is that I am happy that I did not get a heart attack.
Video footage of rescue mission coming soon! Hee hee hee....
We're not really laughing at the boy but the thing is that the marshalls down there were cracking jokes like, 'No, no...don't climb back up' or 'Come on, buddy, you can let go. It's easy, buddy, come on. Let go!!!'
I learned that in rock-climbing, your biggest enemy is not only the ground below because you can simply ignore it. But what you cannot ignore is the wall in front of you. Slamming against the wall because of wrong technique is just as damaging as going down vertically.
It's not an easy thing to do so, can you blame a nine-year-old for being frozen up there? I think not.
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