Places to Go - Bumper Bowling at Fort Myer (Arlington, VA)

We had the most chill/lazy/relaxing holidays ever. My mom visited, so I planned all sorts of fun activities. But most days we ended up playing boardgames and watching movies, which really felt sort of wonderful. And we did manage to go bowling one afternoon.

Up until now, I'd never taken the kids bowling, as I always thought of it as more of a big kid activity (little toes, heavy balls, you get the picture). But a few weeks ago, T's friend hosted a bowling birthday party. On the way there, he asked me, "mom, are you sure there will be enough wii remotes for everyone?" Apparently, my 4.5 year old had no idea that bowling could be "real", it sort of blew his mind.

At the birthday party I discovered how bowling has been modified for the preschool crowd. First of all, when you enter a player's name, you can now check whether or not to add bumpers. So bumper rails rise from out of nowhere whenever needed. Further, they also have ramps available for the younger bowlers (you can see one in the background of the vertical pictures of T above). In order to bowl, all T needed to do was carry his ball to the ramp and push it - more like pinball than bowling. But he was elated. And he spent the next week, telling everyone "bowling is real! really it's real!"

So when my mom visited, we decided to take all the kids. Things were all fun and good until F started scoring much higher than P. Oh the drama. Lately it's impossible to make all three happy. By the end of the game, P was in tears, begging us to never bowl again. How is a parent supposed to deal with such things? I have no idea what the proper course of action is. And trying to figure it out is exhausting the hell out of me, whatever we do (from breakfast food through books we read) someone claims I'm acting unfairly. Now I see how parents take pride in being mean, there often isn't another course of action available, so you might as well make the mean work for you.

Anyways, on the upside, Fort Myer has a wonderful, cheap bowling alley. You have to show a government ID and submit to a vehicle search in order to enter the grounds, but after that, it's all fun and games. Click here for more info. On Friday and Saturday nights, they host glow in the dark bowling for only $3 a game.