Ever since I can remember, going with my family to pick pumpkins to carve has been a significant event in the lead up to Halloween. I have been to the pumpkin farm nineteen times and counting, and I love it every single time. However going so much, I've noticed that there are certain kinds of parents you'll always find at the pumpkin farm.
The First Timers
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, these families insist on doing it all. The petting zoo, the corn maze. the apple cider, the tractor ride out to the pumpkin field. If it's offered, they're all for it. Usually, they are accompanied by one to two children bundled up in pint-sized scarves and tiny boots. Anything goes when it comes to having a memorable first experience at the pumpkin farm, as the word 'no' is simply not in their vocabulary. They are all smiles and excitement, and it's wonderfully contagious.
The Battered Veterans
These are the parents who know what they want. They know that the pumpkins out in the field are not going to be any different than the ones that are set out at the front of the farm. Heaven forbid they mention this to their children, who insist that they have to go on the tractor out to the field because it's what they did last year. They also know that the second they step foot onto the tractor they are condemning themselves to be the official pumpkin carriers of the day. There is only one goal: to get in and get out as fast as possible. If they time it right, this whole thing can be done in about fifteen minutes.
The Ones With A Screamer (Or Two)
Everyone on the entire pumpkin farm knows the exact location of these parents the entire time they are there, all thanks to a child (or maybe even children) who won't stop shrieking. Both parents look frazzled, frantically trying to think of anything and everything they can do to get their little one to stop emitting a blood curdling scream. Nothing is getting them to stop crying. The animals don't work, the promise of a cookie doesn't work, not even the tractor ride works. When these parents finally decide that enough is enough and load up the car, you can still hear the muffled shrieks as the car pulls away. This is the scariest part of Halloween, for everyone involved.
The Photographers
I get it. The pumpkin farm is the perfect opportunity to get some adorable pictures of your children or some beautiful images that capture the essence of fall. What I will never understand are these parents, the ones who think the perfect shot will be theirs if they stop in the middle of a moving crowd of people carrying pumpkins and dragging wagons. These parents don't want to let a single moment slip away without taking at least twenty pictures, no matter how annoyed the people around them might be. There are no qualms about setting their child in the middle of the pumpkins, or 'politely' scooting other people out of the frame until they have captured the perfect moment between their children and a goat.
The Ones With Teenagers
Maybe they're only at the pumpkin farm because they have to be, or maybe they really do love the traditions that they've been following since they started in the category of 'first-timers'. Either way, there will always be at least one family at the pumpkin farm with teenagers who have done this song and dance at least fifteen times, and still, love it regardless. These parents are usually the happiest, as they know they will not be recruited to carry pumpkins, and there will be no unexpected meltdowns. It is a different kind of freedom for these parents to know that they can send their teenagers to the bathroom by themselves and know they will return safe and sound. And of course, there is such sweet relief in knowing that their kids are both old enough and responsible enough to handle the duty of carving their pumpkin alone.
