When my son was 6 years old, I took him to Valleyfair. He wanted to ride the black octopus, and he nearly flew out of it. This video is a realization of this happening more than you think.

Seeing this video brought back instant fear I had with my son almost 9 years ago at Valleyfair in Shakopee. I took him to Valleyfair to enjoy the things I enjoyed as a kid there, along with my cousin and his son. We walked and ate whatever my son wanted, and passed a bunch of rides fit for adults (and SOME kids). He asked about the octopus, which I had ridden many times, so I asked the attendant if it was safe my son to ride. The attendant said as long as he was tall enough and was with me it would be fine. That's the start of this near nightmare.

My son was a tall and skinny 6 year old, and the bar that comes down to lock riders in wasn't tight on Logan (my son), so I started to get a little nervous as the ride started moving. Sure enough as the ride started moving up and down, and spinning, Logan started to peel loose from the safety bar and lift from the seat. A part of my mind wondered "what kind of parent am I to put him in this scenario!!!!!", the other part of me was complete safety and fear for his life while I held him down tight to me. This was the longest ride of my life as I thought about what could have happened to him, and it couldn't have come to an end fast enough.

Following the ride, I let the attendant know there's no way somebody his size should ever be allowed to ride and I'm surprised there wasn't an accident with a kid being thrown from it 50 feet in the air. For years Logan was scared of ANY ride...even the kids ride at the Mall of America!

As parents, we want our kids to enjoy when we enjoyed when we were kids. Understand though that they are much smaller people and you can't always rely on an inexperienced attendant to tell you that it's safe. If there's any hesitation in your gut then don't chance it. This video and story with it proves that even more.

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