Re Discovering Disneyland Hong Kong with My Tween

Last July, my ten-year old son competed for an international math competition in Hong kong, China (where he got a merit award after). Included in that five-day itinerary was a day in Hong Kong, Disneyland.

I know my son was excited more than ever with his competition because of the Disneyland side trip.

Besides, my son has long been bugging his dad for a Disney trip.

The last time we were in Disneyland, my son was just a small boy. He was still in his “Thomas The Train” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” phase.

And I think that time, it was I who enjoyed the most, with the Disney Princesses and all ( yeah, I never had that growing up you know) .

This time around, the trip was of course different, since now, it was just us minus the dad.

We got to hang ( pardon, for this is so millennial ) with other moms and kids who were also contestants for the math competition.

I gravitated in particular to four other moms whose children bonded with my son.

It was a fun Disney trip since my son was surrounded with peers, while I with other moms.

It was genuinely a happy day with four other moms who were Cebuano speaking like me! Pwerteng lingawa oi! Kami lang nakasabot sa among jokes, ( will have to install sub titles or google translate, later)

It was like a playdate of sorts but in a theme park setting.

I’m beginning to miss them, —eyes welling ,y’all!

The boys got to pick their rides and when the ride was not as adventurous, then us moms just sat on the benches while they took the rides.

The downside for moms like us going around Disneyland with tween and teen boys is that we did not get to explore the girly side of Disney.

The rides the boys preferred were totally different from what the moms wanted.

It is now that I got to realize how fearless my son was, exploring the wide theme park.

The boys were of course more interested in the adventurous and daring rides at Disney.

The attractions the boys went to were :

• Jungle River Cruise
• Tarzan’s Tree House
• Big Grizzly Mt. Runaway Mine Cars
• Hyperspace Mountain
• Iron Man Experience
• Toy Story Land

In short, us moms or “Gwapang Yayas”– we call ourselves in our chat group, were not able to visit the Fairytale Tale Forest by Pandora.

We had to contend ourselves with following the boys wherever they wanted to go.

But well, the visit to Disneyland was for the boys and it was not for us moms. It was their reward after a gruelling math contest.

So, seeing the boys’ happy faces was reward enough for us mom, errr ahm apart from the shopping, of course —for Hong kong is surrounded with shopping districts. ????????????

I knew that my tween son enjoyed the fact that I kept a good distance from him and his peers during the entire time at the park.

He got to bring his own back pack and his own stuff.

He had his own wallet and he got to buy his food.

Everything was and is his choice, now.

From what was inside his bag, his attire, his food and the places he wanted to go to.

I know my son enjoyed that trip because he was with his peers.

I saw how his face lit up when talking to his peers.Their conversations covered topics which my son could relate to, like comics and toys figures of StarWars, Marvel and DC .

In other words, I could not relate! It was tween boys talk and my son just found his tribe!