04-03-17 Al Tamimi Petting Farm

Saturday 4th March 2017

Today Camilla and I take our three to the Al Tamimi Petting Farm which has set up camp at Kite Beach (and which of course means that Kingsley, Maya and Layla find cause to lose their clothes and throw themselves in the frigid winter water – the subject of another post). As mums our nerves were frayed all day as attempts to corral the kids’ super-human speed to always bloodywell run away only ended up in one or both of us screeching at them all like old fishwives. The entire Kite Beach heard us yelling.

At the Farm things didn’t go that much better. The rabbits’ guts were squeezed very tightly, the turtle was bashed on his shell and Kingsley became obsessed with pushing its poor little face back into its shell. Every time the turtle gingerly extended its neck and showed its face, Kingsley’s stubby little finger pushed it back in. A jittery hamster was throttled, and a coy one was smothered; the goat was whacked with special tree branches that serve as some form of nourishment for the creatures.

All Camilla and I did for the hour we were at the farm was race after this child or that before they did irreversible damage to either animal or their cage. As we embarked on the task of actually leaving the farm (a mission in itself) I noticed those weary animal keepers through gritted teeth bid us farewell, sighed and promptly closed the gate in our wake!

Here is the other perspective of the day: blissed-out toddlers tending to the classic farm animals they only hear about in nursery rhymes…