To be gutted my attempt to make memories with kids failed!!

[sparepantsandtoothbrush]

I was looking forward to waking the children at midnight to watch the shooting stars tonight. What a lovely memory it would be for them. DD (9) grunted at me, went for a wee and then decided it was too cold to sit outside (snuggled in her onesie and blanket while sipping hot chocolate). DS (11) refused to wake up even enough to acknowledge me and DH has an important meeting tomorrow so couldn't stay up late.

So, I was sat in the garden on my own with a glass of wine. Saw one shooting star....and then there was a squeal from the deflated paddling pool. A frog. Being chased by the neighbours cat. So I had to rescue the frog. The security light kept going off after as the cats kept running across my lawn in search of the damn frog which meant I couldn't see stars anyway.

AIBU to suspect all the wonderful twee family moments are all fiction??

Trouble is you never know what's going to stick, do you? I guess it's just hoping that the sum of all these little parts make for a happy childhood.

My dad has this story that he wheels out regularly of him trying to wake me up (aged 3-4) to show me a glow worm and me grunting and refusing to open my eyes. I obviously have no recollection of it but it's become a "family legend" anyway! I appreciate your frustration now but I'm sure you and your kids will enjoy the story of "the time they refused to engage with the shooting stars" in years to come too.

"I'm sure you and your kids will enjoy the story of "the time they refused to engage with the shooting stars" in years to come too."

Absolutely. Familylore comes in many guises.

"Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment."

I tried waking my two up as well, my daughter 10 just snorted at me, rolled over and continued snoring. My son 12 did get up and watch a few with me out the bedroom window.
My son is pretty tricky in his behaviour so sometimes its less about making memories and more reminding him that when something cool is happening you want him around.

Good on you for trying, perhaps tonight you should set up a camp bed in the garden and wake them up with a water bomb, that way their bed is too wet to sleep in and they MUST get up?!

We've done it too. On holiday in France a few years back - dd would have been about 10/11 or so. We were sat outside having a drink in the dark and suddenly saw dozens of shooting stars across the sky. Googled and saw what it was so went and got dd out of bed to watch. She loved it :)
Never seen them so well since even despite making special efforts for evenings out with sleeping bags etc.

Memories are not made they evolve from nowhere. if somebody woke me to watch a meteor shower id punch them in the face 😂 Maybe next time tell them its happening see if they want to stay up etc etc

Ooh, I had no idea about the shooting stars. I would attempt to make memories with my 10-year-old DS tonight, but once he's asleep nothing short of a nuclear explosion wakes him. Might just get DH up and poke our heads out the bedroom window.

FIL loved space and there was going to be a space station going past, so we all decided to go out and see it. It's a wonderful memory I will have of our special little 10 minutes, DH and I even saw a shooting star. FIL died last year and I'm glad I made these memories.

Maybe it's easier to make these kinds of memories as the children get older.

It's the high expectations isn't it? I'm like this with Christmas, birthdays and holidays.

And yet I lay on the sofa this morning with a stomach bug (both my kids have it too) and my oldest was lying in front of me and said 'mummy this is just a lovely way to have a morning.'

It was spontaneous. You saw a shooting star and decided to wake them to see if they wanted to watch. They might have done. At least you have your own memory of drunkenly chasing the cat and frog.

I've seen only one shooting star. It was on holiday in the amphitheatre overlooking the sea in Taormina. We were there to see a ballet of Romeo and Juliet. Just as the first notes struck up, there was a shooting star.

My other holiday memories are of being travel sick visiting many of Europe's most notable beauty spots with my coach trip addict mother and getting my leg stuck down a cattle grid in Killarney.

I thought they were supposed to be best after the 12th.

Thanks for reminding me of them. :)

I remember lying on the driveway at home one night aged about 16 watching them at about 11pm. No one else was interested in our house (7 more inside in the warmth!).

I also remember the Christmas that the power went out in most of the village, so we had a turkey in our oven (electric) for 1 guest for Drinks, another had been segmented before being put in the oven of the "emergency" gas cooker for a second guest for drinks, before they headed off home for their dinners with the turkey cooked for them. Our house was on a different line to most of the village (outskirts) so we had electricity, and both other houses only had emergency gas rings for boiled potatoes and boiled veggies - but at least they now had turkey unlike many other neighbours. We always ate much later anyway, so we had our normal dinner with no drama (boo!).

Oh, and DD is always hoping we get snow again, as our street has a mad French family living on it who suggested that we were "snowed in" once (the road was just about covered - loads of people still driving fine but there was a full blanket of white) so we should have a BBQ on the green. So we all raided our fridges and wine racks, cooked up a storm on 2 gas BBQs and Dads took turns to pull the smaller DCs around in a fish box turned into a sled. Totally spontaneous - and totally memorable!

We tried to do the suprise you are going to Orlando/ Disney way before that advert, told them we were flying to france got to the airport handed them Dollars SURPRISE !! Dd1 said oh ok ! Ooobloodykayyy

I remember trying to make memories with a friend of mine when we were 12. On their way to Cumbria her family had come to stay with my family and parked their caravan on our drive. The daughter of the family and I slept in their caravan ....well except I insisted that friend and I stay awake all night to hear the dawn chorus. It was late August not exactly the best time and apart from a few chirrups at about 6 am we heard nothing. 40 years on and we are still friends and she still talks and laughs about that night even now - it's one of those stories that comes up again and again and so completely inadvertently I did make memories - just not the ones I'd intended. It's in the retelling. You will probably tell your daughter "Oh yes and that night I made you get up to watch the shooting stars and you were grumpy.. I ended up on my own...one shooting star...the frog, the cat... the glass of wine..." And it will become part of the narrative of her life, a funny story retold over the years to friends and family.

I was taken by a parent as a child to see Hale-Bopp. The memory it made is being cajoled out of bed in the middle of the night, wellies and coat put on over my pyjamas, bundled in the car and driven to an unknown location, bundled out again and made to stand in the dark, craning my neck to look for an unidentified streak in the sky. I remember being cold and tired and hungry and grumpy and confused.

It did not inspire a love of astronomy.

Op you sound so lovely. But I agree with other posters all mine and DC memories seem to be spur of the moment, random, impulsive moments. Driving home from somewhere and suddenly saying. Fuck it let's go somewhere else or surprise nanny with a visit. Siting at home bored and ending up with unplanned visitors and ending up making a day of it. Water fights in the garden etc. Whenever I plan something that I think will be a magical memory in normally ends up nothing like what I imagined haha

I do have fond memories of sitting with my parents in the dark looking at the sky and watching lots of shooting stars in the middle of August, before the Perseid were widely known about.
We just sat talking outside, when it was cool.
Nowadays it's harder to find a spot that doesn't have too much light.

My most stand-out memory of childhood was when my parents were getting their kitchen and bathroom done and we were sans toilet for a day and night. I had to piss in a bucket but then a little bit of poo accidentally came out. It was brilliant. Well better than Disney Land.

My dad woke me up to look at Haleys Comet trough his telescope. It was amazing and I still remember seeing that fuzzy ball of gas and thinking it was fantastic. Only now do I realise how difficult it must have been to set that up and find it (no phone to point at the sky). OP, one day you'll do something like that and it'll all just come together

My 8yo bailed at the last minute and is now full of regret. We will try again tonight.

You have the memory of their rejection of getting up to watch shooting stats.

I'm not into sentimental stuff, so I won't comment on that.

The Perseids come around every yr. If not tonight or Saturday, then Better luck next yr... or 2018... or 2019... or..... December is too cold to be outside!!

Sorry it didn't work out for you op you've made me realise that in my 33 years I have never seen a shooting star.

YANBU. But things don't always work out as we plan. At least you made the effort, and I am sure there will be other random moments to cherish, sometimes when you least expect them.

I had a very deflated Christmas morning when (having spent the small hours wrapping presents and stuffing a stocking) DC announced he was a non-believer and having a lay-in. Sharper than a serpent's teeth sprung to mind.

Making memories, a holiday of a life time, it's all so contrived.
Forcing this never works, you just pile the expectations and nothing lives up to it.

But it does seem you had a good time, even though not very conventional and the frog benefitted from it.

So you have your memories, just not the ones you panned.