It’s my 33rd birthday today. At the time I am writing this I am standing in the line at the top roller coaster attraction of our local theme park, called Phantasialand, which is close to Cologne in Germany, the city where I live.

“So wait: You’re talking about a father son day, yet you are blogging at the same time!?”, you may think. And that’s a totally valid point. Let’s say: My Father Son Day plan had a pitfall I did not see coming! I’ll explain that later 🙂

Why You Should Use Your Birthday as a Father Son Day

You’re birthday is a very special day, and, obviously, you want to do things that you love. If eating cake with your family or playing the newest Playstation-Game is what you love, that’s perfectly fine. I love that as well 🙂

But on MY birthday I want to do something special. And when I happen to call out a Father Son Day, I want to do something special as well. Hence, MY birthday is a great opportunity to combine these two!

The great thing about YOUR birthday is that local businesses often make it very easy to do something special, and it usually will even save you money!

How Local Businesses Can Help You Save Money On Your Father-Son-Birthday

It’s true! Many business are tying to win and increase customer loyalty by offering you special perks on their birthday. Let me give you two examples:

• Coming back to the line I’m (still) waiting in: Phantasialand offers every customer (whether he is registered or not) free admission on their birthday. All you need is your ID to prove that it’s your birthday. And that is not even limited by your age or so. JUst a few minutes ago, when I left “Black Mamba”, a very exciting inverted coaster here at the park, I saw an elderly lady also wearing that button on her jacket saying “It’s my birthday today!” 🙂 You see, this is truly a “generation thing” I’m talking about here 🙂
  I mean: The plan is quite obvious: They want you to come to their park and hopefully bring a few more paying customers with you. That totally fine, but here is how I leverage this opportunity to my advantage as a Father Son Day Activity…
• Our local movie theatre, for example, offers free popcorn on your birthday. If you are a registered customer, they will sent you an e-mail with a coupon code that you can then use when you visit to watch a movie within the next seven days. Go ahead, leverage offers like that to your advantage!

How to Turn Free Admission Into a Big Win

As you probably are aware of: Many companies allow for free admission if your child is below a certain age. Usually that would be something like the age of three, maybe. Here’s the thing: When your kid has free admission anyways, and you have free admission because it’s your birthday, then, well, you can enjoy a great time without absolutely any expenses, zero, nada, niente!

How to Save Even Bigger On Your Birthday

There’s even another thing why you should use opportunities like that. Let’s be honest: Days in theme parks can become super expensive. There’s admission in the one hand, but there are even many more “hidden” expenses. One of the most expensive things in theme parks is food, right?

The thing is: When I would go to a theme park for regular admission, I would take of in the early morning, make sure to have as much time as possible to spend inside the park for the high admission fees I would pay.

Now, if you have the chance to enter the theme park for free, there is no need to think about that. Because of that, it is totally fine to, for example, enjoy lunch with your family at home, and then take off to go to the park just for an hour or two. In that case, you can avoid all hidden costs for foods and drinks etc.

Is It Worth Going to a Theme Park With a Toddler?

Totally, yes! I mean, I get your question: In the above mentioned scenario, it is just you and your kid. And you are probably wondering how to enjoy a theme park as an adult in that case. Simple: Don’t be an adult 🙂 Do what your kid loves, and enjoy it.

Okay, obviously, when you take a toddler to the theme park and you are alone with him or her you cannot ride the crazy rides like roller coasters and such. I remember how I was standing in front of a crazy inverted coaster last year, claiming that the waiting time would be ZERO minutes; very disappointing if you can’t get on there because you have that stroller in front of you 🙂

But then again: Most theme parks have beautiful rides for your kids that you and your toddler can enjoy together. In Phantasialand, for example, they have an entire area dedicated to kids rides, and it can be tons of fun to enjoy them together with your kids!

If your local theme park offers free admittance to you as a mom or dad, definitely check this option out.

Now, I bet you are still wondering why I’m standing in the line at a roller coaster, when last year I could not. Well, here is…

Where My Plan Failed

Yeah, today my plan failed. Last year I took off in the morning and took my son to the theme park right away. We were had lunch at the theme park and when we came home in the early afternoon he fell asleep, and everything was just peachy. This year, however, since my birthday is a Saturday, my wife and I decided to take Benni to Downtown Cologne first (and get a brand new Lego set as my birthday present 🙂 ); and then she would drop Benni and me off at Phantasialand’s main gate afterwards and pick us up again some time later.

BIG FAIL! We had lunch in Cologne and when we arrived at Phantasialand at noon, Benni already fell asleep in the car. Obeying the simple rule (“Never touch a running system!” or in that case “Never touch a sleeping baby!”) I didn’t have the heart to wake him up. I had to go alone, and my wife would take our son home and put him to sleep.

And here we are again: Me standing in the line at the roller coaster. But hey, I can already see the cars, so it can’t take much longer (hopefully). So, this year I am here alone, but my point stands:

Make YOUR birthday a Father Son Day! It will probably be the best birthday of life (even if your kid falls asleep) 🙂

Happy End

I’m back. The ride was AWE. SOME. Great stuff! And here’s the happy end: When I came back I found a text message from my wife, and the idea was like this: She would come together with Benni to pick me up (as we had to drive to yet another birthday party of a friend’s daughter). We still had some spare time so she asked the guys at Phantasialand’s main gate if she could hand our son over to me. They agreed and Benni and I had a fun 10-minute-ride on the Phantasialand “Horse Carousel”.

Great day! Happy End! Will definitely come back next year 🙂

Why don’t you show pictures of you AND your son in your posts and on your blog?

My wife and I have established a very strict rule about pictures of our son on the Internet. Basically, we do not share any pictures of our son on social media or anywhere else on the internet until he is old enough to decide about this by himself. If you want to know more about our no-pictures-policy, our motivation and why we think it is the right thing to do, you can read about it here.