No one deserves to be praised more than the father who volunteered for taking his own 10 years old daughter along with her 59 classmates to a school trip to Kensington museum, Harlow.
The name of the father is Simon Smith and he live-tweeted the whole trip in more than 100 tweets including what all he went through on this trip, from bearing the awful smells to being called “Bruv” by a boy and dealing with some really annoying questions! His tweets soon went viral and his memorable trip became the source of entertainment for many.
Here is the not-so-happy dad who volunteered for the school trip and we suppose that he won’t be doing that ever again:
Image Source: essexlive.news
We are sharing some tweets of Simon Smith through which he has expressed his ordeal:
The morning started nice with Simon tweeting at 8:40 am, talking about the formal procedure that he underwent of signing risk assessment and making a promise of not clicking any photo. It’s a trip to Science Museum and Simon was not aware at all how his life was going to change after this trip.
Just after 7 minutes, each kid was asked to go to toilet before they board the coach despite the fact that none of them needed to go. It left Simon a little surprised as to what was the need of sending kids to toilet at that moment. However, soon he got to know about it.
Simon has six kids in his group and he finds it difficult to handle the crowd as one of the boys has called him “Bruv”. Bruv is a term used for addressing a man by a man and there is no chance that it can be used by a 10 years old kid for an adult.
He seems to be having problem with seatbelts that the coaches have now and he got to remember his own school time when coaches didn’t have any seatbelts. Well we too agree that sitting with seatbelts is not that enjoyable but safety comes first, so he got adjusted to it.
Well the real trouble begins for Simon now as the kid who called him “Bruv” has declared that he suffers from travel sickness. Have you ever travelled with someone who falls ill while travelling and vomits sitting beside you…Yucckkkk. All the best Simon, this is going to be a memorable one!
Remember how Simon was commenting when the kids were made to go to toilet before getting seated in coach as no kid needed to go at that time? But now, the things have changed! Now he is confused as to what has happened to them so early that already 3 of them have gone to toilet.
The majority of kids have already finished tiffins and nearly 30% of them want to go to toilet. Now we hope Simon has understood why they all were sent to toilet before getting seated in the coaches and this much expertise will be enough for him to organize a school trip in future.
Well, the problem has turned very serious as only one thing is happening in the coach and that is “farting”. Even though it was expected to happen obviously, this situation actually came so early because the kids finished their lunches earlier. Can you imagine Simon’s condition? What a fart-ful experience!
It’s getting tougher for Simon and he’s finding it difficult to sit in the coach. He is very upset with the bad smell and is constantly thinking as to what these kids are eating that they are releasing such bad farts. Poor Simon must be hoping that farts reduce anyhow but it doesn’t seem to happen any sooner.
They haven’t even completed one-third of journey but the density of bad smell is so high that Simon feels like getting kicked out of window and hurling himself onto M25. Well, that is too much for the age of 10-yr kids. Hopefully the parents will keep a watch on what these kids eat.
When smelly farts didn’t stop, the whole group put all the blame on only one guy. But is it really possible for a single boy to fill the trip with a stinking smell? Well, we find it quite difficult to believe but do you think that Simon believed it? Let’s read and find out!
As expected, Simon also couldn’t believe that it is just one guy’s work. But even if this is, he compares it with medieval mortuary. Well, we are interested in neither sitting in that coach nor visiting the medieval mortuary. Thank God! We are just enjoying this experience from our places and not from the coach.
The situation inside the coach was getting worst from worse and a girl started crying because of the dirty smell. We can understand, the manner in which Simon has been expressing the situation, it must be horrible and really tough for small kids to bear all this and that too, on a trip in which they were supposed to have fun.
This is something Simon would never have liked to see but it happened and his own daughter went against him. Simon is almost sure that she has said, “You absolute mug” and also made an eye contact. This must be a nightmare for the poor dad as he is already having the toughest time of his life.
The situation was already out of control and just then, someone in the group fell ill. Managing a sick person on a trip can be very troublesome, especially if you are handling a group of young students. As Simon was a volunteer, taking care of that sick person was also his duty.
Simon also posted the photo of plastic lined sick bags which are used for the disposal of vomit. Obviously, they must have been purchased keeping in mind the person who was getting sick and must be getting a vomiting sensation. Some people have a problem of vomiting during travel but the parents of that kid should have informed earlier, don’t you also think so?
He talked about the fun that he was told to have as he will be a volunteer for the school trip. We can easily make up with his tweet that he is not happy with his decision of coming as a volunteer. Well, who can be happy if he has to bear the rancid smell of farts on the whole trip?
However, little did Simon know that the most annoying things of the trip will be happening soon and they were the annoying repetitive questions asked by the kids. The kids asked him whether they have reached the museum, the Queen lives here, why everyone is not rich and so on.
Simon’s mood seems to be completely spoiled by now as he is not having a great day so far. His expectation was quite high but the trip is nowhere reaching his anticipation. What’s more, they were also far from the museum yet, so his answer to the questions was this:
There will be hardly any kid who does not like the McDonald’s so when the children in the trip saw a McDonald’s outlet in the Swiss Cottage, they became so happy that “mass cheer” erupted, as tweeted by Simon. However, this is certainly a good thing to hear as now the kids are at least happy.
Image Source: www.boredpanda.com
Kids cheeing at Swiss Cottage McDonald’s
At last, the much-awaited moment came when they all arrived at the museum but till then one group with Simon was totally sick. So it was obvious that the fun and happiness had decreased to a little extent and more attention was given to those who were not feeling well.
Simon just got the first-hand experience of the discipline followed while making the kids walk in sync and it was something like returning to the Army for him. Discipline becomes more important as nobody could be left behind at such public places and teachers and staff have the responsibility of taking care of the kids.
Simon has the responsibility of taking care of the kids at the museum as well so he was making sure that nobody gets left behind. Handling small kids is definitely a tough task and Simon is doing a pretty good job till now. Here is what he tweeted at this juncture:
While the kids are watching at the museum how water gets frozen, the volunteer Simon is thinking that the time has frozen since he has the duty of managing this school trip with the group of sixty 10 years old school kids including his daughter. He has expressed his feeling in this tweet:
Spray water oto the cold glass and wait for it to freeze.
Image Source: www.ebaumsworld.com
The new volunteer is also keeping a track of each question he has been asked by the kids or each fact he has been told by them such as they are hungry, thirsty, forgot their lunch and sometimes their poo has peanuts in it.. Oh man! Kudos to Simon for taking it so long!
And then came the moment when his wife texted him and asked how he was doing. It seems that Simon is truly a good husband who speaks the truth to his wife and doesn’t mind letting her know that he has messed up big time. The wifey also felt sorry for Simon!
After seven kids entered the gift shop, the way they behaved gave an impression to Simon that he is watching the low quality hybrid version of The Crystal Maze and Die hard. Well imagination can be weird and after all that he has gone through, we don’t blame him at all!
He doesn’t seem to be happy with the fact that the kids are just buying slime and putty from the gift shop. Till now, Simon is quite frustrated and we can understand that he just wants this school trip to get over as soon as possible; anybody would have wanted the same!
Museums are pretty big and a person needs to walk a lot for seeing it completely but it seems that it was too much for the 10 years old kids as two groups of Simon are in tears because their feet hurt. Any adult can get tired after visiting a museum so there’s no wonder that these kids are in pain.
Undoubtedly, Simon’s decision of volunteering for the school trip has backfired and his daughter also knows that. She is leaving no chance of laughing at him whenever he catches her eye. This can be more annoying for the poor dad as his daughter can remind him of his decision whenever she wants.
The sick bags were purchased for vomit disposal while going to museum trip because many kids were puking and crying. Instead of getting better, the situation has turned out to be worse on returning. In fact, more kids are puking and crying while going back from the museum. Here’s how Simon summed it up:
With the next three tweets, Simon makes it absolutely clear that he is done and he is never going to do that again in his life. Well, it’s pretty understandable after what all he has gone through and tolerated. He has also got know how difficult it is to handle so many kids at the same time.
Simon expressed his respect towards teacher and teaching assistants for the manner in which they handle kids as he was not able to do it for one day and that too, when he was just volunteering. We also feel that our teachers are doing a great job. Huge respect for them!
Kudos to Simon for his courage!