And be prepared for the dynamic to continue to change but not necessarily in a bad way, enjoy all the different iterations! Being a teacher my son and I had so many awesome summer days while he was growing up of going to parks and having a blast, particularly once he was old enough to move out of the kiddie rides. He even went through a very short phase around age 10 - 12 where he refused to ride kiddie coasters because he didn't want people to think he was scared to ride big rides. Then he came into his own and with maturity simply rides what makes him happy and doesn't worry about what others think. Even now that he is an adult we still can enjoy theme park days together, no it's not quite the same as when he was a kid and sometimes we do our own thing or hang out with different groups but it's still kind of "OUR" thing. My husband goes once in a while but just isn't as into it but doesn't begrudge us our enjoyment.