I Took My Toddler to the Zoo and All We Got Was a Cute Photo

Is it just me, or is going to the zoo always a massive disappointment?

Having worked as a veterinary nurse for 13 years, I'm already not the biggest fan of zoos. Most of the animals are pacing in their enclosures, looking miserable. The entry fees are expensive, I hate navigating busy crowds, and the zoo is always in a location with impossible parking.

But my parents were visiting, and they wanted to take their grandson to the zoo, so I couldn't say no. I also have fond memories of going to the zoo as a child, and I want the same for my boy.

Being the middle of winter, we got lucky and found a nice 20°C day with no rain. I made the plan to leave just before 8:30 a.m. so we could arrive at the zoo and find a park just before it opened.

Our first win (or was it our only win?) was that we arrived just in time and managed to find a parking spot fairly easily. I was pleasantly surprised to find it only cost $6 for all-day parking.

As the zoo had only just opened, we didn't have to queue long to pay our $40 entry fee and enter the park.

We decided our first stop would be the coffee shop. I ordered my usual iced latte and was surprised to find it only cost $6.75. My surprise quickly turned to disappointment when I discovered it was half the size of an iced latte at my regular coffee shop, and it came in a takeaway cup, despite dining in at their fancy-looking café.

After our coffee, it was time to explore the zoo. We must have taken a wrong turn here, because we followed a winding pathway that went on for about five minutes, and we didn't see a single animal enclosure.

We finally arrived at the area where I remembered the elephants being last time I was there, and I was excited to finally show my son some animals. When we arrived at the enclosure, we discovered it now housed a dinosaur exhibit. Yes, the zoo now has exhibits focusing on fake animals. On the bright side, my son did recognise that they were dinosaurs, and honestly, I think he found this the most exciting part of the morning.

Our next stop was the lion enclosure. Since I'd been there last, they had decided to put some stickers of fake grass across the glass on the lion enclosure, and you had to peek through the cracks in the grass to see the lions. There was no way he was going to spot a lion through the tiny cracks.

Our morning continued in disappointment with:

• A mix of enclosures that were currently closed for maintenance
• Areas where we were supposed to see animals, but none were visible
• When we did finally come across an enclosure where we could see an animal, it wasn't moving enough for our son to spot it and recognise what it was

I thought I'd packed plenty of snacks. I'd packed morning tea and a sandwich for lunch, and of course, on this day, he powered through everything and wanted more. I managed to keep him going for a bit by finding crumbs in his pram he had dropped and offering them back to him.

On a couple of occasions, I'd picked him up out of the pram so he could get a better view of the animals, and I had to fight him to put him back in. When I attempted to let him walk beside me, he didn't want to hold my hand and wanted to run off and get into mischief.

By the end of the morning, I felt exhausted, ripped off, and hungry because I also hadn't packed enough snacks for myself. I think we would have had more fun if we'd just gone to the local park near our house and looked at the ducks; we would have saved $46!

I've now had two recent attempts to take my son on a fun day out, once to the aquarium, and now to the zoo. Both times didn't even slightly meet my expectations, but I will keep trying because I want those experiences, memories, and occasionally a cute photo I can post on social media.