A few years back we took a family vacation out west. We visited Zion, Bryce, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and The Grand Canyon.
We did a LOT of hiking that week, and it was specifically a lot for our eldest daughter who identifies herself as “indoorsy”.
Towards the end of our trip, there was a hike we planned in the Grand Canyon. We didn’t have enough time to complete the entire hike before our hotel check-out, so we knew we were going to turn around after about an hour or so.
Our eldest complained the ENTIRE hike. It was too cold, it was wet, she hated hiking, she hates peeing in nature, etc.
We have four kids, so we kind of just said “we hear you” and kept hiking.
when, on the bus ride to the airport, we overheard her telling a stranger that her favorite part of our entire trip was THAT HIKE! The one where she complained for two WHOLE hours.
I hadn’t yet been introduced to the concept of type 2 fun, so it came as a gigantic shock when, on the bus ride to the airport, we overheard her telling a stranger that her favorite part of our entire trip was THAT HIKE! The one where she complained for two WHOLE hours.
Fast forward to last fall, when I spent a week with a friend camping/hiking in the Tetons on my first backpacking adventure. While I may not have outwardly complained as much as my daughter, it was one of the hardest things I’ve physically done in a while (partly due to circumstances outside of our control like weather, altitude sickness, etc.) If someone would’ve asked me if I was having fun at 3am when I was covered in dew, shivering in my tent, trying to sleep on my deflated sleeping mat in 23-degree weather, I would’ve given a quick, firm “no.”
After it was done, though, I kind of crazily liked it.
Someone on that trip described my feelings as type 2 fun, (read about the types of fun here.) Type 2 fun is typically hard, maybe miserable, while you’re participating in the activity, but you end up remembering it as fun or want to do it again.
In the conversation surrounding type 2 fun, I immediately thought of childbirth. Do you know those people who birth a baby, and immediately say “I can’t wait to do that again!”? I know plenty of them. Heck, I WAS one of them.
I always assumed hormones played a role in forgetting the “hard” part of labor that made you want another baby, but type 2 fun makes so much sense here, too!
Birth-Miserable in the moment, fun in retrospect.
What do you think? Did you ever have a type 2 type fun experience? Were labor and birth that way for you?
