The indoor track doesn’t allow intentional bumping but sometimes the unintentional ones happen! What I’d REALLY love to find is another version of a kart track that used to exist in Bakersfield (we were there for the wedding of my ex’s best buddy) called “slick track.” Super smooth cement they regularly waxed or something to make it extra, extra slidy and the karts all had springy bumpers all around. Track was very twisty so it was hard to get up that much speed but bashing into each other was 100% allowed and by gum it was some of the funnest driving I’ve ever done. The whole wedding party was up there on a hot summer night (it was about 105F in the shade for the outdoor ceremony, guh!) and a lot of us might have been drinking a bit but we bashed around laughing hysterically for hours, it was great. Slick track FTW!
My twin granddaughters were 12 when I divorced their grandmother. I started taking them with me for company to a variety activities and they enjoyed them all. It started with estate and garage sales. Then antique shows. They loved going to stock car races. Twice they accompanied me to 4 hours of picket duty during a strike with my employer. Took then to a Heart concert when they were 15. They were dancing in the aisles with lots of other young ladies. Went to a Cirque Du Soleil show. 4 days of driving the Oregon coast. Later, they chose me to walk them down the aisle when they married, they didn’t want their putz of a father to do it. When one became pregnant a few years ago, I was the third person to find out after her husband and mother. Both now include my wife in everything, she has become the voice of reason in most matters. They both have 2 biological grandfathers but to them, I am Grandpa. Those 2 are just Charles and John to them. The things you do with your daughter don’t have to be special, including her in some of your mundane tasks will create memories she will cherish.
My youngest is not 31. I treasure my memories of going paint balling w/ her (and her brother.). It was so funny to see her in a tank top, and all these supposedly tough men wearing all manner of fatigues and body armor! ;).
What I enjoyed most about that was that we were basically “playing” as equals. A paintball doesn’t distinguish between a 12-yr old and a 37 yr old. So if you can find anything like that, you’ll treasure the memories forever.
This. But you can also help them learn things that sexist tradition still doesn’t teach them so they know what to do when a toilet keeps running or what to do when the get a flat tire.
Don’t forget to ask them what they want to do; they might surprise you. I took my dad to a newly built model railroad in multi-purpose building as a holiday treat one winter when he thought we were shopping for Mom’s gift. He used to have a model railroad in the basement that I remembered. It was fun.