I'm with ashley on this - I *hate* amusement park rides, have been scared of them since I was a young child. Some of us just never will enjoy them - I don't know if that's true for your ds or not, but I'd consider that he might not only be scared of them, they might make him feel physically sick if he rides them. This is just a guess on my part, but I desperately wanted to ride scary rides when I was your ds' age *because* that's what all the other kids did and they all loved it, and I wanted to fit in. It's a really tough thing to deal with - but I honestly think the best thing to do as a parent is to talk to your child and try to understand what's going on. If they want to try to stand in line and they aren't doing it just to prove they can ride a scary ride to either themselves or their friends, stand in line with them and let them change their minds when they get to the front and realize they just can't do it. Or consider splitting up the fun in some way - for instance, if there are games at the same event as the rides, let each child have the same amount of $ to split between games and rides, and let each choose how to spend their money. That gives your ds10 the chance to choose to spend his $ on something that's not scary without having to make the choice to not ride a ride out of fear.
Do you know any other adults who are terrified of amusement park rides? One of the best things that ever happened to me as a kid was to meet an adult who told me they understood how I felt
And I don't mean someone who will get on a ride and ride it saying they understood, I mean someone that clearly was never going to climb on a ride and was sincerely terrified of it
Best wishes,
polarbear
