A child’s first Jersey Shore boardwalk amusement park ride. Oh, the horror!

OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Balloon Race, Frog Jump Around, and Jumbo are boardwalk rides designed for little kids. Sounds innocent, right? For the preschool set, yes. But to some parents, they’re downright horrifying.

Just ask Nicole Cooper about those darn Wet Boats.

Cooper, of Somers Point, wasn’t pleased when her youngest daughter, Jennifer Carrillo, 2, chose the boats as her first boardwalk amusement ride earlier this month at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City. When they returned a few weeks later, Cooper was dismayed — and slightly distraught — when Jennifer chose to ride the boats again for her second go-around with older sister, Savannah Armstrong, 6. Cooper would have preferred a ride that didn’t sit on about a foot of water.

“Kids can drown in a teaspoon of water,” she said, in a tone that indicated bewilderment. She held her index finger and thumb an inch apart and proclaimed, “That’s all it takes!”

But the little girls were thrilled with the whole two-minute experience. They giggled together, seated front and back, taking turns twisting the listless wheel, pulling a salty string and jingling the bell.

Mom, on the other hand, circled the metal ride barrier in step with her daughters’ orange boat, checking to make sure they were OK.

"Fun for them," she said, "hell for me."

To a child, it’s a first taste of freedom, even if it’s rotating in a circle at the speed of a senior citizen’s motorized scooter.

But at the pier in June, parents and guardians begrudgingly gave their kids that little bit of freedom. It’s just as much about the adults as it is about the children. And it’s a family affair.

Heather Lihou-Lanzalotti of Cape May, her sister Allie Lihou of Upper Township and their mother, Alice Lihou, hung onto the rail of the Speedway Whip race-car ride and waved at Heather’s two young children, Kyle and Kendall, as they whirled around the circular track.

At every turn, the grownups made faces at the two as they hit the corners. They were all horrified when the kids took their first rides last year on this same ride, a vehicle with a “Speedway" that isn’t very speedy and the "Whip” more like a whimper.

“I don’t want them to get hurt!” Allie said of her niece and nephew. “There’s so much that can happen. But as long as they’re smiling, we’re all smiling!”

Lihou-Lanzalotti was a mess when her kids jumped on their first boardwalk rides a few years ago.

“His hands get stuck in things, and she could hit her head,” she said.

Drew and Hillary Berenato of Villanova, who are related to the Gillian’s family, waved at their 2-year-old daughter as she rode the Balloon Race, where she enjoyed her first-ever ride last summer.

“She chose it," Hillary said. “She ran right up to it, and then she didn’t want to get off.”

But you have to give them that chance.

I was once the kid on the fire trucks at Wonderland Pier. As early as I can remember, I loved playing with die-cast Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. I still have a box of them at the bottom of my closet. But I remember looking at these Jersey Shore rides and being enthralled by the idea of driving one instead of collecting them, even if I didn’t have complete control.

My mother still has a few pictures of these summer memories. “You loved the fire trucks,” said my mom, Jeannie. “You used to say, ‘Mom, I want to ride the tucks.’ ” No “R.”

There was something about riding on those cars that made me feel older, and at that age, about 5 or 6, who doesn’t dream of being big when we’re small?

Poet and mother Karen Z. Duffy learned how to appreciate the moment, expressed in a 1992 poem “Watching Them Ride the Rides” about seeing her young children spin around in the Teacups at the Shore.

"No expressions to decipher,

no drama to diagnose,

no young pain,

only the joy of getting spun..."

It’s one of the first times a parent must allow a child to be independent. To face the uncertainties of life, leaving them susceptible to the whims of a world they don’t yet fear.

Because, even if it’s a small gesture, it’s a big step: Before you know it, they’re pointing toward the roller coaster.

Pete Hoag, a 39-year-old father of four from Linwood, gave his children little choice in choosing their first ride.

All four went on the Wet Boats.

“I picked it for them,” he said, “they were too young, and this was the one I went on as a kid. It was my first, and it was theirs, too."