Wednesday, July 19, 2006

On the Job Training: Motherhood - Part 15: No More Chuck E Cheese!!

Sorry to be a wee bit harsh. I have a Chuck E Cheese party in 2 hours. I seriously hate these parties and wish parents would do something else. This is her best friend from school's birthday, so we have to go. Her mom told me this a few months ago that her daughter wanted her birthday here. "Great!" I said with a frozen smile.

In case you live in a Chuck-E free world, this is a pizza party place for kids. They have arcade games, tunnels to climb through, entertainment by a 6" gray mouse & robotic characters. Parties are 90 minutes long and there can be 5 (?) parties simultaneously. They provide pizza, cake, prizes and a party coordinator. Sounds great, doesn't it?

It's total chaos. Birthday child is in the tunnel, one friend is playing a game, someone else is running over there. Parents are either escorting their child through or maybe if they're lucky they can gab with other parents. I always felt the birthday child is lost because they're competing with the games and activities. Not only do you have the other birthday parties going on, there are regular customers who come in. It's too crazy.

When Annika was younger, I had to stay alert the whole time. First of all, there were 7-9 year old kids running around. She was a toddler who wanted to do whatever others were doing, so I had to keep her in close check.

The craziest party was Austin's 3rd birthday. Austin freaked out when Chucke came. He started screaming. Then various kids on the table started crying too! It was a group-fear phenomena. Moms are consoling their kids, taking them out.

We went to one more party a little after that and it was better. Yet, Austin & Annika were still frightened of Chucke and refused to go to the table.

Pizza is average. Cake is pathetic.

They need a bar. Margaritas for moms and dads.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i agree, i dislike this place so much. it is supposed to be a place where kids play but it raises my stress level to red alert!