True Bravery
I killed all those spiders with my bare hands (and baby shampoo). I gave birth unmedicated and at home twice--and the first labor was forty-three hours. I've driven through Seattle during rush hour.
But nothing comes close to the bravery I displayed today.
Today, I took the kids to (drum roll, please) Chuck E Cheese by myself.
I didn't even plan it ahead. I slept in (no DaycareKid today) and when I finally was showered, Babygirl said, "Church? Church?" because she thinks we should go to church whenever we don't have DaycareKid. I said, "No, but we will go bye-bye, okay?" And that was the first that I realized that, yes, indeed, we would go somewhere.
The boys have been begging to do something fun, so I decided to make all their dreams come true. It's easy to do that if you have a coupon for ninety-nine tokens, a large pizza and four drinks for only $29.99 (plus tax). I didn't tell them where we were going. I just gave them five minutes to get ready, called my husband to ask for the car and off we went (after first dropping off my husband at the church so he could continue working).
On the way, the kids stayed busy guessing where we were going. They all guessed right, but I did not comfirm or deny. At one point I said in a somber voice, "Would you guys be really disappointed if we were just going to buy new underpants?" I thought YoungestBoy would froth at the mouth, but the bigger boys told him I was just joking.
I did not confirm nor deny.
We arrived at Chuck E Cheese half an hour after it opened. Babygirl was wide-eyed and after I divvied up the tokens, she carried around her own cup of "munny." She didn't realize for awhile they she could put them in machines, but when she got the idea, she plugged the games as if they were slot machines. I tried to stop her, much to her annoyance. Then, she simply transferred the tokens one by one into her pockets. (I slid my hands into her pockets at one point and removed all the tokens while she gazed at a game.)
I kept an eye on YoungestBoy and wandered around with Babygirl and let the twins out of my sight. On one hand, I worry about the random child-abductor. On the other hand, I figure a mostly empty Chuck E Cheese is a pretty safe place for a pair of 11-year old twins.
I finally introduced Babygirl to the toddler area, where she sat and rode with Barney in a motorized car. She put in three tokens, one after the other, while I wished I'd brought a camera. Then, she played on the slide until I said, "Do you want some pizza?" and she agreed.
By the time we ate pizza, the boys had used most of their tokens and they each had a wad of tickets. Babygirl and I rode in this tall--dare I say even one-story tall?--rocking horse. It was really cool, I have to say. I've never seen a coin-operated ride like it. She just sat back and smiled a dreamy little grin and made me put in tokens three times in a row.
Then I said, "How about ice cream?" to bribe her out of it.
And just when you think you will get out alive, you have to endure the torture of the kids Picking Out A Prize with the tickets they've won. The crappy prizes cost 80 tickets. The good prizes cost 5,000 to 10,000 tickets. I would like to meet the person who has acculuated 10,000 Chuck E Cheese tickets and ask them "how?" Have they been stranded in here for a decade? How does anyone have that many tickets? Do they steal them?
My kids had fifty to one hundred and fifty tickets, each.
Luckily for us, there were only three children ahead of us, so the boys stood in line, calculated their net worth in tickets and peered into the fingerprint-smudged cases, pondering which cheap and ugly toy to "buy." Babygirl repeatedly pulled on me and said, "Ride horse! Ride horse" and I answered her, distractedly, "We don't have any more quarters. We're going to get ice cream!" but she would not take no for an answer.
At last I looked directly at her and saw she was clutching a single token in her greasy little hand. She must have had a hidden token in her pockets. I said, "Oh! You have a quarter!" So, we went and rode on the giant rocking horse again, while the boys waited in line.
From my perch at the top of the rocking horse, I could see that kids kept cutting in front of my kids in the line. They were no closer to the front than when I had left them. And Babygirl did a magic trick and pulled a second token, and then a third, from her pocket, so we hogged the Rocking Horse ride for three turns.
Then, I promised ice cream again and we went to wait with the boys. When I arrived at the counter, there was no employee to help my kids--who were finally first in line.
I said aloud, to no one in particular, "Where is the lady?"
Then, Babygirl began to pull at my leg and cry. She was ready to go.
She would not let me pick her up. She began to scream.
I said aloud again, "I can't believe this!"
I said, "Hellllloooo? Where is the lady?!"
Babygirl is wailing, stomping and crying.
The woman standing over by the check-in point looks at me and smiles.
I finally lean over the counter and say to the pizza-order-taking woman (girl?): "Excuse me? Do you know where the lady is?" I gestured towards the empty cash register near us. "Has she died? Do I need to call an ambulance?" I raised my eybrows in mock concern.
She did not have a sense of humor and did not even crack a smile, but she did, however, pick up the phone and moments later, the prize-giving employee appeared.
By now, Babygirl is in full wail and will not be consoled. I'm starting to sweat and my six year old hasn't figure out what he wants to get. I'm saying, "How about that? You want a Hulk sticker? Or you could get two things from there for fifteen tickets each. Or one thing for forty points and two for fifteen. How about a pack of pens? Come on! Come on! Come on!" He'd only been standing there for twenty minutes. How should he know? I'd probably be unable to pick from the pathetic little selection of cheap trinkets, too, when the only thing worth having costs 7,500 tickets.
Finally, with a pocket full of trashy plastic things that I will probably throw away later tonight after I step on them with bare feet, we left.
Babygirl no longer wanted to leave and stood five feet from the door, shrieking.
We all said, "Come on, sweetie. Let's go get ice cream," in voices one would use to coax a frightened dog back into his leash. Finally, I said, "Well, okay, bye!" and acted like I was leaving and miraculously, she stopped crying and we left.
Whew. For one second there, I thought I would have to carry her out, kicking and screaming (her, not me).
We went through a Dairy Queen drive-through on the way home, then got stuck in traffic on the freeway. Babygirl ate an entire ice cream cone, then said, "Messy, messy, messy," and wiped herself off with tissues.
The kids don't know it, but that may have been our last visit ever to Chuck E Cheese.
Until I see another coupon, I suppose. Where else can you buy complete happiness and utter despair for only $29.99 (plus tax)?
But nothing comes close to the bravery I displayed today.
Today, I took the kids to (drum roll, please) Chuck E Cheese by myself.
I didn't even plan it ahead. I slept in (no DaycareKid today) and when I finally was showered, Babygirl said, "Church? Church?" because she thinks we should go to church whenever we don't have DaycareKid. I said, "No, but we will go bye-bye, okay?" And that was the first that I realized that, yes, indeed, we would go somewhere.
The boys have been begging to do something fun, so I decided to make all their dreams come true. It's easy to do that if you have a coupon for ninety-nine tokens, a large pizza and four drinks for only $29.99 (plus tax). I didn't tell them where we were going. I just gave them five minutes to get ready, called my husband to ask for the car and off we went (after first dropping off my husband at the church so he could continue working).
On the way, the kids stayed busy guessing where we were going. They all guessed right, but I did not comfirm or deny. At one point I said in a somber voice, "Would you guys be really disappointed if we were just going to buy new underpants?" I thought YoungestBoy would froth at the mouth, but the bigger boys told him I was just joking.
I did not confirm nor deny.
We arrived at Chuck E Cheese half an hour after it opened. Babygirl was wide-eyed and after I divvied up the tokens, she carried around her own cup of "munny." She didn't realize for awhile they she could put them in machines, but when she got the idea, she plugged the games as if they were slot machines. I tried to stop her, much to her annoyance. Then, she simply transferred the tokens one by one into her pockets. (I slid my hands into her pockets at one point and removed all the tokens while she gazed at a game.)
I kept an eye on YoungestBoy and wandered around with Babygirl and let the twins out of my sight. On one hand, I worry about the random child-abductor. On the other hand, I figure a mostly empty Chuck E Cheese is a pretty safe place for a pair of 11-year old twins.
I finally introduced Babygirl to the toddler area, where she sat and rode with Barney in a motorized car. She put in three tokens, one after the other, while I wished I'd brought a camera. Then, she played on the slide until I said, "Do you want some pizza?" and she agreed.
By the time we ate pizza, the boys had used most of their tokens and they each had a wad of tickets. Babygirl and I rode in this tall--dare I say even one-story tall?--rocking horse. It was really cool, I have to say. I've never seen a coin-operated ride like it. She just sat back and smiled a dreamy little grin and made me put in tokens three times in a row.
Then I said, "How about ice cream?" to bribe her out of it.
And just when you think you will get out alive, you have to endure the torture of the kids Picking Out A Prize with the tickets they've won. The crappy prizes cost 80 tickets. The good prizes cost 5,000 to 10,000 tickets. I would like to meet the person who has acculuated 10,000 Chuck E Cheese tickets and ask them "how?" Have they been stranded in here for a decade? How does anyone have that many tickets? Do they steal them?
My kids had fifty to one hundred and fifty tickets, each.
Luckily for us, there were only three children ahead of us, so the boys stood in line, calculated their net worth in tickets and peered into the fingerprint-smudged cases, pondering which cheap and ugly toy to "buy." Babygirl repeatedly pulled on me and said, "Ride horse! Ride horse" and I answered her, distractedly, "We don't have any more quarters. We're going to get ice cream!" but she would not take no for an answer.
At last I looked directly at her and saw she was clutching a single token in her greasy little hand. She must have had a hidden token in her pockets. I said, "Oh! You have a quarter!" So, we went and rode on the giant rocking horse again, while the boys waited in line.
From my perch at the top of the rocking horse, I could see that kids kept cutting in front of my kids in the line. They were no closer to the front than when I had left them. And Babygirl did a magic trick and pulled a second token, and then a third, from her pocket, so we hogged the Rocking Horse ride for three turns.
Then, I promised ice cream again and we went to wait with the boys. When I arrived at the counter, there was no employee to help my kids--who were finally first in line.
I said aloud, to no one in particular, "Where is the lady?"
Then, Babygirl began to pull at my leg and cry. She was ready to go.
She would not let me pick her up. She began to scream.
I said aloud again, "I can't believe this!"
I said, "Hellllloooo? Where is the lady?!"
Babygirl is wailing, stomping and crying.
The woman standing over by the check-in point looks at me and smiles.
I finally lean over the counter and say to the pizza-order-taking woman (girl?): "Excuse me? Do you know where the lady is?" I gestured towards the empty cash register near us. "Has she died? Do I need to call an ambulance?" I raised my eybrows in mock concern.
She did not have a sense of humor and did not even crack a smile, but she did, however, pick up the phone and moments later, the prize-giving employee appeared.
By now, Babygirl is in full wail and will not be consoled. I'm starting to sweat and my six year old hasn't figure out what he wants to get. I'm saying, "How about that? You want a Hulk sticker? Or you could get two things from there for fifteen tickets each. Or one thing for forty points and two for fifteen. How about a pack of pens? Come on! Come on! Come on!" He'd only been standing there for twenty minutes. How should he know? I'd probably be unable to pick from the pathetic little selection of cheap trinkets, too, when the only thing worth having costs 7,500 tickets.
Finally, with a pocket full of trashy plastic things that I will probably throw away later tonight after I step on them with bare feet, we left.
Babygirl no longer wanted to leave and stood five feet from the door, shrieking.
We all said, "Come on, sweetie. Let's go get ice cream," in voices one would use to coax a frightened dog back into his leash. Finally, I said, "Well, okay, bye!" and acted like I was leaving and miraculously, she stopped crying and we left.
Whew. For one second there, I thought I would have to carry her out, kicking and screaming (her, not me).
We went through a Dairy Queen drive-through on the way home, then got stuck in traffic on the freeway. Babygirl ate an entire ice cream cone, then said, "Messy, messy, messy," and wiped herself off with tissues.
The kids don't know it, but that may have been our last visit ever to Chuck E Cheese.
Until I see another coupon, I suppose. Where else can you buy complete happiness and utter despair for only $29.99 (plus tax)?
posted by Melodee at Friday, August 20, 2004
8 Comments:
There should be medals for this kind of "above and beyond" kind of bravery you have shown....
~Tina
Thanks for a much needed laugh. I plan to avoid that place like the plague. Cheryl
I won't even go to CeC with one kid and another adult.
Our local CeC went out of business several years ago, but I still have bad dreams about the noise level in there.
You get a free ticket for your bravery. Enjoy the prize.
Oh Melodee!! You ARE brave... I found myself nodding my head as I read along, especially when the boys were at the counter deciding on what plastic toy to pick, as babygirl began to melt down....
*Sticking a gold star for bravery to your forehead*
~~Michelle aka s0ngbird1962
I can see why the check-in girl didnt "have a sense of humor" at your questions. I work at a similar facility with a prize desk, although ours is aimed more towards a educational background. You think you had it bad bringing your kids for a couple of hours? Hah! Try standing on your feet for 8-10hrs straight, listening to screaming, laughing and crying kids. Try running a den of arcade games and keeping tabs as you count tickets of 3-4 kids AT A TIME, as EACH KID takes 20 minutes (I've had a kid take an HOUR to pick out toys, each time after picking one out, demanding that it be traded back - the mother cracked a joke about her son "knowing to get his money's worth") to pick out stuff. Some kids just hang out around the counter, never saying anything, just looking - you can ask them if they need help, and they'll either just look at you, demand free tokens, or tell you they're not ready yet. Its possible that the employee thought your children were 'hangers', and thus went to get herself a drink or SIT down after standing for hours, listening to often RUDE, shrill voices. Or she may have had to use the RESTROOM or attend to another pressing duty. I can see why she may have wandered off. And I can see why the other employee "didnt have a sense of humor" about your remarks.
You have NO idea how terribly rude parents can be concerning their precious angels. Many of the richer ones tend to look at us not as employees or even customer service - but SERVANTS. They think because we work at a kids place, we're stupid or child-like, too. Most of our employees are working towards degrees in teaching, nursing, or child psychology fields - we work there because we wanted jobs working with children, outside of the traditional childcare centers. Now, my center is paired with an educational agenda, so we tend to attract rather highly intelligent employees, but they still receive the "you're just a stupid kid - you need to know your place" on a regular basis. We know when we're being talked down to, even if in a joking manner. We also understand that these places are also high stress environments for parents - you aren't used to the stimulation, high levels of noise, and over-excitement of the kids. Its enough to drive anyone nuts. But we get to deal with that situation all day, all week, 15-39 hrs a week depending on the season and area a center is in.
So you can see why the worker didnt pretend to prettily smile, laugh at your 'joke' and happily dial in her fellow employee.
I'm sorry to rant on like this, but I would really like to see parents treating employees that work in children's places much better. Sometimes, yes, you run into an incompetent kid running the front desk - but you gotta wonder if that 'kid' didn't spend all night writing two essays for their psychology and development classes, and/or work another job, and/or volunteer for a kids' club/camp, before dragging themselves into work. We don't get paid that well (I started only making $7hr) and yet we clean (poop, urine, MOs - mystery objects, wrappers, tables, food off the floor, those dirty glass counters) constantly. We teach (in our facility), disinfect (you try climbing through those play structures tunnels - that are meant for 3-10 yr olds - with bottles of disinfectant, rags and a sweeper!) and sweep. We run birthday parties (for which half the time we don't even get tipped, although we do FAR more than a WAITRESS ever does! Hah! Most people don't think TWICE about tipping a busboy or waitress - I never see a dime on MY tables!) and THEN deal with customers and KIDS! Even the most hardened, dedicated workers tend to last only a year, at best. I've had a co-worker quit after 2 hours. I've had three co-workers have breakdowns after being screamed at by customers. And most of us don't get benefits, and rarely get raises or bonuses that often. Why? Because we don't have a degree yet and we're just 'kids', employeed for just under full-time so we don't get benefits, "because the company can't afford them."
So try to have a little more respect when visiting a facility. We're doing our best in a very busy and stressful environment. If we are lucky, at my facility we get to develop special relationships with our regulars, hearing about how school went, organizing special classes, helping with paintings and crafts...it's these kids and my awesome co-workers who are worth it, because otherwise I'd quit in a heartbeat and risk looking for new work in my town's crappy economy.
Hey, Mel, maybe the "lady" was posting an anonymous comment on your blog?? ;-)
I feel your pain Mel...
I agreed to show up for one of those b-day gatherings for my girlfriend's kid... after about 15 minutes, I got up and left CEC, hailed a taxi, and went home. Halfway home, my g/f called me on my cell, yelling, "Where ARE you?"
I replied, "In a cab."
After an awkward silence, she calmly said "Why are you in a cab?"
I replied, "Because I'm done."
Sure, I had to pay the piper later that evening, but It was well-worth preserving my sanity. Most civilized societies frown upon the idea of some stranger hurling random kids about a resturaunt and setting animitronic characters ablaze. I knew my limitations and cut my losses.
I also feel annonomyous's pain, but it's a pity that she didn't leave her name. Would have made for some interesting dialogue.
Oh well... mebbie next time.
holy cow, Mel, talk about flood gates--this woman needs serious therapy. Maybe you helped her hit bottom and realize that she's burned out and should, um, maybe consider a career change.
There is not enough money in the world that would get me to work in such a place. One eight-hour shift and they would have to cart me out Hannibal Lector-style, you know, with a hockey mask and a straight jacket. Wow.
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