It wasn't our intention, but the sewage spillage in the Hudson River caused our favorite bowling place not to have any water. In fact, the entire mall didn't have any water. And Ironflower had to go to the bathroom. So we started driving inland to find another bowling alley or whatever, Ironflower bravely grimacing in the back seat. And we came upon Chuck E. Cheese.
The kids were thrilled, although they were also quite happy to leave after an hour and a half. We got enough tokens that they each got to play their favorite games as many times as they wanted, though Ironflower and HugMonkey spent more time in the climbing structure than anything.
I discovered that I am very bad at games that involve shooting baskets.
And that my 6 year old is better than I am at skee-ball.
Also? Adults at Chuck E. Cheese typically cheat at skee-ball.
Instead of rolling the balls up, they lean over and drop them in the highest point sections, thus insuring their kids lots more tickets. More tickets = more plastic crap their kids can "buy". Now, I'll admit that we had Hot Guy play some games so that we could earn more tickets. And that I played the Deal or No Deal game so I could earn us some extra tickets. But I think there's a difference between adults playing the games and adults cheating at the games.
Right?
Personally, I wish they'd just skip the whole ticket thing altogether. Why not just have kids play the games for their own sake? Isn't playing the games supposed to be fun? Should we really have to reward kids for doing something fun? Ironflower and Hugmonkey had a great time riding on the rides and climbing in the tunnels. Lovebug actually enjoyed the tunnels too, but he loves video games so he had a lot of fun playing Mario Kart with an actual steering wheel and whatnot.
The kids had fun picking out their plastic crap at the end, but only one of those toys (out of 7) has actually been played with since we left Chuck E. Cheese. Of course, that may be because we didn't cheat to get them the more flashy toys. Except, as Lovebug pointed out, "They don't even have any Legos!"
Have you taken kids to Chuck E. Cheese? Do you think cheating is okay, because you know you paid way too much for those game tokens? Do you think kids would have fun there without the tickets?
8 comments:
I think Chuck E Cheese and Dave & Buster's are supposed to be fun. Crappy plastic toys aren't fun. Are they? I like air hockey myself, which awards no tickets.
Cindy Lou - No, crappy plastic toys are not fun. I like air hockey too.
My hubby and I just took our 3 and a half year old daughter there a few weeks ago. She had a great time but was too young for a lot of the games.
Our Chucky Cheese only gave 4 tickets on most games no matter what the score was. A few would give less than that but no more. I enjoy skee ball so I played more for myself than my daughter but I got 4 tickets, the same as everyone else. I think that is good so the younger kids can earn tickets the same as their older siblings.
None of the plastic crap toys have been touched since the day we went there. In fact I think there is something still sitting in hubbys car.
I really resent the whole toy thing, they are so crappy, but especially, whatever happened to playing pinball simply for the joy of the noise and the challenge? And where the @#$*&($# are the pinball machines?
We were at a mini-golf, and of course the kids wind up in the arcade. It always becomes such a drive to get more tix (I know, I know) so that they can get the "good" stuff. Which really only looks "good" and yet is as uninteresting and as crappy as the rest of it.
I'm going to make my kids a deal the next time we go. I'm going to buy all those tickets off of them, no I'm going to explain to them how little those products are worth compared to how much one would pay to play games after it stops being fun, and we'll go buy something that is actually awesome (you know, like lego or a book) with the money we save. Hmmm ... thanks for giving me the space to work this out.
We took our kids to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time yesterday! We had a blast. We let the kids redeem their tickets, but that wasn't the fun part. (It took about fifteen minutes for them to pick about one dollar's worth of crap.) Though they were excited about it, they would have had fun even if there hadn't been tickets involved.
As far as cheating goes - I don't see the point. In spite of the fact that cheating isn't okay, you'd have to cheat a TON to get enough tickets to get anything worthwhile at all, you know? And it's like 1,000 tickets for a thermos.
Now, the other moms in the playgroup I belonged to? Would NEVER take their children to Chuck E. Cheese. I once suggested it and was cut to pieces. Chuck E. Cheese, according to them, is on par with taking your kids to McDonald's, or letting them drink Kool-Aid or watch T.V., or feeding them hot dogs, or allowing them to accept gifts at their birthday party (because don't we all have enough already?). These are all things I do now and then, but these are exactly the things that cause them to believe I am somehow less evolved than they are. And while I'm ranting, I'll just tell you that the last time we got together and were talking about our strategies for saving money on groceries, I was actually dismissed from the conversation because they know how I save money: I don't buy healthy food. Now I'm totally off track....but the thing is, we had fun at Chuck E. Cheese.
In any other eating establishment a rat in the restraunt would be cause for alarm and bring health dept officials running. How Chuck E Cheese manages to stay in business is beyond me. I agree the fun of playing games should be reward enough. No leggos? Facist! The lot of them!
My daughter had her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese this year. The kids went to my niece's party there last year and she thought it would be fun to do the "ticket blaster." We only do big parties for milestones (5 and 10) but we told her she could invite her best friend Roman and his family (mom dad, and sis, her brother's age). We made arrangements to have the party on her actual birthday (which was a weeknight) so the crowd was light. We booked on-line and let the "party staff" take over from there. We had a great time! The kids got one-on-one time with Chuck E. himself because we were the only party on a Thursday. There were no lines for games. And Cora got the golden ticket (or whatever it's called) in the blaster so she could get something better than the cheap plastic crap. She picked a fiber-optic glow lamp for her room.
Nina's Mama - I like that idea. This one changed ticket amounts according to score and my little guy definitely noticed.
Karen - Great idea! Totally stealing that.
Leslie - We had fun too. Also, you need a new Mom's group. Though I bet some of them resort to those things too, they just won't admit it.
Blackshear - I know! It's crazy.
Davismusic - Totally going on a weeknight next time. I'm glad C had fun at her party - that sounds like a good idea.
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