I've been to so many children's birthday parties in the last few years that a weekend without one is beginning to seem like a week in the Caribbean. And many of these parties feature--among numerous other activities and performances--a pinata. The first few times, I didn't notice what was up; I was too busy making sure that if there was so much as a half-slice of pizza left over for "the parents" that I was the parent who grabbed it. For some reason I always arrive at these things hungry. But at the last party, I'd eaten my fill of mini hot dogs and swallowed down a couple plastic cups of juice, and when the pinata came out, I was ready. Maybe I could catch a few pieces of candy on the outskirts of the crowd if I was quick.
The children lined up behind the birthday child. They seemed oddly somber. Joyless, even. I looked at another parent to see if she had noticed the grim mood, but she was watching, patiently, as though she'd seen this show before.
And the birthday child stepped up to the hanging pinata, a superhero of some kind, I think, and...pulled a piece of ribbon dangling at the bottom. Nothing happened.
And then the next child came up and did the same thing, and then the next child, and the next child, and finally one pained-looking child pulled her ribbon, and some candy fell out--did not dramatically spray around the room causing shrieking, happy children to scatter with it--and the children fell on it, and then quickly got up, clutching their bags (I don't remember the bags, either; we got what we could hold), and moved on to another activity. The anti-climatism was deafening.
I know much has been made of today's "safe" parenting, so-called helicopter parents and the uber-involved, ultra PC moms and dads who think a water balloon is the childhood equivalent of a battlefield grenade, and I have nothing much new to add to the debate. Except this: I'm kind of sad about the pinatas.
3 comments:
When Meghann was about three her grandparents supplied a Christmas pinata for all the grandchildren and it came with strings, so this isn't a new change. I prefer to think of it as an "indoor" pinata, verses the stick swinging "outdoor" kind. We still blindfolded the kids though.
I've been to two kids birthday parties in the last year when they had the traditional "hit it with a stick" variety of pinatas. (Both outside of course). Maybe the strings are more of a city thing? Or a choice American parents of younger children make? We did track down the kind with strings when our boys were under the age of 5 because otherwise they would have thought it was fun to engage in "stick-fighting" with their guests.
We used a baseball bat!!!
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