Strictly playtime?!

I was strong-armed into attending a 6 year old’s birthday party at the weekend - it was only for 2 hours, I thought, how bad could it be? How wrong I was! It was horrendous. Firstly, a room of screaming 6 year olds would have put me off breeding if it wasn’t too late already. Then the games. They were led by a very efficient mother and her cohorts who had planned the festivities down to the last balloon. The poor kids were herded into lines, circles, groups etc by a whistle - and anyone who decided they would much rather just run around or dance than follow the strict “fun” guidelines got a sharp blast of the whistle and told off! Poor things. It reminded me of the Spongebob episode when he has a party and has planned the activities down to the last second and gets upset when people veer off his schedule!

And what is it with the new idea that nobody can lose at anything? All the games, pass the parcel, musical chairs etc, were played with the kids who lost being given a prize. This is probably so they didn’t feel bad, and all the kids then got the same prize, but it meant that all the kids wanted to lose and then kept sneaking back in again, so the games never finished. The mother running it all never really caught on to this and looked perplexed when the game had run on for about 15 minutes and the kids were looking very bored and there were just as many as at the beginning. What is wrong with a little healthy competition? When I was little, I thrived on trying to win things, it made me try harder. If I was going to get the same prize anyway, why would I bother? Now admittedly I was one of the brighter ones of my class and so rarely came last (apart from in sports but enough of that!) but that didn’t stop me trying. How come kids nowadays can never fail or lose at anything without people worrying it will affect them adversely? I think it is more the other way round, we’re breeding a generation of spoilt brats who have never had to face being last or losing at anything, and who are given everything they want in case they phone the social, so when they get to the real world they are in for quite a shock. My poor boy is getting a reality check the minute he can talk!