Chuck E. Cheese is one of those places that you hope you won’t ever have to go to again when you make the decision to eat and live more naturally…at least is was for me. The last time I went to CC was a long time ago but I still vividly remember a lot of sickly looking kids with green snot running down their faces and hacking up a storm all the while they had their hands all over the games and play toys. The last time I went it was winter time and it seemed everyone had a cold. Sure enough, my kids did get sick after that visit. Well, my son turned six this weekend and he decided he really wanted to visit Chuck E. Cheese. Well, okay…if I must.
I made sure we all ate very well at home before we went out and I explained that we would be playing games only…no pizza and no soda would be had at all. Surprisingly they were okay with that and they never even asked once for any of those things, despite the fact that we were surrounded by them. I was happy to see that no children looked visibly sick. But I did remember another reason why I hate places like that. I really start to feel as though I am the only one who still believes in parental supervision at these places. Children run absolutely wild and parents are just oblivious! They congregate together and catch up on the latest gossip while their children terrorize other guests. My two youngest children barley missed being pelted by ski-balls that were thrown outside of the designated area (deliberately). My oldest child was being followed around by an older child (who I would guess had Down’s syndrome) that would wait until my son inserted a token and would then push my son away to play the game or wait until my son was finished and then steal his prize tickets. He was also doing that to several other children. Where were his parents?! I never once saw them in the two hours we were there. Another child that looked to be about 12 or 13 years old was trying to remove the metal plates that covered the ticket dispensers so that he could steal tickets. Lots of children were running wild like this, with a sugar high from all the high fructose corn syrup they were drinking in their sodas.
I am so glad that I do not frequently have to subject myself or my children to that place. But of course now my daughter has talked non-stop about how she wants to go back.
Anyone else have a Chuck E. Cheese horror story to share?
