sugar overload

I love my job. I enjoy working kid's birthday parties. I get paid to play. The vast majority of the parties I work go very smoothly. But I get maybe 2-3 parties each year with really weird energy, where the kids are absolutely wired. I recently experienced one.

I walked into the room to set up my gear and smelled chocolate. I love chocolate. It was a heady and decadent smell to walk in to. I was engulfed in the scent. But then I noticed it was coming from a chocolate fountain. At a 4 year old birthday party that is a bad omen. Who has a chocolate fountain at a kid's birthday party? That's an adult thing and it's always done towards the end of the party. I suppose the mom thought it would be elegant. Of course the kids got completely sugared up in the first 10 minutes. They were running around with chocolate smeared all over their faces like a bunch of skinny Augustus Gloops. They had the same whacked out look in their eyes that might appear on a junkies face. Seriously folks, too much sugar is actually a scary thing at a kid's birthday party.

Once a group of kids are flying on a sugar high like that all bets are off. It's usually best to just let them run around like maniacs and burn it off. Unfortunately I was hired to entertain said maniacs. It wasn't happening. I tried everything, and I mean everything to get them involved, but they just were not interested. By the end of the party the mom felt bad and was apologizing profusely and gave me a sizable tip. She was really sweet; the kids were just gone. In retrospect I can laugh at it; it was a funny situation. But I'm glad I wasn't there when they crashed from their massive sugar high!

The best parties are the ones where they give the kids crackers, chips, raw veggies and dip and fresh fruit to snack on along with water bottles and juice boxes to drink. Then they usually give the kids pizza, chicken fingers or hot dogs for the main deal.