Birthday party with a dozen preteen boys - lessons learned
Itinerary was:
- Morning of laser tag
- Lunch and karaoke at the venue
- Afternoon of water fights at nearby public park
How it went:
some kids were and will always be late
laser tag went well
- i liked the decor - warehouse space rigged up as an urban combat zone reminiscent of any classic FPS
- some of the equipment malfunctioned but staff were willing and able to replace with spares.
- kids loved the real-time scoreboard and the cliched "screen names" they got with their harnesses.
- staff were all young and very happy to don harnesses and fill in when needed to equalize numbers in several of the games.
- best student job, wish it was a thing in my day!
Lunch was simple crowd pleaser party food with lots of chips, all that the venue serves
- importance of firm supervision
- kids in large groups rarely listen to young venue staff
- troublemaker grabbed a dirty cleaning cloth and started swatting his friends with it
- was promptly and firmly relieved of it by me
- settled down once someone was in charge
Cake was eaten, no complaints received
- one piece was left, gave to someones mum who was picking up her kid early.
Karaoke was indescribably terrible
- I told them that Neil Diamond was my mum's music, they laughed and sang even louder and more off-key
Movement by foot to "water fight" park
- was difficult to keep them together
- had to keep counting heads and pulling them away from distractions like shop windows
- had to go retrieve an esky of refreshments and box of water pistols from my car
- found seating where i left them temporarily
- had to leave my wife in charge for three minutes, and it was nearly a disaster
- kids didn't listen to her, and scattered, some going into shops
- they're middleclass kids, but i wouldn't trust them not to shoplift if unsupervised.
- rounded them up, led the last two hundred meters to park
At the park
Took them initially to Red Team's base, that my son and i had recced the week before. Bases were in shade under trees, marked out by scraping a line with my shoe. There was a drink fountain in the open in the middle.
Asked who wanted to be captains, no one did so i chose two and had them pick teams. Supervision suddenly became easy with teams and leaders and delegation of responsibility. (Should have done this before we left laser tag venue).
Brought out sunscreen for everybody.
First game was team capture-the-flag
I explained the rules my son and i had come up with
- capturing
- freeing
- victory when both flags in one teams base
My wife and I were the referees. If the referee says you were sprayed, you're captured, no arguing.
Weather was perfect - hot (33C), dry and moderate winds
Each team spent some time filling water pistols and water balloons at the fountain before retiring to their bases.
I had to leave Red Team with just my wife to take Blue Team to their base. Was actually fine. Moved back and forth checking on them.
Both teams spent fully fifteen minutes arguing tactics, and visibly enjoying it.
The team bases were two visual distances apart, deliberate choice by me to force them to split members between offense and defense. Each team had a big, long range "squad support weapon", a selection of small water pistols, and lots of water balloons.
Some tentative skirmishing in the tree line between the bases led to Red Team "capturing" one of Blue Team.
Red Team then decided to "camp" in their base with flag and "prisoner".
Blue Team held a meeting at their base. They decided to leave just one guy at their base with the "squad support weapon", and that everyone else would go forward to attack Red Team's base with water pistols and water balloons. "Unorthodox", but as referee it was not my place to suggest anything.
Blue team made the choice to advance across the open grass in extended order instead of using the treeline. Better command and control I guess, but no surprise and no cover.
I tagged along in my role as referee.
Red team was unwisely gathered together in a gaggle, and were hit with long-range thrown water balloons before they could redeploy.
Lots of enthusiastic shouting and squirting later, it was down to Red Teams "Squad Support Weapon" guy and two Blue Team members coming at him from opposite directions and using cover.
Red had a serious advantage of range and water-power, but Blue were in fairly close and Red had to keep turning to face each "attacker", and then Blue Team's last water balloon caught him on the shoulder.
Blue Team wins!
Break for frozen "Zooper-Doopers" from my esky.
- Flavoured water, sugary and still partly frozen. They were popular.
Prizes for the game were bags of different sweets - winning captain to choose three to divide among his team, losers to share remaining two bags.
Birthday boy decided the next game would be a "Battle Royale" in teams of just two.
Water pistols had been refilled and pairs of happy, shouting kids were spraying each other, when I turned around and was hit perfectly in the chest by a water balloon. Wasn't a kid, it was my wife!
Unscripted ref on ref water balloon battle followed. My wife lost rather heavily, she was very modestly dressed or it could have been embarrassing.
Kid's battle died down, I forget who won.
Broke out the cans of cola on ice for the kids just as one of the dads arrived with his little daughter. Gave them cola too, i had extras for contingencies. It was hot, they needed it.
Kids played some more one-on-one water fights with no particular rules.
Had some text messages to coordinate pickup of kids by parents.
Some were late but wasn't a problem.
Once all the guests were gone my eldest suggested a family "Battle Royale". No refs and rules only weakly followed, it was soon the three of them targeting me! Pleased to report I gave at least as good as I got, before my wife ran off out of range and the boys started targeting each other.
Packed up and "emu bob" cleanup.
On the walk back to my car, birthday boy said "Dad, if I'm being honest..."
I was thinking: "What is this...?"
Birthday boy: "... best birthday I've had so far!"
I'll count that as a win.
What went well:
Laser tag and karaoke was about ~$400, water fight was about ~$60 (mostly refreshments).
I think the water fight was actually the most popular, but it is so dependent on the right weather. Not a problem in a normal summer, but this hadn't been one.
What I'll do differently in future:
Dividing the kids into teams BEFORE we walk anywhere. Span of control 13 is impossible unless you know the kids well already, but mischief-makers are usually actually willing to take up delegated responsibility and keep their teams together.
Keeping the team bases two visual distances apart made the tactics more interesting, but the first game was slower than I'd planned - about 40 minutes from briefing to snack break. Fine, but need to plan more time per game.
