<p>What has been your favorite or most trying group event involving your children’s friends!</p>
<p>We have had some wild outings, birthday parites and experiences with our childrens friends . All are difficult for the adults in charge! The most trying for me were the PJ parties . Around here they seem to start early.And inevitably there is ALWAYS one child to take home in the middle of the night because the child is homesick, or doesn’t like it, or scared, not getting along or not having fun. It was always for me a NEVER AGAIN ! proposition. Other wild events included a New Year’s party when it snowed and we were babysitting about 8 neighborhood kids. There were millions of footprints, beads,trampled hats, a huge lopsided snowman in the front yard on New Years Day from the night before and I swear neighbors were driving by making can you imagine that comments to each other for the next month! I had gotten a load of streamers for $1 at a flea market and the kids totally covered the dogwood tree in the front yard with them. WHAT A MESS! That was another event where I said NO MORE OF THOSE!
The last day of school for a couple years we took a number of our kids friends to the Drive In when they were in Elementary School. You can transport quite a few with a 7 seat station wagon.They were all boys and totally everywhere including dragging their lawn chair to the other screen in pitch dark. I thought I woudl die, had totally reached my limit! I was SO tired!Then, they ALL fell asleep by 11 pm and we had to leave early and miss the last film!
We also did bowling parities on New Years Eve when the kids were teens.They actually worked out very well .</p>
<p>I once tried to “pay back” all of S’s play dates at once. Six seven-year-olds in a small NYC apartment. One kid’s father arrived to pick him up, and we couldn’t find his son. He turned up in a closet after a short search. I’m pleased to report that my “never again” vow remains unbroken to this day.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, my youngest daughter’s Brownie troop. I was a very experienced mom and scout leader by that time, but so what - I flat out could not handle four of the girls, who were either toxically spoiled (and I never use that word) or precociously bi-polar. None of them became my daughter’s friend, thankfully!</p>
<p>Absolute worst event: a district-wide Brownie event featuring many competitve games. When a girl from our troop won the overall prize, most of our members were thrilled for her - but the most difficult girl actually stole her prize and denied having done so, even when caught red-handed. She then had an awe-inspiring, screaming, kicking FIT.</p>
<p>(shudder.) It gives me a headache just to remember those days!</p>
<p>Years ago we had a playgroup with 6 moms participating, all with 2 year olds. 2 moms would play with the kids while the other 4 ran off to do errands, exercise or whatever. We obviously rotated duties and houses. One time when it was at our house we were greeting the moms as they arrived back. It had been a successful, fun 2 1/2 hours–but all were ready for lunch and naps. When one of the moms arrived we called to her son who had just been playing in the family room with the others. He was no where to be found. We searched high and low, in every room upstairs and down, calling his name. We knew he couldn’t have gone outside as all the doors had keyed deadbolts that were locked (we had a 21/2 year old and a 9 month old at the time.) 20 frantic minutes later we found him behind a very large plant in the sunroom, standing very quietly & very happily watching the show we had put on for him!</p>
<p>Well, it was my kid – who was a bit too sophisticated for her age thanks to having an older brother – who caused the problem.</p>
<p>When my daughter was in kindergarten, she invited the Daisy troop leader’s daughter to our house one day. The visiting child was very excited because her family was getting a pet for the first time. It was a cat – but it wasn’t going to arrive at their house for a few days because it was at the vet’s, getting “fixed” so that it couldn’t have kittens.</p>
<p>A little while later, she mentioned that her parents had decided that this would be an indoor cat that would not be allowed out in the yard.</p>
<p>That’s what triggered the problem. The moment the girl said it, I could see the wheels turning in my daughter’s head, leading to the inevitable question, “But if you don’t have any other cats, and if this cat isn’t going to be allowed outside, why do you need to get it fixed? It takes a mommy cat and a daddy cat to make kittens.”</p>
<p><em>groan</em></p>
<p>I ended up having to sort-of-explain the facts of life without explaining the facts of life to the Scout leader’s daughter.</p>
<p>My daughter also endeared herself to most of the local parents by explaining to the entire kindergarten that there’s no such thing as Santa Claus and that your parents bought all the Christmas presents and probably have them hidden in the computer boxes in the basement (which is where her older brother had found them, thus proving to her that Santa was a myth).</p>
<p>Kids with older siblings are a menace to society.</p>
<p>“Kids with older siblings are a menace to society.” </p>
<p>Is that ever the truth, Marian. When my oldest went to preschool and came home with cheeky little songs and jokes, I’d get on my high horse, and scorn the bratty little kid (to myself) who taught my “innocent” such garbage. :eek: </p>
<p>Then number two went to preschool. One day he came home singing the “I Love Barney Song” except Barney was in the toilet. I immediately wanted to know who taught him those lyrics. His answer, “It was me, and I taught all my friends.” :o</p>
<p>Favorite: Last August took D and her 2 best friends to Venice Beach and a “tour” of Westwood (home of UCLA)/Hollywood/Melrose Ave (trendy boutiques)/Beverly Hills as one friend was starting USC and had never spent any time in LA (D & I are natives). The weather was perfect, the crowds exactly as they should be (we even saw a few famous faces), the company fabulous. As we walked through the USC campus at nearly midnight, one of the best friends (the USC one) shifted position, walked super close to me, and quietly said, “This was the best day of my life.” I still tear up reliving it.</p>
<p>Craziest: Took D & 3 friends to Magic Mountain (theme park filled with outlandish roller coasters). They were 13. It was a dreary, drizzly day, so the park was nearly empty. We spent nearly 10 hours literally running from one giant roller coaster and white-knuckler ride, to the next. There were no lines and the guys running the rides made every ride “doubles”. It was truly insane. My legs were wobbly for 2 days after that.</p>
<p>When my son was six, the nearest Chuckie Cheese was a half hour away. We invited 12 kids to his b/d party, and they all were able to attend. We asked only one set of parents to stay with us to help chaperone. Well, we didn’t have a clue as to what we were getting into. It was a Saturday night, and the place was running over with kidlets (duh). It was before Chuckie Cheese started marking kids’ hands and keeping the front door guarded. My husband and I spent almost the entire evening apart, one posted at the front door, while the other stayed at the back exit near the bathrooms. It was really a nightmare. That evening couldn’t end fast enough for us. The kids, on the other hand, had a great time.</p>
<p>I have little add tos of my own to every one of these stories! They are fun to read. I can imagine every one of them!</p>
<p>Daisymoms: I was one of those.Your stories are better!
playgroups: The time we found, to our horror, my son and other 2 year olds sitting on the floor dividing ‘loride’ tables for a snack. Yes, doctor , ipecac, vomitting, anger-, " it wasn’t MY house! This would never happen in MY house!"
older siblings: Unfortunately in our house the older ones monopolized conversation all the time.
rollercoasters:Did that once until our knees were shaking.
Chuckiecheese:Son demanded one of those parties, as he was our youngest we obliged. He would not participate to the point I was miffed. Came home and son threw up all over the kitchen. Never saw so much vomit in my life.</p>
<p>I just want to add my apology for not phrasing the title of this thread better.</p>
<p>Certainly the longest and most tiring experience was when my husband, myself and 3 other moms took 24 seniors on a cruise after high school graduation. I, as it always seems to happen, was the designated worrier. I did the paperwork checks, patrolled the ship and constantly did head counts, made sure the kids weren’t hooking up with weird strangers and required groups of 4 to sign up together for shore excursions. I insisted that they return to ship one hour before sail time and I counted heads again as they boarded–I worried constantly about someone’s child being left on an island. I gave daily reminders about not accepting drinks from strangers, watch your money when on shore, only use “approved” tour services and no tattoos.</p>
<p>All in all the week (seemed like a month) went without a major hitch, except for one boy J. He returned to ship one afternoon with a bandage on his upper arm. Upon questioning he admitted that he had a tattoo done in a little place just off the dock area. I went into a rant about the health and safety concerns and why didn’t he wait and have it done in US where health rules were probably stricter–his reply was “Oh, Mrs. M. don’t worry, I asked and he said it was a clean needle”.</p>
<p>I chaperoned the fourth grade trip and was assigned four kids, including my own S to be in my group. One of the boys was insulted at the idea that he should stay with the group (thought that was for babies) and kept trying to run away and do his own thing in major public places. Luckily, I have eyes in the back of my head and would catch him every time he started to run off and I really mean RUN. This went on all day and by the end of the day I was exhausted but delivered four, count em, four kids back to the buses. The teacher took a look at me and asked how it had gone. I rolled my eyes and mentioned the ordeal this kid had put me through. She laughed and said, "Oh that’s why I put XXXX in “your” group - I knew you could handle him! ACK! </p>
<p>The kid grew up to be a delightful young man and still remembers that day just as well as I do!!</p>
<p>D wanted to have her 14th birthday party as a backyard - BBQ -movie night. Projected the movie on a queen size white sheet tacked to the side of the house. Just too many kids invited – about 35. H & I patrolled the yard like the KGB, with flashlights & good humored jokes. Kids kept wandering off, & I was panicked because I was responsible, so I’d go retrieve them. Like herding cats. Never again!</p>
<p>For my sixth birthday, we invited a crowd of little girls and also my kindergarten boyfriend…let’s call him “Terence.” I was soooooo in love with little Terence. The very best present I got was a tiny, completely realistic gumball machine for my dollhouse, with head-of-a-pin-sized gumballs inside a wee glass globe.</p>
<p>The minute our backs were turned, Terence BIT OPEN that teeny gumball machine to get at the fake miniature gumballs. I was hysterical because (1) my favorite present was destroyed, and (2) my beloved boyfriend had shown himself to be a complete idiot who thought tiny fake gumballs were real and would bite into GLASS to get at them. (By some miracle, he didn’t cut his mouth open.) My mother had to entertain my friends by playing the piano for the rest of the party because I was crying upstairs and wouldn’t come back down.</p>
<p>Yeah, luckily that was it for me & Terence, because my mom was not going to have that child in her house again.</p>