Pinatas

No offense to those who have pinatas at birthday parties, especially Cindy for yesterday's pinata. But after experiencing another pinata game, Tom and I decided we probably won't be having pinatas at our kids' birthday parties.

So Tobey got his first whack ;-) at a pinata game at Zachary's party. The little kids got to go first and Tobey got to see some of the little little ones try to hit the pinata so he kind of got the idea. Then it was his turn. I don't know whether to be proud or embarassed but with each hit he took, he looked at me for a sign of approval before he took his next swing. He was the ONLY one -- should I be proud that he had an inkling he was doing something he usually isn't allowed to do? Or am I overbearing that he has to seek approval to do what seemed obviously permissible at the time?

When it got to the bigger kids ("big" meaning 6 or 7 years old), they were really taking big hits. Granted it was a fire engine to it needed big hits to finally break but it didn't take the imagery of dismembering an animal to get the sense that things were getting violent. The two big kids who took turns trying to finally break the pinata seemed to really want to break it, so they took increasingly big swings, without regard to how close the onlookers were. The circle of spectators was getting bigger and bigger (or should I say further and further away); Tom even waved me to take Tobey back further out of fear that if one of them lost grip of the stick, it could seriously hurt someone. If it weren't for the Lu's humongous foyer, we would have all been more in danger. It also seemed unnatural that everyone was cheering, "Hit it! Hit it!", as if we were Roman citizens at a gladiator match.

Finally, the part of the pinata that I never liked: diving for treats. I think the first time I saw this was at Paris' first birthday where there were some older kids, including Maya. When the pinata treats came snowing down on the carpet, the kids turned from violent batters to greedy scavengers all crawling around the floor grabbing. It was a scary sight. The scene wasn't quite as crazy at Zachary's birthday party because the average kids' age was younger. But I hate to see the scrounging and yet at the same time, I didn't want Tobey to miss out on some of the little toys just because he looked on at everyone in confusion (he probably looked on because this was his first time but also because he's usually an observer, not the kind to just jump in). So I found myself helping to point out a whistle, a puzzle, a bracelet that he could pick up and put in his goodie bag. He seemed as confused as I was torn at encouraging the involvement in the grabbing.

I guess I'd let Tobey take part in the pinata at other kids' parties if he wanted to. But otherwise, I don't really feel the need to encourage him to do it.