I finally broke down and did something I swore I would never do.  I took my kids to Chuck E. Cheese.  That place has been known to send me screaming in the opposite direction.  I always got visions of snotty, sick, rude little kids running around crazy.  And pizza that was best described as being cardboard.

The whole constitution just made me cringe, but my daughter’s friends parents took their kids and told her all about it.  The outcome was that my daughter became obsessed.  It was sort of pathetic.  Every commercial, sign, or piece of mail dedicated to Chuck was accompanied with a, “Oh mommy please!?”  So I bit the bullet and took the kids.  Actually, we took the kids.  I made sure Big Daddy came too.  I wasn’t doing this alone.

Amazingly, it was not as awful as I thought it would be.  Our local joint was clean (I cannot express how surprised I was to find that was the case!) and well supervised.  Not only was there ample parental supervision but Chuck E. Cheese employees were present making sure everyone played nice.  There were mostly smiles and happy kids.  Before heading out we went online to their website and found some decent coupons so the whole trip for our family was only $20.  That landed us a pizza, some drinks, and more than enough tokens for about two hours of play time.

The pizza was much better than I ever remember it being, definitely edible.  Apparently they just did a new menu overhaul.  It was a perfectly decent family day out. I would still prefer a picnic or museum trip, but it sure made my kids happy.  So if you are like me and run at the sound of “A kid can be a kid” I urge you to give it another shot.

-Stephanie Wright