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Spring Break is always a little bitter sweet around my house. Generally, we do not travel for this week of reprieve from school much to the disappointment of the princess. Having limited vacation days from my job playing with money, I choose to save them for other occasions. This being said, what does the princess do for fun where there is not school for an entire week?
Luckily for me, MFH was available for fun activities Monday through Thursday and I was able to take Friday off work entirely. Now, we had a good plan for the first few days. MFH took the kids to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, she planned crafts, the kids had a party and they had a great time.
Now, the big build up was to Friday. We were all to go on an outing together. This would be an end of the week celebration for the children and a bit of fun for MFH who had to entertain all 4 children by herself for the week. Everybody was excited and looking forward to our event at Dave and Busters. Only the oldest of the children had ever been before when she visited recently for a birthday party.
We expected an arcade atmosphere with a restaurant and fun times. What we got was a kiddy casino with a bar. As soon as you enter the front door, BAM, there’s the bar. Now, to be fair, food is also served in this location, but by no means does that mean it is a family themed restaurant. Also immediately noticeable are the noise and neon lights. At this point all 4 girls are chomping at the bit, ready to go have fun. The grownups on the other hand are negotiating the menu of entertainment options available for the day.
We finally settle on a package that we find to be reasonable. For all of the girls, we would get a $25 card for the afternoon of entertainment. We were assured by the attendant that this card would be at least 2 hours of fun filled entertainment for the girls.
Imagine our surprise an hour later when we were already in the “gift shop” exchanging our tickets for low value prizes. (I am reluctant to use the word “crap” to describe the selection, but not sure why.) We just spent an hour chasing around girls from one machine to another in pursuit of the coveted prize tickets. Now, surrounded by the “prizes,” I am wondering why kids are so drawn to this place that is so clearly designed for grownups.
Finally, I realized it is a casino.
The sounds are exactly the same as when the adults go play slot machines on the local riverboat casino. The chance to get prize tickets is overwhelming for a child in the way that grownups wait for the jackpot at the slot machine. They suckered me into training my child for her opportunity for recreational gambling. We only played games that involved a ticket prize and we kept spending our credits on the machines we thought would give us the most payback for playing.
Lesson learned, I will research the location prior to promising the children that we can attend. And, I will never take my child to a casino again. I think I’ll let her figure the odds on black jack when she turns 21. By then, at least she’ll understand the math behind the situation.
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My name is Mom. I live in Fairy Tale Land with a Pirate, a Fairy and the Princess. My job duties include: head cook, Chief Executive of Laundry Operations, Vacuum Maintenance Engineer, Chief of Picking up Random objects and Primary Sherpa. I spend a great deal of time carrying sparkly, sequined, glitter covered tutus and miscellaneous dance shoes for the Princess. I long for moments of quiet and a mani/pedi. Trying to strike a balance between being a grown up and being a good mom.
[...] it turns out, Dave & Busters = casino, not arcade. Quarters? Oh, heck no! They’ll take $20s, if you [...]