I do facepainting on the weekends. It allows me to hang out with my husband who is a magician and balloon artist.(http://www.balloonsbyjon.com/). It also gives me a chance to observe children and parents together.
I learn a great deal at birthday parties.
Yesterday was awesome.
This party had a petting zoo and bounce house in addition to our entertainment. The moms and some of the kids played outside with the pigs and goats while the other children and their fathers were inside with the balloons and facepainting.
I must share: At many of the parties, I notice that the dads are usually busy talking "dad talk", and sneaking out of the room to watch the game. This generally leaves the young children in line by themselves.
Not here.
These dads stayed with their children, and seemed to genuinely enjoy their company.
A 2 year old boy, looking at the pictures of facepainting options, pointed to the face of flowers. I half-expected dad to suggest the spider man or dragon, but this dad simply asked "what color flowers, bud?"
Another dad, noticing that his 3 year old daughter was scared, quickly asked her if she would let him go first. As I was painting a soccer ball on dad's face, he made comments like, "wow this is kind of tickly, but it's okay", and gave his daughter the thumbs up sign. It worked. She hopped up on the chair when he was done, and told me her face was "tickly." :)
One dad asked his son if he wanted to have matching pirate faces.
But that's not all I saw.
The children were happy and well behaved. They waited nicely for their turn and they even thanked me when they were done. Jon told me he had a similar experience, too.
Hmmm....the children who were given attention and time were the best behaved children.
Go figure...
