It's no secret that the piñata is back in fashion. Even my local dollar store was carrying them for awhile there but seems to be out of stock at the moment due to overwhelming demand. If you're unfamiliar with the
piñata, you buy the hollow cardboard dinosaur (or other shape) which is covered in lovely crepe paper ruffles, fur or feathers, and then into the hole in the top you fill it with toys and sweets. Next you hang it up at a child's party, blindfold the children, hand them big sticks and ask them to swing at the
piñata and try to break it.Sounds good. And it is. But. Always a but. They're tricky things.
Getting children blindfolded quickly so the action stays fast-paced is tricky. Getting children to safely wield a big stick is tricky. Getting children to swing a big stick at a swinging object hard enough to break it is tricky. Getting children to wait patiently in a line for their turn, close enough to see what's happening, but far enough out of the way that they don't get clobbered by the swinging stick, is tricky. Getting children to understand that the free-for-all that takes place when the piñata finally breaks still means they should be kind enough to share their giant scooped up hand full with the child next to them that only scored one trod-on yellow banana is tricky. Lastly, getting children to understand back at home that belting the xxx out of something is only considered a funny-game in the most occasional of circumstances is tricky.
That said, Mimi went to a dinosaur-party recently and had her first ever go at a piñata, as pictured above, and she loved it. She only managed to pick up three fully-formed lolly-bananas, but was content to have been part of the action, and admitted she felt sorry for the kids further back in the line that missed out on having a go.
She also let me in on a secret after the party; "I know for sure what happened to the dinosaurs mom and why they're gone now; they all got caught in a giant snowball and it rolled them all away." It's a theory of extinction I haven't heard before. It sounds good. But tricky.
