Let me first say that I am not a big fan of screen time. I do believe in a little thing called moderation though. That being said- I was intrigued by a deal that came across my e-mail this morning: A mobile video game truck that can be rented for birthday parties and events.
Sound expensive, but compared to prices I’ve heard people throw out for recent parties for 1-3 yr old kids it’s actually quite reasonable for most people. The typical birthday party would run 2 hrs. Half of that being time to wait for all the guests to arrive, and the time spent eating cake and ice cream and opening presents. These trucks are rented by the hour, so one could be efficiently scheduled for an hour soon after the party is set to begun and still allow plenty of time for cake and presents afterwards. A tweens like candy, so I think I’d just buy a selection of candy bars/candy (mostly free after ECBs at CVS or after Qs elsewhere) and let the kids pick a couple of their way out for goody bags.
I did some swagbucksing (yes, I just came up with that word) and there
are multiple cities with this same sort of thing. A place for 16 kids to play video games and egg cheer each other on- you know how it
is at the video arcade- set up and run by someone other than myself, at my house but not in my house, sounds like a pretty easy and fun party to me.
Today’s deal from the Tyler Paper is renting the Game LAN truck for 1 hr (usually $140) at half price- $70. I think that’s actually a pretty good price for the entertainment for a boy’s party around the age of 10. For this particular deal the certificate has to be used by the end of May, 2011. Not in Tyler? Do a swagbucks search for mobile video game truck and you’ll find numerous other companies in cities across the US providing the same services.