Jocelyn Rivas
Professor Pappas
English 101
10 December 2018
A Child’s World
Children enjoy spending time at parks and arcades, where they can play games and run around as much as they’d like. An arcade is visually appealing by being full of a different array of colors and games that light up. Chuck E. Cheese is full of little kids, which I imagine are between the ages of about two and ten. In a place roaming with children, I expect chaos. Even at grocery stores, I see kids throwing fits over things like a candy bar. Children tend to get upset when they don’t get what they want.
In the plaza that is home to Chuck E. Cheese, the buildings hug each other and are all relatively short in stature. As I push the door open and step onto the carpet composed of red, dark green and a mixture of tan and brown, a young lady smears a stamp across my hand which is only visible when hit by light. It’s very bright inside, the only dim area is the stage, all the way in the back, where Chuck E. Cheese and other of his “friends” are singing. None of the kids seem to be over there watching, in fact, they walk by without looking at the stage. They’re more focused on the games. The walls are different colors, one is purple, some are yellow, and the rest are beige. The purple wall has three pictures hanging from it. Under the images of smiling children, the words are “family,” “celebration,” and “winning.
To the left stands the menu to order food and all the prizes kids can get based on how many tickets they won. The larger prizes are on the wall and mostly consist of huge stuffed animals. Some of the stuffed animals are replicas of Chuck E. Cheese. The smaller prizes are behind a glass screen and include candy, mostly Airheads, a miniature deck of cards, and bracelets that only come in two colors, pink and purple. All of the games are to the right of the registers and from where I stand, I see bowling, basketball and soccer among many others. It’s rather empty compared to the crowds of people I thought would be here. To my surprise, there isn’t much noise. I notice that the group of little kids walking past me are wearing Converse, Nike, and Vans. To my left, there’s a blond lady in a burgundy flannel that is recording her grandson. The little boy is on the white horse, watching the screen in front of him. She keeps saying, “Look at me! Look over here!” but he is extremely intrigued by the screen that is an animation of someone riding a horse.
A very young mother is leaning on a flat surface behind her son, on her phone, as he made a desperate attempt at shooting the aliens in the “Alien Extermination” game. She would look up once in a while but went right back to her phone every time. Her son didn’t really know how to play the game at first but he seemed to have figured it out at some point.
Some kids are wandering around the arcade alone, with no adult paying attention to them. There is a boy in a striped red and black long sleeve that just maneuvers his way from game to game as he pleases. He seems a bit bored and at times doesn’t appear to know where he wants to go.
Some parents were very interested in what their children were doing and even encouraged them. There were two woman accompanying a little boy at the game called “Simpsons Soccer.” When the game begins, Homer Simpson circles around in front of the white net as a child tries to score a goal by making the ball past him and into the net. Both women cheered him on when he made a goal. They kept saying “good job, that’s it!” The boy would slightly turn back to look at the women with a face composed of nothing but excitement.
The mother that was the most involved in the activities her child was doing had a tan cardigan and high black boots on. I watched her play with her daughter and in one instance she was sitting on the green surface of the carousel ride, watching and laughing with her daughter as she was on “Jet Rider.” In this game, there really isn’t any goal but rather to enjoy the chair moving and vibrating to give the child in the seat the effect of being in the sky on a jet. It reminds of the feature in the horse ride where the screen is in front of the child so that they can feel as if they’re actually taking part in the activity they’re doing. Another time, I saw this mother help her daughter shoot baskets in the kiddie basketball area. They were playing together.
A characteristic I can attribute to all children is how easy it is for them to make friends. There was a little boy that was following my brother around and they ended up playing games together. Whenever I went with my brother to another game, the boy would follow but a few seconds later, his mother would say, “Sorry about that, Michael come over here.” I made it very clear that there was absolutely no need to apologize. I was glad my brother made a new friend to play with, he might even enjoy his company more than mine since I’m much older. Kids enjoy playing with others and just want to have fun.
Chuck E. Cheese has seating areas for families to eat. The table is grey, the side of the seats is turquoise, the top half of the seat is red with two yellow dots that resemble buttons, while the bottom half is the exact same color as the table, grey. There is a man with his daughter at one table. He is on his phone while his daughter is aimlessly looking around, seeming unamused. At another table, there’s a lady with her two grandkids. The grandkids are talking to each other while the grandmother pays no attention to them because she is on her phone.
My preconception of categorizing kids as causing unnecessary scenes and being obnoxious was clearly not displayed at Chuck E. Cheese. The children were truly enjoying themselves in the arcade. Whether they were with their parents or with anyone else did play a role with how much they enjoyed their stay. Those surrounded and cheered on by family had a much better experience as they looked forward to the parent saying things to encourage them to continue playing.