In life you have to make sacrifices for your kids, and sometimes that involves sitting in the corner of a party for three hours with a smile welded to your face while a birthday clown entertains them and terrifies you. It’s a kids birthday party, it’s not about me! The fact that years have been shaved off my life and the morning after I found several new grey hairs is inconsequential. My parents made sacrifices for me, and I’m just doing the same, as all parents should.
Still, my daughter’s clown obsession is making me a bit nervous. That is, nervous on a good day; on a bad day I’m a terrified wreck. I didn’t even know that clowns still did that stuff. I found out a lot of things by taking a walk around Campbelltown. Kids party venues are a lot more elaborate than I remember when I was young. I found the perfect place to host Neri’s birthday party. She said that we absolutely had to have a clown come to the venue and do some…clown things. I know this was coming, of course. She painted a giant clown face on her bed’s headboard and now I’m a little bit afraid to go in there. The 20+ clown dolls don’t help either. I was hoping that I wouldn’t be able to find a birthday clown since they’ve long gone extinct (much like dinosaurs, and other things that are a clear and present threat to the human race), but there are a few still around. Great! I booked one to come to the party, with the same mindset as a person with a severe phobia of snakes booking a snake charmer. At least birthday party venues are bright and colourful to set you at ease, but I still spent the whole party pressed against the corner, trying to suppress my urge to either jump out the window or scoop up my child while performing a roundhouse kick.
Just kidding, I’m not that brave. But I DO want to know where Neri got this clown obsession. I know pretty much all the indoor play centres open near Campbelltown and the surrounding areas, I’ve attended many parties of her friends, and none of them have had clowns. I’m just terribly lucky that MY child is obsessed with them. Great.
-Faye
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