Parents Behaving Badly
Posted by Danielle Bean in News on Saturday, January 10, 2009 3:19 PM
Does the sight of this mouse incite a violent reaction?
I thought about Arwen’s post about noisy toys and how noise can drive parents crazy when I read this article about the problem of escalating violence at Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.
“It’s madness, absolute madness,” Susquehanna Twp. Police Chief Robert A. Martin said.
Martin said he believes much of the violence stems from ongoing disputes among people who bump into each other in the restaurant. ‘They see each other at Chuck E. Cheese, and before you know it an argument turns into something physical.’
The assaults also could be attributed to separated or divorced parents who attend a child’s birthday party, he said. Such was the case in an April 4 incident, when police accused a man of slapping his estranged wife in the head at their child’s party.
The violence at Chuck E. Cheese’s isn’t isolated to the Susquehanna Township restaurant. Last month, the Wall Street Journal published an article about a growing number of adult melees at locations in Brookfield, Wisc.; Topeka, Kan.; Toledo, Ohio; and Flint, Mich.”
When I read this outrageous story, I recognized that these are wildly immature people making very bad decisions. But I couldn’t help but think that the mouse is partly to blame.
Do you go to Chuck E. Cheese? I have never brought my kids to one—mostly because I remember Chuck E. Cheese from my own childhood and I know my grown-up nervous system could not handle the noise and chaos inside.
Haven’t we all found ourselves inside a Chuck E. Cheese and felt like we were going just a little bit crazy?
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