I just had to explain to my three-year-old girl that she had to leave the bounce house because “that man says her time was up”, putting her in tears. My five-year-old was more compliant with the instruction.
“That man” was the operator / staffer who also, moments ago, offered to let me pony up another 3 tickets (at $1 / ticket) for another 3 minutes in the bouncehouse. (3 tickets is the gate-fee for using the bounce house)
If you don’t understand why this is a problem, it is likely that you have never taken a young child to a bounce house, which I suspect is most likely the case for the teen-aged operator. The festival, as a whole, was organized by a large group of other youth in his age-group, and for the most part, was done well. But the bouncehouse was clearly not planned by someone who had done proper market research into what their consumers (children ages 2-7, typically, and the parents who bring them) are expecting.
Let me explain: Continue reading





Lately, Sullivan has been a little more difficult when it comes time to go to bed. When he was first born, all it took was a boob and a pacifier. At a couple months, he rejected the pacifier and just wanted a boob. A couple months after that he needed to be rocked to sleep. Last night, and the night before, rocking wasn’t working, and Melissa and I both realized we needed to change strategies.