We held our son's birthday here after a prior great experience..... however this was not in anyway the same.
Upon arrival, we were hastily greeted by a man and woman. As soon as the kids started to arrive the man working immediately speaking to the children in an aggressive manner. He seemed to not want to be there or have to deal with them. He was snapping at the kids, calling them out if they were struggling to listen, they were excited it's a party (they were 5-12). For the first hour he got on his bullhorn to aggressively holler at them. Not once did he say please, did not use any kind of kindness, and asked them repeatedly if they wanted to play because they were wasting their time.
This was my kids birthday with 10 very kind kids. Yes they were excited but they were polite, raised their hands to speak, and were overall being great kids. I'm a teacher, I have no problem stepping in when kids are behaving badly.
They were being very good!
Finally, as I was standing with the other parents who I had just met that day (not the best experience for a first time meeting of parents we will be with for the rest of their schooling) he yelled through the bull horn at the youngest who was less than three feet from him.... Calling him by name "do you want to play? Stop" the kid was looking over the shoulder bc a group of walk in came in and were being loud. A few of the kids were neurodivergent and I'm telling you they were
At that point I went to the woman who was working. I told her that it was unacceptable that he speak this way. The man came over asking if something was wrong. I explained exactly what the issue was and he wanted to argue. I told him there was no point to argue. He was being rude and aggressive towards the children.... I shared I was dissatisfied that I paid hundreds of dollars for a KIDS BIRTHDAY and my guests were being treated this way.
He kept trying to reengage me asking what I expected. I told him what I expected. I expected a fun kids party where the kids were treated with kindness and respect, and his response, "I'm not changing". At this point he looked at my husband who was standing next to me. I looked at this man and said, "why are you looking at him, he isn't going to take your side, you are dealing with me". He tried to defend himself, I told him there was no point continuing, we needed to agree to disagree. The woman took over taking the bull burn and games continued, kids were amazing the only change no one was yelling or talking down to the kids....no yelling.
This man tried again, and said, "what do you want from me". I did not engage and walked back to our guests. They thanked me, and asked if I was ok.
He did not speak to me again.
At the end of the party the woman told me that, "they were working on things". This leads me to believe this is not the first time. She tried defending him, she apologized but it was too little too late. We paid the full price, we cleaned up, and she stated she hoped we gave them another chance.
I told her that we absolutely would not.
My husband later told me that male employee apologized to him, but actively ignored me the rest of the party.
I am writing this because if there is a family out there that is saving up for their kids party, and is looking on how to spend their hard earned money in this economy, I would not want them to be in the position of feeling so saddened by an experience such as this. read more