Why did I do this? Why didn’t I just say no? I should have known better, but I let her go anyway.

My youngest daughter is about to turn 5 and is just beginning to get friends of her own after spending years tagging along with her older siblings. She is forever the odd one out and I feel for her. So, she gets an invite to a birthday party at one of my least favorite places in the world - Chuck E. Cheese. Nine times out of ten, I would have been able to find a creative way to not let her go, but this time I was stuck.

Her older sister had been invited to a party for one of her close friends that involved going to the movies two blocks down from CEC. The timing was perfect too. Miss M’s party started before Miss N’s and ended afterwards. What was a mommy to do?

I let Miss N go to the party - armed with wipes to combat the massive germs in that place. The place was packed. They had 6 birthday parties going on at the same time plus the normal Sunday afternoon crowd. Miss N was totally overwhelmed and I was hoping she would ask to leave. But I know this child. She finally had an event to go to without big brother or big sister and with Mom all by herself. It was her friend, her outing and there was no way she was leaving.

I followed her through out the place as we went from game to game, just to find that half of them were out of service. I watched with amazement as kids, who obviously had no supervision, clearly broke every safety rule in the place. Yet, she was going to stick this one out.

Well, we survived the party, but I’m paying the price today. Miss N spent most of last night coughing, thrashing in her bed, running a fever, and miserable. I counted down the minutes until 9 a.m. this morning when I could call the doctor’s office. Thankfully they can see her this morning. There goes my day…