Birthday Parties

[Deyo]

Have not seen any guidelines for being at birthday parties and was wondering what everyone thinks about them.  

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

I'm not sure what the official legion line is, but our Garrison doesn't do them as a general rule.

 

Outside of the legion what you choose to do is you business but I'd recommend against it. 

 

You'll be surrounded by dozens of children, hyped up on sugar and probably unable to listen to instructions.  They will be super excited for 10-15 mins then you risk becoming a target.  Also the children and even parents won't have any knowledge for the care and expense in the costume and my be surprised by the cost of any damage caused as "it's just some plastic".

Edited April 19, 2018 by themaninthesuitcase

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Chris is SPOT-ON, Drew.  The kids are super excited to see you... for about the first 10 minutes.  After all the parents have taken their photos, the kids will either ignore you completely or consider themselves youngling Jedi masters and make you the perfect practice target for their plastic light sabers, while the parents just stand there and say  "Awwww, isn't that cute".

 

Unless you have a handler, I personally would advise against it.

 

What you do with your armor is up to you, but 99.9% of kid's birthday parties are not approvable for trooping unless they make a donation to charity.

 

 

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Our garrison doesn't do birthday parties either... we have enough events to fill the calendar without having to deal with the pitfalls Joseph and Chris have already mentioned.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Yeah, I agree.  I know some people like doing birthday parties, but after doing 2 I will never do another one for the reasons cited.

For instance it's a lot to go and suit up for just a quick 15 minute or so troop.  Usually the kids move on after that.  One time we were asked to be nerf targets, and I got damage to my armor as a result of all the abuse.

But, I know guys who love it, so to each their own.

[sharkbait[TK]]

As a Squad (and now me as Squad Leader) it was decreed that we generally don't do them, same with weddings, etc.  There's a case-by-case basis, if one comes in for a kid that's in Make-a-Wish territory, or something to that effect, then we'll look at our schedule and consider it based on the request's specific circumstances.  

 

I'm not personally a fan of birthday parties, for reasons listed above, and captive audiences tend not to be the best for us anyway, plus the potential abuse, length (too short or too long), and all sorts of other little details.  Our Squad is also crazy busy (40+ events a year), so we have plenty troops to attend and even more than we can handle at times as is, so adding private events to the mix would just be asking for headache and trouble.  

 

Now if a member has a family member or friend who they want to grace that family/friend's birthday party or wedding with their armored presence, I don't personally have any issue, so long as everyone knows it's strictly unofficial (we don't wear our colors, primarily).  And if it's one of our own's birthday or wedding, we'll do it.  (I suited up with a handful of others for a fellow Squad member's wedding and did a photo shoot and interacted with other wedding guests, it was great fun, because it was one of our own and I was a guest at the wedding already.) 

 

It also came up that we had offers of charity donations in lieu of payment, and my command team and I ultimately decided a private party charity donation for our appearance was still at its heart a private event, and we wanted to draw a line and stick to it to avoid confusion and muddying the waters, so we don't do that.  I had a email run in with a disgruntled bridezilla with that decision.  

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Good call on the Make-A-Wish scenario, Rebecca.  In cases like that I would be more than willing to be human pinata.

 

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

I think we have done some MAW birthdays but generally these looked to be smaller events, but I've not personally done one so couldn't be sure.

[svache[501st]]

 

 

 

It also came up that we had offers of charity donations in lieu of payment, and my command team and I ultimately decided a private party charity donation for our appearance was still at its heart a private event, and we wanted to draw a line and stick to it to avoid confusion and muddying the waters, so we don't do that.  I had a email run in with a disgruntled bridezilla with that decision.  

That's if they even follow up on their pledge to donate. Plenty of people make the promise but never actually follow up on it.

 

Personally I wish it was a Legion standard to no longer do them. I feel they're nothing but a pain, even more since I'm also the GEC, GCR and GWM, and have to deal with them every step of the way.

 

You won't see me do them, it's a standard no, and a maybe if it's for friends/family (MAW is considered charity and a totally different thing imho). To me, personally, it feels like we're a cheap substitute for the birthday clown at those events. Eveb more when it's a first bday event, which imho is totally pointless for the kiddo, with those events we're only there for the parents' enjoyment.

 

 

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[daryldoak[TK]]

We do lots of birthday parties in my garrison.  They are usually short troops and normally have a large charitable donation.  

[Caligari[TK]]

On 4/20/2018 at 9:29 PM, daryldoak said:

We do lots of birthday parties in my garrison.  They are usually short troops and normally have a large charitable donation.  

We have a fair amount of birthday and wedding troops in our garrison too.  Maybe folks are more well behaved in the PNW, haha.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Probably done roughly 12 in my time, each one is a little different, really depends how much sugar the younglings have. I have been at one that I was almost asleep in my armor to the complete opposite and have every opening between my armor probed by plastic light sabers. Don't always rely on parents to save you either, their just happy their screaming younglings are being entertained  .

 

We normally suggest a donation to a charity of their choice or if they don't have one we have our preferred list they can choose from.

 

Always amazes me though, it seems that it is always those that are battling that don't have much that put on the best show for you kids, they also amazingly donate the largest amount.

 

I went to one birthday in an exclusive area where all the parents had high quality costumes, there was a giant R2 cake, star wars cup cakes, an open bar, multiple entertainers, everything a youngling could ever want, YET they gave the smallest amount to charity, we won't be going back if called upon again