Attacked by Small Children, Part II

My nephew's birthday party was this past weekend, and he'd chosen Star Wars as a theme for it. My sister got a little creative and made cheap foam light sabers for the kids, so in no time flat there were kids beating the crap out of each other all over the place, mostly in the intended spirit of fun.

The adults were staying out of the fray, for the most part, letting the kids be kids. I was a little concerned because the bulk of the kids had drifted down the long driveway and fairly far from the house, so I grabbed a light saber myself and ambled down to try to herd them back in the right direction.

Some of the kids were getting a little too enthusiastic with their weapons, leaving one on the receiving end in tears (though not actually injured), so I waded in and got between the combatants, using my own light saber to separate them. That might have been a mistake. The entire group turned on me, grinning all the way, including the one in tears. There must have been at least nine of them, including my niece and nephew. In a replay of the "ball incident" of a couple of years ago, I found myself at the center of the attack, trying to fend off the kids by gently tripping them, pulling their weapons out of their hands, and using a saber in each hand myself. I did manage to achieve the effect I wanted, which was to keep the kids from hurting each other and get them moving back toward the house.

After that scrum broke up, there were a couple of other minor incidents between some of the kids (there were simply too many of them for me to keep an eye on all of them at once), and the adults eventually took the light sabers away entirely for a little while. There were a couple of kids in tears at various points, but I knew they were actually okay because the tears dried up and the kids were grinning and back in the fight almost as soon as one of the adults had stepped in.

I have to admit that kids are largely a mystery to me, since I don't have any of my own. I like them and enjoy them, but can't claim I truly understand them at all. Their abrupt mood shifts always surprise me. I do know how to have fun with them, though, and my sister still says she wants to rent me out for parties.