Today was my grandsons birthday party which was held at a local family steak house. This type of venue is ideal as they have a large indoor play area that is monitored. The kids have these electronic wrist bands which sounds an alarm if they happen to walk out the front door. It does not mean you relax your guard but is an added layer of security. There are plenty of weirdos around so you remain vigilant anyway.
This birthday party was slightly different as we had 18 kids and of those 18 kids 16 have special needs. I know most of them having to fetch my grandson from school daily and it is a very different type of experience that is actually very sweet. Once the kids see you they tend to all come to you and it can be a battle to leave with so many holding on to your legs.
I would guess most of the kids are autistic to varying degrees in the spectrum and I noticed today when they play they do not stop like there is no off button. They are just such a happy bunch smiling all the time.
The parents who stayed for the party mentioned they do not get invited to birthday parties very often and for some kids this was their first one. The kids are just seen as different and no one has bothered to get to know and understand them yet they are still kids. One of the kids is not social and apparently does not mix with other kids easily yet after the 3 hour party you would never have known as he was playing with all the other kids. This is I guess helping him progress as his mother was in tears seeing him interact with the other kids and not something she has witnessed before. Maybe we will start to see more birthday parties with these kids as I did not notice any kids with problems.
Special needs could mean so many things with some needs being smaller or less problematic than others. My grandson has very short vision and hopefully technology one day can fix this and then he would be "normal" or more normal whatever that even is. He is not handicapped like some other kids are at his school and why he is more in the remedial section and does schoolwork like any other kid his age is doing in the government and private schools.
One of his school friends who left to attend another school at the beginning of this year came to his party and from what we saw seems to be very happy which is what counts the most. His dad was happy enough to drop him off and come back 3 hours later and was kind of thankful for the break. It was great to see the parents chatting because each kid has some type of specialist needs or similar needs and they can help each other.
The beauty about having a venue for a kids birthday party is you can all leave and there is no mess to clean up afterwards. The total bill was around $250 which for 18 kids and 12 parents who stayed plus our group of 5 adults is cheap considering everyone had something to eat and many drinks over the 3 hour period.