Tiring out children
Last Sunday, we engaged in that well-known business practice Exploit The Children Of Your Staff. Our office manager and our booking person (plus husband) turned up with their kids and a couple of extra kids at N&M's place to model photos for our website. There the kids were dressed up in ancient and medieval costumes, in armour with weapons, they were put in stocks, were "whipped" and "branded" and were generally used and abused for the purpose of showing off the fun stuff children get to play with and do when you hire us.
Their rewards were -- apart from dressing up in costumes, in armour with weapons, being put in stocks, being "whipped" and "branded", which they all thought great fun -- being fed mini muffins and donuts, playing with the piano (they spontaneously played the piano, it was so cute) and getting to belt up some mug in armour.
Which would have been me, as my armour is prettier and more photogenic than N's. So a series of children from about 6 to about 12 had lots of fun trying to whack me. They did enjoy it.
It was an extremely good-humoured (if tiring) day. The report back was the kids all had a great time, but essentially did not speak at all on the trips home, they were that tired out.
This being the first couple of weeks of term, we have not had many bookings. The school on Friday was Catholic Regional College at Dandenong. It is the sort of school experience that makes one feel good about this country. The school is highly multi-racial, yet that did not affect the school dynamics (i.e. friendship/social groups clearly operated non-racially), the students were helpful and even when they rose to the level of cheekiness, there was no malice in it. While waiting in the car for N to contact the teachers, we noticed the car that pulled up next to us had a bouncing Jesus on its dashboard. I also noticed that the middle-aged man who got out was carrying what was fairly clearly his priest's robe over his arm. A priest with a bouncing Jesus on his dashboard did rather fit in with the "vibe" of the school.
Their rewards were -- apart from dressing up in costumes, in armour with weapons, being put in stocks, being "whipped" and "branded", which they all thought great fun -- being fed mini muffins and donuts, playing with the piano (they spontaneously played the piano, it was so cute) and getting to belt up some mug in armour.
Which would have been me, as my armour is prettier and more photogenic than N's. So a series of children from about 6 to about 12 had lots of fun trying to whack me. They did enjoy it.
It was an extremely good-humoured (if tiring) day. The report back was the kids all had a great time, but essentially did not speak at all on the trips home, they were that tired out.
This being the first couple of weeks of term, we have not had many bookings. The school on Friday was Catholic Regional College at Dandenong. It is the sort of school experience that makes one feel good about this country. The school is highly multi-racial, yet that did not affect the school dynamics (i.e. friendship/social groups clearly operated non-racially), the students were helpful and even when they rose to the level of cheekiness, there was no malice in it. While waiting in the car for N to contact the teachers, we noticed the car that pulled up next to us had a bouncing Jesus on its dashboard. I also noticed that the middle-aged man who got out was carrying what was fairly clearly his priest's robe over his arm. A priest with a bouncing Jesus on his dashboard did rather fit in with the "vibe" of the school.