I have thus far in my parenting career managed to avoid Chuck E. Cheese. As someone who wants to run screaming out of the local public pool (the noise! the smell of chlorine! the constant frantic need to protect your babies from certain watery death!), Chuck E. Cheese with three little boys, well ... whoops, how did I lose that invitation?!? It turns out my instincts are shared by others, who are, perhaps, less willing to dispense with social graces and their children's begging and pleading.As the Wall Street Journal reports today: Chuck E. Cheese birthday parties have been known to get a little out of hand. So out of hand, in fact, that the restaurant has begun to give up liquor licenses in some restaurants, and post armed security guards in others. In Brookfield, Wis., the Chuck E. Cheese gets way more calls than the biker bar down the street, according to the town's police chief. Typical of the fare: adults have too much to drink and one parent decides someone else's child is hogging a machine, voicing their complaints in loud and unsavory language. Next, here comes mama bear (or, upon occasion, papa) to protect his, or her, babe. One fight involved 40 people slinging punches and insults.
The truth that emerges from this collection of police reports: combine family events, alcohol and a limited amount of resources (game machines) and you send your clientele back to the Dark Ages. I wouldn't be surprised if many wedding venues catering to a similar cross-section of Americans as Chuck E. Cheese were to experience equally astonishing displays of bad behavior. You can't choose your family. But you can choose whether to invite them to a party that mixes drunkenness with your baby girl's big day.
Now, you'll have to excuse me while I write a business plan for the next great frontier in American entertainment: Cosmos-n-Bullseyes. It's a shooting range with cocktail waitresses! Booking weddings for 2010.
Facebook's IPO Debacle, Day 3: Un-Friended and Dis-Liked on Wall…
What Happened When Alex Kenjeev Paid His Student Loan in Cash


Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
12-09-2008 @ 10:37PM
comfort241 said...
notice who was doing all the fighting......thats right...the blacks...typical
12-09-2008 @ 10:37PM
Regan said...
wow. how pathetic. is this what the world has come to? A kid's place, serving alchohol to adults, completely unaware of the ridiculously stupid mistake they are making. I've hated C.E.C's from the beginning, and always will. The germs, the adults, the overall environment. I cannot say this, of course, for any other C.E.C's, but the one in my area was horrible. Thank goodness they knocked it down years ago. I am amazed with all of the complaints and fighting and stupidity going on in those places that the entire company has not been shut down. Oh, and what in the world does the new president have to do with this? leave the man alone, he hasn't even stepped one foot into office yet.
12-09-2008 @ 10:38PM
vicki said...
I take my grandson to Chuck E Cheese at least once a week to play. I have NEVER seen a fight. The fight at this Chuck E Cheese is either fake or a fluke. They don't serve alcohol at the Chuck E Cheese in Kansas City.
12-09-2008 @ 10:56PM
Dominick said...
Chucke cheese does have a alchol policy they dont serve to anyone intoxicated and there is a drink limit of two per person .
12-09-2008 @ 10:58PM
Dominick said...
They also got rid of the ball pit in all the location from what i know. it was hard to clean and not safe for the kids.
12-10-2008 @ 12:03AM
sara said...
What kind of degenerates live near THIS Chuck E Cheese? lol We don't serve booze at any around here, and there are no fights either, what a bunch of jerks. lol
12-10-2008 @ 12:08AM
realist said...
last time there, a group of ignorant ghetto dwellers came in with their brood....the adults were sending their offspring to steal tickets from other children's machines and having the offspring walk up the skeeball ramp and dropping it in the 50 hole to get more tickets......it was total chaos!.....management was a joke.....i had to leave or i would've been arrested.....last time there......EVER!
12-10-2008 @ 12:07AM
Connie said...
What, in the name of all that is Holy, is alcohol doing being served at a children's restarant. I have always wanted to visit to see what it is like. I don't have children so I have been waiting for my 3 nephews to get old enough to take them, but this article has definitely changed my mind.
If I owned a Chunk E Cheese establishment, I sure would not want to live with the thought that some adult brought their children to my establishment, and the parent drank too much and on the way home has a wreck and kills themselves and/or the children and possibly others.
What a way to celebrate a childs birthday or just a days outing. Why do they have to serve alcohol anyway.
I just can't believe what I just read in this article.
12-10-2008 @ 12:17AM
Pastor Rick said...
Dear "SickOfStupidity"
Thanks for writing what I was thinking. You saved me a few minutes :-)
12-10-2008 @ 1:04AM
W T F is wrong with people? said...
Who thought it was a good idea to searve alchohol at Freakin Chuckie Cheese's in the first place????
Hey kids let's all go to Chuckie Cheese's and watch the "adults" get drunk and fight. Remeber, nothing say's Happy Birthday like a trip to jail to bail Dad out........again!!!
They want to serve Beer and Wine at Six Flags over Texas........I can't wait to stand in line for 2 hours for a ride and get puked on by a drunk teenager!!!!! Oh the fun we will have this summer!!
12-10-2008 @ 1:31AM
Jimbo said...
a lesson in reinforcing stereotypes
12-10-2008 @ 2:32AM
HELLGA said...
dianne jenkins: racist white folks think black folks are all ignorant mostly because of their inability to master english. for christ's sake, it's your first language, probably the only one you speak. yet adults can't speak in complete sentences, and really, how hard is it to conjugate the freakin' verb? they think you're ignorant because whenever you open your mouths, you sound like idiots. and when you try to write something serious, it still comes out like ghetto speak.
12-10-2008 @ 2:34AM
Libby said...
Most of these restaurants seem to represent the United Nations. They are mostly gross and dirty, in more ways than one. They cater to the lowest common denominator.
12-10-2008 @ 3:27AM
Patti said...
I've never been to a C E C, but I have friends used to their children there for birthdays.
My friends have mentioned how badly the service and the taste of the pizzas have deteriorated.
At the time, C E C didn't serve alcoholic beverages.
Maybe they started serving drinks so the parents wouldn't notice the low quality of the food and service.
12-10-2008 @ 5:08AM
Wolfster said...
Why is a place aimed solely at kids - meaning if adults didn't have children in tow they would never set foot in the place - be serving alcohol in the first place? If I were a parent, the example for parties I would NOT want to set is - most important detail is that adults be able to get soused.
12-10-2008 @ 5:09AM
susan said...
i had no idea chuck e cheese served booze. i went to one once about 10 years ago (neighbor's kid bday in pensacola) my only complaint is the pizza ain't that good. otherwise, the kids had fun and so did the parents!
12-10-2008 @ 5:59AM
Duh! said...
It's amazing that some people think that all blacks are ghetto and ignorant, yet the country just elected a half black man for president. I guess that makes the people who voted for him (mostly non-black) stupid for voting for an ignorant man. Now of course I'm being facetious, but I just wanted to show how ignorant the thinking is when you generalize and stereotype any group of people. When do we get over this. Our country is in a shambles, and yet we still remain divided. Destruction of a country is so much easier when it is divided, and that we certainly are.
12-10-2008 @ 10:13AM
Debbie said...
Where I live, there are indoor play areas for babies and toddlers on every corner....where the heck are you supposed to take the older kids when it's cold out that's not too expensive ?
I nor any of the parents I know ever drink at CEC and the one in our area is always packed and I've never seen a problem. Although I agree that alcohol shouldn't be served there !