Experience with Paintball?

[TerryJ2]

I am thinking about having a paintball party at a paintball shop for my difficult child when he turns 11 in Dec.
I just got off the phone with-the owner of a local shop. He he does not recommend mixed age groups. He said if you get hit on bare skin, it hurts, so he recommends long sleeves and long pants with-no skin showing (which implies gloves). He was very honest and said he's had kids get hit once and not want to play any more.
Sigh. At $30 per person, say 10 kids, that's $300 for a "What if?" situation, the way I look at it.

What about Laser Tag?

 

[meowbunny]

Laser Tag a lot less painful! You might want to go and check it out, see what ages play it, etc. What does your son want?

 

[DammitJanet]

Terry...

Where do you live in VA?

Do you live out in the country where you could set up your own paintball course? The reason I ask is because for $300 you could buy a few guns, a ton of paintballs, and a few bails of hay and set them loose. If you get the really cheap guns they are very "soft" and dont shoot as hard as the more powerful guns. Im pretty sure the actual shop you are talking about has good guns. My boys had both types and we started off with the cheapies.

Now lazer tag is fun too. Maybe for that age it would be more fun. I cant remember what ages my kids started with the paintball but I know they ended it when Jamie left for boot!

 

[susiestar]

Can't imagine spending that kind of $$ for a kid's party. I thought the fee for a party att he pizza place was too much. But we are very frugal.

Janet had a good idea. Lasertag might also be more interesting.

I certainly would not do this if ALL the kids hadn't previously shown they enjoy paintball. Even my husband says paintball is a pretty painful hobby.

Is there anything else you could do with them?

Maybe take them all to a movie and then to get ice cream? We had a 10th birthday party the day a movie came out. With 6 kids and 4 adults, popcorn, took cake in and had it at tables at teh theatre before the movie, all was less than $100. Matinee movie of course.

Susie

 

[neednewtechnique]

Something else I have seen done, and it kind of goes along the lines of a "do-it-yourself" thing... go to the sporting goods store in the painball section and they have those big poofy balls that hold paint, and a few tin buckets and some brightly colored paint. These are balls they can dip in the bucket and throw at each other instead of shooting. Plus, if they are thrown, they can be picked back up later in the game, re-dipped and thrown again in case a child finds themself "out of ammo"...lol. You really can set up a course like this for pretty cheap, again, only a few hay bales, some tin buckets, a few gallons of paint and some poofy balls. (Tennis balls work too... and are cheaper than the poofs).

 

[Kjs]

We set up bales of hay, and at the sports store (Dicks) they have cardboard cutouts of deer and other animals cheap. We set them all up throughout our backyard. There was no shooting each other. Those paintballs can really leave some nasty bruises.
Especially if difficult child learns he can freeze them and really cause pain.

We have a nice size yard, not huge..but neighbors garages all are within shooting distance. If they get someones garage..they must go wash it off. Also, we only have one neighbor with children. They have a wooded privacy fence, but when we did this we asked them to let us know if the kids would be outside, we would not be shooting the guns at that time.

Tonight..difficult child is at an xbox360 party with the new HALO3. 4 xbox's, 4 games, and 16 kids. What a nice mother!!! And of all those kids, mine is the only one who offered to bring food and drinks. So...Mountain Dew and chips. Should keep them pretty wound up!!! Luckily we live 4 houses down, so we told difficult child he can come home at any hour. Does not need to stay all night, as they tend to not sleep, and difficult child really tries to stay up, but just can't.

 

[DammitJanet]

My kids never froze them and they all dressed up in either coveralls and jackets or double pants and jackets. Goggles are a must.

We have about 2 cleared acres of "play" area plus some wooded land that the kids could romp through and play army. All total we have 8 acres but we only use about 3. The rest is dense woods. We have cleared out the front part of the woods for use. The kids hid in there and shot around trees and hid behind them.

They had a great time and this was a huge past time for several years. I remember one Christmas when the boys got guns and they (and their friends) were all out in the fields for hours.

 

[Abbey]

Paintball is VERY expensive. Trust me...my easy child is totally into it, until we started making him pay for the replacement parts on the gun, as well as the balls. And yes...they DO hurt. :surprise:

Three hundred dollars for a kid party? I guess I'm old fashioned. I'd find something more homegrown for them to do.

Abbey

 

[DDD]

My easy child/difficult child completely enjoyed it the two times he attended parties
with paintball as the theme. One was at a big facility near
Tampa and there were twenty boys and Dads...they all had a ball.
The other was in an orange grove locally and one (yep, ONE) kid
just had to deliberately shoot other kids from too close a range.
He shot booties and backs and caused alot of bruises and actual
tears from some of the macho thirteen year olds.

Personally I was really glad that easy child/difficult child didn't fall in love
with the game. on the other hand, he did really enjoy it when it was well
supervise. DDD

 

[susiestar]

Just had a neat thought - with the "poofy balls" and the paint you could give each kid a NEW tshirt or sweatshirt (weather depending) and have them throw the things at each other. The shirt would be their party souvienir. have to make sure the paint would stain the fabric, but I can't imagine it wouldn't. If not, use food coloring in water maybe.

jsut a thought. I know that kind of thing would go over with some of my kids friends, esp if the party had a name and date written on it (Sharpies are good for this, more expensive fabric markers don't necessarily last any longer).

Susie

 

[TerryJ2]

Hmm. The new shirt as a party souvenir is a good idea ... and my son already suggested doing it at home. We have almost 4 acres, but the house is right in the center. I think setting up bales of hay is a good idea.
I'll check out laser tag, too.
That's why I start this stuff waaaay in advance ... I never know where I'll end up.
And I think $300 is pretty steep. I'd rather save it for my easy child's HS grad party.

 

[DammitJanet]

4 acres even with the house in the center is fine. Get you some pallets, bales of hay, old plywood or sheetrock, and set up forts and breaks so that kids can hide behind them. Put flags on poles at each end and make the object of the game for each team to capture the other teams flag. When each team gets the other teams flag they get a prize. That way they have to work together to make it to the other side.

You can also set up targets on plywood and have the kids target practice and have prizes for who makes the best shots. Kind of like paint ball turkey shoots. As far as making shirts, you could get an iron on bulls eye target and put it on each shirt and then have them shoot the shirts while they are clipped on a board. Get multi colored paint balls.

 

[busywend]

I just spent $300 for the first time ever on difficult children sweet 16 party. We rented a cabin and made all the food ourselves. But, it still was expensive!

She also refused to invite friends because it ended at 10:45 (the time the park closed). So, it was just family.

So, I spent all that time and energy and $$$ for her to claim I ruined her birthday anyway. Never again will I attempt to make this child's day - any day!

 

[TerryJ2]

Ew. So sorry, Wendy. It really makes you shake your head and wonder why you try, doesn't it? But you can have a clear conscience.

One Christmas, difficult child tore through 80 kazillion presents (incl those that were shipped from out-of-state) and kept asking for more, more more! When he finished his feeding frenzy, he yelled, "Is THAT all?" I leaped off the couch and nearly went for his throat but husband intervened. ARrrrrrgh!