I don’t have children….but as I have aged into the crotchedy old millennial I am, I have gained friends with children. This is a fairly new thing for me. And recently for the first time, I was invited to a child’s birthday who was not related to me in anyway. Then…the most unprecedented thing happened. I said yes! I will go to that two year-old’s party on a pirate ship. So….then I went and I learned some things. Here are ten things that I learned.

1. Pirate Ships (and other children’s parties, especially when the child is younger) have alcohol. So that’s something to think about.
2. I like dressing up always. If its a theme party, why not dress up? Who says that kids are the only ones that get to wear fun clothing and be adorable?
3. Pirate costumes look very similar to biker gang costumes.
4. The children will play with one another and activities will be geared towards entertaining them. I don’t know why I thought I would have to like go on a treasure hunt or something along side the children.

5. Pinatas and small children are adorable, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time for them to break them open.

6. I also realized that pinatas aren’t great for that whole concept related to ” Bobbi, we don’t pick up and eat them from off the ground.” Pinatas are such a specific exception to that rule. One of the very young kiddos started to pick up candy and little pieces of trash to put in their goody bag and their parents did a nice job of being like “no, not that…get that one…no baby, stop, that’s trash.”

7. Sometimes, if someone offers you help…even if you don’t like it… you gotta take it. We spent forever driving around trying to find a parking space (prob like 10 minutes). About ten minutes before the pirate ship was supposed to leave, my partner volunteered to drop me off and he would continue to drive around in hopes of finding a spot. This way, at least I was on the ship when it sailed away. I did not like this idea at all! But I took what was offered, because he had a point and we did not drive two hours for neither of us to be on that boat. When I waited near the boat, I felt less stressed, because I knew I would be on the boat if nothing else. But he ended up making it back before the boat left! And we got to be pirates together! It was a good reminder. Sometimes, I tend to forget…when someone is offering something, they are trying to help me. They are not obligated or burdened. They are doing it, because they care about me and want to help.

8. Watching children eat cupcakes is one of the purest simple joys a person can experience. All their little frosting faces were adorable.

9. I can’t do a classic duck face. After several iterations of trial and error, I realized all my duck faces look like fish faces. I guess, I can accept that about myself. Plus, I was at an aquarium making faces at a duck, so maybe a fish face was more appropriate...

10. And the biggest one! I shouldn’t stop myself from going to kid’s parties just because I don’t have kids. It was so enjoyable just to talk the other adults, watch the little ones run around, and eat my pizza and cupcake. Honestly, I was so worried about what it was gonna “look like” or if it would be weird and should have been more focused on thinking about my friend and wanting to be there because I love her and her little pirate.