She meant so well for it to go so horribly, DirtDawg. Her intuition is usually so good too.
We got our daughter a Barney pinata for her fourth birthday party and she was very upset that he had to be bashed and broken by the kids to get the candy out. She liked Barney and we thought that a Barney pinata would be cute and funny. It was a learning experience for us, and this is a learning experience for you and your wife.
Piñatas are horrible. I can imagine her reaction to a Barney piñata. I learned very early just from seeing my son's reaction to a Teletubbies spot about a piñata game. We fortunately did not have to learn that one the hard way.
I think that the thing that went wrong today was that her intuition was not in the mix, but her creativity was the main driving force. It seems like what most women do in the presence of some traditional "guy thing." Sports to most women are all the same; guns and war movies, slapstick humor, fast cars, slaying dragons and all the testosterone charged pursuits fall into the same category.
I'm not saying she is a typical woman, because she could NEVER tolerate me if she was. I just see this as that kind of mistake or short sightedness. Any generalization of things one does not understand and anyone is bound to make errors in judgment.
My mom once bought me a baseball glove. We were fairly poor. Not bad, but my folks counted pennies to afford anything special. I wanted to join little league baseball with my friends, so she saved her Green Stamps and so forth and finally got me a glove to use, but it was a first baseman's glove, not a fielder's glove like all the other kids had. She didn't want to get me the cheapest thing, so she got me something in the middle price, not even noticing that there was a huge difference.
It was this same kind of mistake. You want to do you best for your kid and you go all out, without really having a full understanding of what will impress the kid.
Please, don't take any of this the wrong way. She is an awesome woman and I love her forever, but this was not her best day. She's actually finishing up reading and having fun with the birthday boy. I want to go and hold her, because she has had a terribly rough day.
