Observing at Monkey Joe's

Observing kids at Monkey Joe’s, a party/ play space with roughly 10 bouncy slides, castles, and mazes, is a bit like watching kids in the thrall of legal drug usage. Monkey Joe’s is a warehouse size space decorated in vibrant yellow, purple, and greens with cartoon monkeys on every surface. There are chairs and tables in several central areas and party rooms for birthdays on the side wall. In the front of the space, by windows overlooking the parking lot, is a lounge of black leather chairs around a large flat screen TV and several computer workstations with free wifi. There are signs everywhere advertising the special chemicals used to sanitize the bouncers to make them “99.9%” germ free. They’ve clearly learned in this space, that to make parents happy as well as the kids is the key to return customers. Because, after all, it’s the parents who pay the bill.

The kids are so overwhelmed by the size of the warehouse space, the vibrant colors, and the constant hum of the blowers keeping the bouncers inflated they’re not sure where to go first. The first bouncer is a obstacle course of sorts with 3 climbing ridges culminating in a slide. This leads them to the back of the space where a giant enclosed bouncy space with sports balls and hoops are inside. The children need no encouragement to bounce higher to attempt to make baskets. They run around and around the enclosure bounding, rolling, galloping, and running into each other in a mindless frenzy. The seem to feel no pain when they collide, the adrenaline is so powerful in their system now they just jump right back up, completely oblivious to the inconvenience.

Soon, like any drug, the children begin to come down off their high and aren’t sure what to do with themselves. There are so many options, so many good things, they don’t know what to possibly chose. They start to get confused, which one should they try next, should they run, should they climb? Some start to get ravenous for lunch, their little metabolisms hard at work. Some get close to admitting defeat and say, “I’m tired”. Their sweaty foreheads are matted with damp hair and their sock feet are clammy. This is how you know its time to go, time for detox.