The morning after my daughter's 4th birthday, a baseball bat to the face woke me up. My daughter, Gwen, broke the bones around my right eye - because her pinata party the day before “was so much fun.”
While recovering, I discovered pinata related violence is common, and goes virtually unreported! I decided I had to do something.
A friend built me this site so I could tell my story and warn unsuspecting parents that the gift of a pinata has a darker, violent side. Read more about the aftermath in “My Story.”
My daughter went to a birthday party today - and what a surprise - there was a pinata. Naturally, I didn’t let her play and discretely told some of the parents I didn’t know what happened to me. The hostess was…less than sympathetic. In fact, she even thought it would be fun to “pretend” to swing the pinata bat at me and encouraged the other gueests to tease me about it. Needless to say my daughter will no longer be playing with her daughter…
And I am still having problems with my eye. The doctor says the damage may be permanent.
My daughter Gwen still feels horrible about it and we’re thinking about getting her counseling.
A reader just sent me a report about a masked robber who held up an ethnic foods store in Hudson, Wisconsin, stealing over 40 pinatas. The robber forced Arturo Gomez, the store clerk, to load the pinatas into the back of his truck at shotgun point. The remains of the pinatas were later found near a popular hunting spot, riddled with shotgun pellets and surrounded by beer bottles.
Gee, a pinata lover who holds people up at shotgun point…
Instead of buying and bashing in a pinata you buy from a local tienda, why don’t you and your kids have a pinata making party? Paper mache is a great kids activity, each kid can have a pinata of their own to take home and be proud of, and the candy kids usually get by destroying a pinata can be given out as prizes for making the pinatas. Think of fun categories like “most colorful” or “craziest animal!”
Click here for a great website with instructions on how to make your own pinatas in paper mache.
