line control

I did a party yesterday and kids were literally crawling in me and it was hard to know who was next. I had someone hello me but it was still to overwhelming haha what do I do? I thought maybe for next time I have a 3 signs with a 1,2,3 on it that the child wears so I know who is next

Type line or line control into the search box. There are threads there that you can read through and I am sure you will find a solution that will work for you.

I may be wrong, but I think when you're more comfortable with it and done it more times it is easier for you to know who is next. Maybe it helps you to span a string where they hold. Then it becomes a natural queue.

i've ONLY ever had this issue when there was 2 things happening:
1)LACK OF PARENTAL SUPERVISION.....this happens when the parents are all partying off on their own, and the kids are just running free, left to fend for themselves.

when this happens, i take control of the situation with a simple "power trip"- i let the kids know THEYWILL NOT BE PAINTED if they 1)touch my paints, 2)cut in line, 3)crowd my area/arm space/wiggle room, 4) are being mean, 5)have already been painted....however, i will paint them again AFTER i finish everyone else.

this leaves the kids controlling the line for me "excuse me miss, i was here first, excuse me miss, he cut the line, excuse me miss-that boy is touching your sponges"

nothing better than eyes on the back of your head-oh wait, having dozens of tattle tales in your line is better eyes everywhere!lol.




2)too many parents standing too closely by....this creates MASSIVE chaos, because the adults think they are helping.
instead of standing in line with their child, they are standing close to me and my area, "supervising"....and instead of letting me just paint the kids in the order of arrival, the PARENTS step in and say "can you paint this child next instead, this is the cousin/sibling/friend/whatever and they are leaving the party together"..or "can you please paint this child first, she has lupus/cancer/ms/some other health condition"...or "can you please paint these two little ones, they have been waiting for 3 hours and they are missing the whole party"------like, really?3 hours?when i just arrived 20 minutes ago?really?????????


ugh.



because THEN, youhave TWO more problems-1)you skip the kid to the front of the line and paint them and NOW you have a bunch of angry mobbing kids and parents getting angry....or 2)you DON'T skip the kid to the front and now you have a bunch of angry mobbing kids and parents.
it's a catch-22...there's just no way to please in this circumstance.you can either be labled accomodating or a bitch.it really sucks.but either way, you gotta get through your line and maintain control.


the way i will quickly regain control of my line in a parent mob is this:

"WHO WANTS TO BE A SPIDERMAN, LINE UP HERE. and WHO WANTS TO BE A RAINBOW BUTTERFLY, LINE UP HERE.and WHO WANTS TO BE A PRINCESS, LINE UP HERE, and WHO WANTS TO BE BATMAN, LINE UP HERE."
just those 4 choices.
i get 4 new lines.
i lay down the base on every kid in the line.
i lay down the line work on every kid.
i glitter and highlight every kid.
i send them all to the mirror and then i finish off my line in a civilized manner.




now, if the parents are IN THE LINE with the kids, this is never actually an issue.....because firstof all, the parents control their kid and wait in line...and secondly, everybody remembers who is in front of them.
if the line is big or busy, you can leave out stickers or tickets or post it notes and have each person grab a numbered sticker and collect them as you paint-just glance at each number and make sure the line is moving in consequitive order.

colormetori wrote:I did a party yesterday and kids were literally crawling in me and it was hard to know who was next. I had someone hello me but it was still to overwhelming haha what do I do? I thought maybe for next time I have a 3 signs with a 1,2,3 on it that the child wears so I know who is next

I've had kids put their head right is front of me to get a better view lol (wasn't a toddler either). Best thing to do is speak up, be friendly be have the 'activity leader tone' i call it.
"Okie Dokie kids! Everyone as got to take 2 steps back because i need some elbow room! ^.^ " Then i stick my elbows out and kind of herd them back. Just tell em what you want, speak up and give directions.

I wouldn't recommend the '3 signs' thing tho, i can see that getting messy. Each kid would have to pass the sign they have down the line- if they even bother to stay in line and don't wonder off. Then you'll lose them they'll get wrecked, kids take them off and put them down. Too much work. I paint a number on their hands and convince them that they can go and play and won't lose their spot! Then i just call the next number when i'm done, or close to being done, usually the parents help out with finding the kid, some times i have the track them down but rarely. If they missed their spot because they didn't hear, then they are automatically next.

What I've been doing lately at birthday parties, is having them form a line, and painting a number on each childs hand. It's not a perfect system, because as kids trickle in I'm interrupted to paint a new number, and it's easy to forget what's the next number in line, and a really messy kid can get the number smudged off if they aren't careful.

The big upside is this lets the kids have the freedom to run off. I just make sure to tell them that if I call their number and they aren't there, I've got to skip them-- and most keep an open ear (:

It’s in my contract that someone at the party (adult or teenager) needs to be in charge of keeping track of who goes next. I also text them the night before with a reminder.

I did have a lady recently ignore this and some chaos ensued with kids arguing over who goes next. I just said out loud “I will paint whoever is in my chair, but I can’t keep track of who is next because I’m busy painting” usually a parent steps up and takes charge. When my 10 yr old assists me, she will keep a written list of who is next. If you don’t want to paint numbers on them, just show up with pre-numbered stickers and have the host hand them out.