To think the queue for face painting is the most depressing place on earth?

[MrsOlaf78]

You spend the best part of an hour trying to avoid getting in a row about pushing in while dcs get restless and bored (yet won't give it up!) just to have your children covered in smudgy lurid paint that only vaguely looks like what they've ask for, that will end up all over your towels and chairs. Yet every family event there you are queuing for the sodding face painter.

I have managed to avoid it for a while now my youngest gets a bad reaction to it. Didn't stop mil taking him the other weekend and him returning home with his eyes almost swollen shut and her looking all proud.

Its always worse when you get to the front and find that they are so bad even your dc looks unimpressed by their work

My dh taught himself to face paint from YouTube just to avoid this! He bought a proper face paint set and then he would just say 'ohhh, I'll do that dog for you when we get home!' They fell for it every time.

I am often the sodding face painter (have done friends parties and school fairs) I do a ticket system like the housing benefit office, or time slots, also only have a choice of 3 or 4 face paints to cut down on the umming and aahing and means that by the end I have done so many Elsa crowns or Ninja turtle masks that it takes hardly any time at all - I'm like a face painting ninja!

I used to facepaint at fetes and what not it can be stressful for us too especially if a kid says i wanna be a tiger would you not prefer to be a cat as you look at the line of kids getting agitated and parents tutting nope i wanna be a tiger spare a thought for us

The fact that it adopts a similar system to the housing benefit office should tell you all you need to know....

I hate the face painting queue, I could have kicked myself in the head last Easter after waiting in a freezing cold marquee for about an hour while dd and ds2 insisted they really really wanted their faces painted (as we were leaving the event) only to be back home within 20 minutes and ds2 washing it off as soon as he stepped through the door!

DD once had a mild reaction to one brand of face paint. I have seized on this and have banned both kids from the stuff it case of another reaction.

We had a facepainter at an event we organised last week - she was fantastic!
Her work was beautiful and she was so fast, there was very little queuing.

She was more expensive, but worth every penny.

the kids know we only do it if the queue is very short, which perhaps perversely means I'm happier paying for it than getting it for free - the queues for free face painting are always a million times worse.

IKEA manchester seems to be the notable exception though - excellent painters, free, minimal queuing.

YABU.

The most depressing queue is the queue for the Build-a-Bear stuffing machine.

Especially if you don't have a child with you and the over-enthusiastic shop assistant tries to get you to do the "kids the heart, rub the heart on your forehead" shite.

Thankfully none of mine have ever wanted it.

I found this thread while searching 'why does face painting at school fairs have to take so long'

I always just wish that the person doing it would do it in 2 mins. Then the queue takes quicker, kids are happy, more money raised?

No one really gives a shit how good the actual face painting is. Especially for these ones where there's a small flower / rainbow on the forehead.
I was at a school fair today and she did only 3 kids in half an hour. Snooze!!