My son may be well into his teenage years, but he is still just a big kid at heart. He has grown out of wanting any big celebrations for his birthday and repeatedly told me that I was being an embarrassing mum for even considering organising a birthday party for him. But I know him too well and I know that he definitely wanted me to treat him to something special for his 15h. He may think he’s too cool for a party, but I know that him and his mates would want to have a big get together for his birthday.
This is when I thought of treating him to a paintball day out. Him and his mates have been before and absolutely loved it- but since they went the first time, they’ve always been busy and unable to return for a second match. Treating him and his friends to a trip to a paintball battlefield would be the ultimate treat for his big day. What teenage boy doesn’t want to be an action hero, running around shooting his mates all day?
After searching online I instantly found the Go Ballistic website. It couldn’t have been easier to navigate- within ten minutes, I’d already booked for him and four friends to go on the first morning of his birthday weekend. Online shopping is usually a pain, so I’m glad Go Ballistic made the entire process of buying the present quick and easy. Now all I had to do was keep the present a surprise and make sure he didn’t make any other plans with his friends for that morning!
His friends already knew about the surprise and I was happy they managed to keep it a secret from him until the day arrived. They are probably all too cool to want me to say this, but as I drove them to the site, they were clearly really excited. They were on their phones googling different paintball tactics in order to beat rival teams, as well as all the different games they would be playing. They were eager to get there- this time, they weren’t taking any prisoners!
A few hours later, I came back to pick them up- I’d spent most of the afternoon covering the car seats in old newspaper in case they leaked any paint onto it! Usually, I can’t get a single peep out of my son, but today, I couldn’t get a word in edgeways from him and his friends talking about how “epic” the day was. The team there knew it was his birthday before he arrived, so arranged many special games that let him be the main action hero- but just so his mates got a chance to shoot him, they also did a special game where they all had to hunt him down too!
I’ll definitely be treating my son and his friends to a day at the paintball battlefield again. He’d never admit it, but I’m definitely a cool mum for treating him to this.
