Chuck E. Cheese is Las Vegas for kids.

It all makes sense to me now. Before, I thought Chuck E. Cheese was a Seventh Circle of Hell that parents were forced to endure as part of their punishment for having sex in the first place. But no, it's not that at all.

I guess it all gelled when I saw the gleam in the nine year old girls' eyes as their tokens landed on the appopriate spot and a stream of tickets poured into their hands. "Yessss," they said, as though Nirvana had descended upon them. My kids returned soon after, sporting fistfuls of tickets and much the same gleam. My daughter wolfed down another piece of pizza, talking the entire time. Then she grabbed her token cup and jumped out of our booth, crying "Baby needs a new pair of shoes!".