The kids' water balloon toss got way too violent after I added a timer

Last July I thought adding a 60 second timer to the water balloon toss would make it exciting. Instead I had two dads yelling at each other and a 9 year old crying because he got blasted in the face at point blank range. The problem was people started rushing throws to beat the clock and accuracy went out the window. We ended up scrapping the whole game after 15 minutes and just let the kids run through the sprinkler instead. Kids that age need simple rules, not pressure. Has anyone else had a classic party game backfire when you tried to add a twist?

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river_fox1824d ago

Same thing happened with our sack race. Added a "must bounce on one foot" rule to mix it up and it turned into kids slamming into each other trying to win. Two kids got hurt and a mom refused to talk to me for a week. Simple games work for a reason man. Timers just turn fun into a fight.