IN THIS POST: Summer is prime time for mascots at parties, sporting events, amusement parks, and potentially anywhere. These two tips are to help adults engage with mascots safely – so that everyone can have fun.
Many summers ago I wrote a piece for a local children’s magazine about how parents can prepare their youngsters for interactions with mascots. Some small children adore tall, fuzzy, anthropomorphized creatures; others are horrified that these hybrids even exist.
Some adults carry the childhood phobias and avoid mascots at all costs. This post isn’t for you. This post is for the gregarious adults who delight with child-like enthusiasm at all appropriate moments.
Sure, these giant cuddly creatures encourage enthusiasm for all ages. Unfortunately, my experience suggests that adults need a bit of help knowing how to safely engage with mascots.
Here are two easy-to-remember tips for children-trapped-in-adult bodies. Keep these in mind as you embark on summer festivities that put you in contact with a mascot of any type.
Mascot Tip for Adults #1
Do Not Pull or Tug on Any Part of the Costume
There is a real, live, honest-to-goodness, human being inside that ridiculous costume.
That adult, however insane you think he or she might be, is lugging around 20-30 lbs. of hulking, non-absorbent, heat-attracting costume. Whatever additional appendages are extending from their costume, think tails in particular, are connected to them as well.
We went to a minor league baseball game a few years ago and the on-duty police officer was trying to get small children to yank the mascot’s tail. The mascot was sadly lacking in personality so the officer was trying to get some fun going, but that’s the wrong way to do it.
Imagine one minor yank when the mascot is slightly off-balance. That tail pulls at his or her core and down goes the mascot. While everyone thinks this is funny – and it can be if it’s planned or intentional – it can also be dangerous to the person inside.
Consider also that most costumes have physical limitations and visual blind spots. You really don’t want to be responsible for a mascot falling on a small child. Don’t do it. It requires the mascot to expend more energy and generate more heat inside the costume to ward off your fiendish silliness. And, it is unsafe.
Stick to high-fives, hugs, fist-bumps, autographs, tummy-rubs….wait…not that one.
Mascot Tip for Adults #2
If You Wouldn’t Do It to Another Person in Public,
Then Don’t Do It To a Mascot.
There’s a chance that the person in the costume is female – yes, even if the mascot is 6’0″. So consider: would you do this to a random woman standing in front of a building without expecting litigation? If the answer is no, then don’t do it.
A friendly guy walking into our church decided to scratch the belly of the dog costume I was wearing. I started pawing at him to block his belly rubs. He looked genuinely confused, “I thought dogs liked to have their stomach’s scratched?” he said.
I reminded myself that I was pretending to be a giant, male, dog. Belly scratches probably fell in line with something I would like. Still, I shrugged to the confused man – Grown. Man.
If a child had scratched my belly, then wiggles and delighted paws all around. When an adult tries it – not cool and kinda weird. After that incident I determined to go along with it because it was my gig, but it genuinely shocked me that he hadn’t considered that there was another person inside – another adult inside. He wasn’t rubbing a mascot’s belly. He was rubbing a stranger’s stomach.
Male or female, if that’s what works as a greeting in our society, count me out.
Summary: How Adults Should Engage with a Mascot
One: don’t pull on any appendages or extra extensions on a mascot’s costume
Two: if you wouldn’t do it to an adult in public, don’t do it to a mascot. Stick to high-fives, fist-bumps, pictures, and autographs.
Remember the mascot is an adult in a costume. It is not an actual, as in my case, large dog.
Be safe, model good behavior for the kiddos, and nobody gets hurt.
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