children on adult's shoulder for fireworks

[flippyshark]

Back when I used to work the Sorcery In The Sky fireworks at the Disney-MGM Studios, I sometimes had guests ask me to talk to other guests who had children on their shoulders, never an easy task. My approach, if it seemed like it would really be a problem, was to suggest that parents hold the children beside them, like a bag of groceries. My tag line was "If your kids eyes are level with your own, your kid can see just as well as you can." I'd say this suggestion was gladly accepted a little less than half the time. I tried to make this a general announcement to large groups of people, rather than targeting just a specific family. Sometimes, this at least sparked awareness or got guests to work things out amongst themselves.

Approaching just one particular dad with kid is almost certainly doomed to failure, because the parent is likely to feel singled out. (Because that is the case.) Such a person will almsot always point out that lots of others are doing it, so why don't I go talk to them.

My experience is that wherever big crowds of people gather to watch something, that is just the way of things. That's why I watch parades and fireworks from a distance. (Well, that and I just despise being in the middle of a crowd.)