Planning a winning Big Game party is more than just ensuring that your TV works so you can watch the game and commercials, sorting out parking, preventing noise complaints, and having enough appetizers, drinks, and sweets. You also need to ensure your home is safe for your guests and any pets, inside and out. To help ensure that your day goes off without a hitch, we put together this Big Game party safety checklist.
Big Game Party Safety Property Check for Outside
Current temperature forecasts predict a chance of cloudy weather on Sunday, February 12th, with a high in the 40s and a low in the 30s. To help prevent your guests from a slip and fall injury, keep an eye on your driveway, porches, and any walkways.
Also, check any staircases and your yard for hidden holes or other potentially hazardous conditions that might result in a guest falling and injuring themselves. Lastly, make sure that all heavily trafficked areas are well-lit.
Big Game Party Safety for Adults
Inside, you also need to take extra precautions to help ensure that your adult guests leave with all their bones intact and free of any other bodily damage.
Therefore, you will want to check to ensure there aren’t any trip, slip, or fall hazards inside your home. You must also ensure your guests don’t get sick from any food or beverages offered.
In that vein, take special care by:
- Washing your hands before and during prep.
- Keeping raw meat away from other foods.
- Check with guests about any food allergies and take measures to reduce the chances of cross-contamination.
- Cooking foods to proper temperatures and keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
- Monitoring the amount of alcohol guests drink. Then, one hour before the party wraps up, stop serving alcohol and offer coffee or other non-alcoholic beverage options. You’ll also want to make sure that extra snacks are available. Soft pretzels with cheese dip, nachos, and Buffalo chicken dip are a few of our favorites.
Lastly, as part of your Big Game party safety checklist for adults, plan to offer guests a place to sleep it off if they need to sober up before getting behind the wheel. It not only protects them and others from a catastrophic accident, but it also keeps you from ending up on the other end of a social host liability lawsuit.
Side note: If 2023 is anything like last year, local law enforcement agencies will have an increased presence in Quad City neighborhoods to watch for impaired drivers. Remember that buzzed driving is drunk driving, according to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). And you don’t want to be that person that fumbles by making a poor decision on Big Game Sunday.
Big Game Party Safety for Kids
If you plan to host an all-ages Big Game party, you’ll want to ensure your home is kid-safe. Do so by securing any heavy furniture so it won’t tip over, putting away your breakables, hiding sharp objects and medications, and keeping potentially dangerous items locked away in a safe. It is also a good idea to ask about any food allergies.
Additionally, setting up a kid-zone with games and other age-appropriate activities would be good. Hiring a sitter would be another good option to help adults keep kids out of trouble and entertained.
Big Game Party Safety for Pets
Strangers, grabby hands, and screams/loud sounds can startle or scare already anxious pets. This could result in your pet darting out an open door or harming guests with a bite, scratch, or unexpected collision.
Tasty food smells, grilling meat, buffet-style food presentations, and unattended plates or drinks can also become irresistible hazards for your pets.
Just play it safe for your guests and your pets by keeping your pets securely separated. One final Big Game party safety checklist measure would be to post printed signs and let your adult and younger guests know to keep doors closed to prevent your pets from escaping.
Know When to Contact a Quad Cities Injury Attorney
Despite best efforts, Big Game injuries can still happen–even to the party host. Should you suffer burns from a faulty grill, get hit while running party planning errands, or other random acts of recklessness or negligence, contact our law firm as soon as possible for a free consultation.
Our legal team has successfully represented the varied legal interests of clients for over 50 years across the Quad Cities area, including Rock Island and Davenport, as well as clients in Henry, Mercer, Whiteside, and Knox counties in Illinois or Scott, Clinton, Muscatine, Cedar, and Jackson counties in Iowa.