I can sympathize with the OP, having staged a polished plane at various events. At the very first public event I learned the hard way about giving people access. If you let anyone sit in your plane a line will instantly form.
View attachment 105932
Some youngsters are great and it's fun to share with them. Others are varmints who compulsively grab knobs and yank the stick. I pull those kids out immediately and hand them back to their parents.
Flash forward a few years I had the plane at a big event and allowed various adults to sit in it. Later I found canopy side glass sections unlatched (would have blown out in flight), master switch on, etc. You can't see it in the picture above but the front side of the prop was highly polished and impossible to touch without leaving prints. Even with the hang tag telling people in bold red letters not to touch the prop, I watched a guy reaching out to touch it and his 12 year old daughter yelling at him for doing so.
I still want people to be curious and get to see the plane up close but I'm a lot less friendly about it than I used to be.
Edit: I intended to share horror stories told by my uncle. People using the horizontal stabilizer as a baby changing table and a kid doing pull ups on the pitot tube are a good source of amusement.
