Have you ever had a birthday party for your kids? My how the times have changed. I have always thought that I went all out for my boys’ birthdays when they were young. But when I see social media and the posts of children’s parties nowadays I am blown away. They look as if the planning would take as much as planning a wedding! How did this all come about?
Is it really just all about keeping up with the
Joneses? I don’t think so. I think it is partially like keeping up with the
Joneses, but I think more important than that it is to make our own selves feel
accomplished. Many times parents put in long hours away from their families so
the over the top birthday party becomes sort of a payback for time missed? The
reason I feel like this is because many of the parents that I know that go over
the top are also parents that come across as the type of parents that don’t
miss their children. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me and my opinion and it
is wrong, but nonetheless it is my opinion.
For me it was loving my kids so much that I
wanted them to have things I didn’t have yet wish I had. Birthdays were never
big at my house when I was growing up, not to mention that my birthday was five
days before Christmas. This meant that I always received a handful of wrapped cardboardboxes around this time of year, though not as many as I should’ve gotten. I
remember an aunt though, who would send me a card every year and it always had
a one dollar bill inside. In the early 70s a one dollar bill could buy a fun
little toy so it was always a special gift that I remembered. Longing for my
children to be doted on one day a year was the reason I didn’t want their
birthdays to pass without a party.
But when I look at the parties that are being
thrown nowadays I realize the parties I threw we’re nothing to brag about.
After all I didn’t have my entire house decorated in a theme such as Harry
Potter or Marvel comics.I didn’t have all the food themed around the
decorations such as Quidditch ball cheese, or Diagonalley donuts, we did however
have a themed cake!
My boys usually wanted a sleepover more than
anything for their birthday. Well maybe not more than anything, after all they
were true children so we know they had gifts pretty high up on that list of
wants. So when I say I went all out, I meant that we invited five or six boys
to a sleepover. We had the usual kids food hotdogs and macaroni and cheese or
pizza and we had a wonderful birthday cake. The boys were allowed to stay up
extremely late and sleep in extremely late. That was what I called going all
out!
Nowadays families are renting venues for the
seven-year-old‘s birthday party. They are renting limousines to take the 10
eight-year-old little girls to get the manicures and pedicures before they go
off to a American girl doll factory. Other families are taking their children
to Disney World and renting special rooms to have a birthday party with a
princess. Wow the expense involved that these things must cost is way out of my
range.
So, whether you go all out for the eight-year-old’s
birthday the way I did or whether you go all out for the eight-year-old’s
birthday the way most seem to be doing nowadays, it’s truly OK, to each is own,
no one is right, no one is wrong. Just remember to wrap all the cardboard boxes
as beautifully as you can, make the boxes as unique and suspense filling as you
can! After all, you and your children both are making a memory that is truly
unforgettable.
