Am I the only Mom who doesn’t do the big birthday party thing for her kids? I feel like I am alone, at least in this town. I’m constantly getting invitations to birthday parties for both my boys–like almost every kid in their classes has a party every single year and invites everyone in the class. I’m always happy when I have a genuine conflict and an easy excuse to get out of them. Isn’t that terrible? I was happy to have Isaac go to the party for his friend Oliver, who’s his best friend, but does he have to go to a party for every other kid he knows? My poor kids have never even had birthday party outside our family. Thankfully they have yet to complain about that. Besides, they are both summer babies so it’s kind of hard to invite the school friends. My next baby is due in September, so his or her birthday will be during the school year, but so early on I probably won’t be ready to invite a new class to a party (or that will be my excuse–see I’m already prepared). I think it’s great for kids to have special birthday parties, but why do most of them seem to have them for every single birthday? And how much are their parents paying for them? And how much are other parents paying for the gifts?
I certainly didn’t get a birthday party every year, but then my mom and step-dad had 8 kids between them–kind of hard to have parties for all of them. I do remember having a pool party for my 7th birthday (I was a summer baby myself). We had it at the Campers’ Paradise RV Park, the only public pool in town. I don’t know if my parents had to pay the RV park something for that or what. Of course, in revealing this I’m revealing how far in the boondocks we lived when I was growing up. Doesn’t “Campers’ Paradise RV Park” just scream class and sophistication? Hey, it was awesome at the time. The only thing like a pool we usually saw was a cattle tank. Anyway, it was a fun party. I think I had a panda cake, though I had wanted a Holly Hobbie cake. I think I still had the Holly Hobbie decorations, but I’m kind of vague on the memories other than that. I don’t remember one darn present I received, though I’m sure I got some. Yet my kids’ friends are having yearly parties before age 7. How much will they even remember?
Luckily I’m not too fussed about other moms thinking I’m horrible for not having birthday parties or anything like that. I don’t get the pressure to compete with parties or anything like that. And even though we get invited to all these parties, none of them seem like the parents are going crazy and overboard or acting competitive. (I did miss one party that sounded a bit over-the-top and I kind of wish we’d gone just so I could write about it–it was supposedly one of those huge backyard shindigs with a couple hundred kids and lots of rented equipment and hired entertainment.)
Of course, after writing all this I’m thinking my oldest will be 7 this summer and maybe I should do a little more this year (since I had my own first bash at age 7). Or maybe we’ll just invite his buddy Oliver and they can have their first sleepover or something.
I had my first and only big birthday party at age 7 too! I even had a Hollie Hobbie cake, only it was iced to look like Strawberry Shortcake. It was in our basement and all the neighborhood kids came. I’m totally with you on the party thing. My kids haven’t had any big friend parties and I always feel a little guilty when we get the invites. My kids’ birthdays are coming around again and we aren’t sure what we’ll do either. Probably just invite a friend or two to do something fun with the 7 year old, and a Friend/Family BBQ for the 4 year old. I don’t think they’re lacking though.
Thanks for sharing, Jenny. I feel better that you’re not doing these big parties either, because I can tell you are a great mom.