Today's post was written by my good friend and fellow Diva, Stacy. Having two kids, she's more of an authority on this subject.
When I was a kid, you only had one or, if you were lucky, two, official birthday parties during your childhood. By "official" I mean send-out-invitations-RSVP-needed birthday parties. Other than your one big birthday bash, on all the other birthdays, you would get your favorite dinner cooked and your grandparents would come over and you'd open their gift and the gift from your parents and that was it. Not so today. Now kids have a huge Official Birthday Party every year.
For refreshments at the Official Birthday Party, they don't have just cake and ice cream, either; you first have appetizers and snacks, followed by lunch or dinner, and then the cake and ice cream. There's also beer or cocktails for the adults, too. There also has to be a theme to the party - Dora the Explorer for girls and Power Rangers for boys are the popular themes this year. Parents have to run all over town to find matching table clothes, cups, plates, and napkins. They also have to find a bakery to make the cake, which will also be decorated in the theme.
As for games and activities during the Official Birthday Party, they aren't content with playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey like we were as kids; the parents also fork over about $200 to rent one of those inflatible Astro Jump things for a few hours. These are the rage. They will assuredly make your son or daughter the most popular kid among their peers. If the birthday girl/boy is younger, the parents can fork over even more money and have ponies come trample through their manicured yard giving rides to the party goers.
There are valid reasons why parents go to great lengths to have an Official Birthday Party every year for their children. We didn't get to have a party every year, so now we're making damned sure our kids have one. It's the age old "I want more for my child than I had myself" attitude. With demanding jobs and conflicting schedules, and with the marjority of families having both parents work, we don't get to spend nearly as much time with our kids as we'd like, so the guilt factor plays into it as well. Also, we don't want our children to feel inferior to their friends who have a party every year, and thus we still try to keep up with the Jones'.
1 comment:
I asked Mom just to confirm my memory, but I only had one Official Birthday Party, and that was for my 13th birthday. On my "ordinary" birthdays, Grandma would fix my favorite dinner, fried chicken and mashed potatoes, and she would bake my traditional chocolate cake, and we'd have Mr. and Mrs. Jones come over and that was the yearly thing. We still did that for my 13th birthday, but we had the Official Birthday Party at some friends' apartment's clubhouse. I thought I was hot stuff. LOL
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