Beyond Balloons

Back to Basics

What has happened to birthday parties for kids? Anyone else remember the days when parties were simple? When you baked a cake, put up some streamers and balloons, wrapped a few gifts and had the family over or maybe a neighbor kid or two, to sing happy birthday? When did it become this grandiose event with color schemes, themes and two tiered cakes from a bakery? Some of the pictures I see now, the parties look like something from a wedding reception. As if mother’s don’t have enough to do, with working, cooking, cleaning, shopping and driving to sports practices, etc.!

Now it seems birthday parties are a grand production. Which cost more money, take more time and cause more stress, unless of course your naturally a party planner, which not everyone is. I mean, a roll of crepe paper streamers, a bag of balloons, some candles and you were good to go. Now they have arches of dozens of balloons, which takes at least a half an hour to set up. Then these go into the trash when the party’s over. Or mylar balloons which last longer but cost more. Cakes or cupcakes from bakeries, all beautifully decorated of course. I can see doing this work maybe for a milestone birthday, like 1, 5, 10, 16, etc. But when you start doing it every year, then it may become expected, and your child might start to feel entitled. What if there’s a year when you can’t manage this? You don’t want to disappoint your child, so if they don’t expect it every year, then there’s less chance of disappointing them.

I guess most families are having less children today. I had four kids, then had three more step children. So including my husbands birthday, that was eight out of twelve months a year to have parties, let alone Christmas and other holidays. I’m all for making your kids feel special on their special day. But what I think most children need more now-a-days, is undivided attention on a daily basis. A lot of children are competing with cell phones for their parents attention.

I feel bad for moms that are comparing themselves to the pictures on all the social platforms like, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, of parties. Your child’s party should be fun, not stressful. Life is stressful enough without putting more pressure on yourself. I’m not sure who started the trend of having “themes” for a birthday party. A child’s birthday used to be the “theme”. Now everything is color coordinated, including the child’s outfit, the invitations, and everything. I think we’ve gone a little “over board” with all this. Maybe our children just need more quality time, more undivided attention. If we are stressed, they can sense that. Children are “tuned” in to mom’s feelings more than you may think.

The main goal of having a party in the first place is to form a closer bond, loving connections, and good memories with your children. So maybe we need to go back to more simple forms of decorating and focus more on what truly matters, having fun quality time together. We can set our own traditions for our family. We don’t have to “cave” into the social pressure of the productions we see on social medias. Ultimately the best gift you can give your child is your time and undivided attention.