Kids birthday parties bring many emotions to the surface; fun, excitement, panic, anxiety and dread. So far, I’ve only experienced the first two, but all of that will change next year when my child starts school.
I’m not sure if this is standard across Canadian schools or just some local thing: INVITING ALL CLASSMATES to birthday parties. Meaning, if your child wants to take an invitation to their birthday party to school, they have to bring one for everyone.
Maybe Li’l Johnny Nosepicker would learn to use a tissue when mining for gold if his party invitations are few and far between. Our fear of any little thing emotionally damaging our children is what’s hurting them the most.
Let’s be totally selfish here for a minute. Forget about Johnny and his sticky finger. What about us? The parents who need to provide the transportation, supply the token gift and perhaps also *shudder* attend these 25 or so parties as well. Well I’m with Sweet Brown on this one, ‘Ain’t nobody got time for that’. What about the family with both parents working their ass off to afford their tiny apartment and put decent food on the table? Should they also be expected to host 25 little (albeit adorable) party-goers when their budget only allows for 4?
I’m not drinking the birthday party Kool Aid (it’s not spiked anyway). My child will be able to invite who she wants to HER birthday party (the day is about her, you know). To circumvent the system, I’ll have to find out who her friends are, find out who their parents are and deliver the invitations personally.
Oh wait, shouldn’t we be doing that anyway?
Heather Nolan
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3 Comments
We don’t have those demands placed on us yet in our school, but I here you on this one! I LOVE to make my kids feel extra special on their birthdays but I don’t like doing loot bags and I really don’t like the idea of inviting everyone in the class either. My daughter doesn’t like them all so why invite them all. And birthday parties are becoming far to expensive and competitive. Each child’s parents feel they have to outdo the last kids party, it’s ridiculous. Great post!
Great post, Heather! East Coast Represent!
It gets easier as the kids get older – promise!
It probably won’t be long… Google just told me it’s quite common – even made the news again last week. http://www.jrn.com/kgun9/news/good-morning-tucson/School-bans-birthday-invitations-228153041.html