{"id":5053,"date":"2014-06-25T08:08:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T12:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=5053"},"modified":"2016-04-13T21:48:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T01:48:19","slug":"a-blowout-birthday-not-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/25\/a-blowout-birthday-not-us\/","title":{"rendered":"A Blowout Birthday?  Not us."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like to keep birthday parties low-key and for many reasons we don&#8217;t have a party for each of our kids every year. \u00a0And since my daughter started <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/kindergartens-end\/\">kindergarten<\/a>,\u00a0we\u2019ve been invited to numerous birthday parties and there are a lot of things that bother me about how we celebrate kids\u2019 birthdays now.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I HATE that every child in the class has to be invited.\u00a0 When we get an invitation to a party from a parent I don\u2019t know for a kid my daughter never talks about, truthfully, I\u2019m irritated.\u00a0 Of course my kid is going to want to go so we\u2019ll have to take out of our minimal family time and buy the kid a present and chances are we\u2019ll never hear from the kid or parent again.<\/li>\n<li>As much as I hate the every child must be invited, I just as much hate that most birthday parties are now at \u201cplay places\u201d.\u00a0 What happened to having a birthday party at home?\u00a0 I don\u2019t enjoy parties where I have to chase my kid around and the kids hardly even talk to each other.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/02\/better-goodie-bags\/\">Goodie bags<\/a>, ugh!\u00a0 These are nothing new, we had them growing up and as exciting as they are for the kids, I have so much goodie bag junk laying around it\u2019s ridiculous.\u00a0 If I wanted my kid to have candy, nail polish and messy goo, I would buy it for her but instead I\u2019m stuck with being the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/01\/i-am-a-mean-mommy\/\">meanest mommy ever<\/a>\u201d when I tell them they can\u2019t have it.<\/li>\n<li>Short and sweet, or just short?\u00a0 Most parties held at venues that specially do birthday parties are 2 hours.\u00a0 That\u2019s it, you\u2019re done!\u00a0 A little playing (AKA chasing your kid around), some mediocre pizza, blow out the candles, gobble up the cake and get the heck out!\u00a0 No time for opening presents, socializing or anything else birthday related (other than the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/31\/a-piece-of-cake\/\">cake<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>Every birthday is celebrated in blow out fashion with every person the child and parent has ever known or met.\u00a0 I\u2019m all for celebrating each and every birthday a child has but I don\u2019t think it needs to be a huge celebration with everyone in the world.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-5058\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704-179x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMAG0704\" width=\"125\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704-179x300.jpg 179w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704-300x502.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704-600x1003.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704-612x1024.jpg 612w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704-1000x1672.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMAG0704.jpg 1952w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 125px) 100vw, 125px\" \/><\/a>There is always a question on WHO exactly is invited. \u00a0Are parents expected to stay? (at my kids&#8217; age, the answer is usually yes). \u00a0But what about siblings? \u00a0Of course if Honeybun goes, Sugarplum will want to go and I have no problem saying no but it IS our family time&#8230; (our solution to this for our last party which was at a bowling alley was to get our own lane so Sugarplum could bowl too).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So how do I do it?\u00a0 We keep it small and simple.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We only party once every few years.\u00a0 In the 9 birthdays my children have had, we\u2019ve only had 2 parties (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/06\/birthday-celebrations\/\">each of the girl\u2019s 3<sup>rd<\/sup><\/a>).\u00a0 Every other birthday was spent with whatever family was in town (or on many occasions, just us!)<\/li>\n<li>When we do have a party, we keep the crowd small.\u00a0 I believe in inviting one child for each year old the child is (Honeybun will be 6 this year so she invited 6 friends).\u00a0 This keeps the crowd to a size that is age appropriate and not overwhelming for the child and keeps the focus on the child, not the crowd.\u00a0 (Plus, having two July birthdays means I\u2019ll never have to invite the whole class!!!)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5055\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"SONY DSC\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119-600x399.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119-376x250.jpg 376w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119-1000x664.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC09119-390x259.jpg 390w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a> Up to now, our kids\u2019 birthday parties have always been at home.\u00a0 It just keeps things simple and everyone comfortable. (Even all their non-party birthday celebrations have been at home with the exception of Honeybun\u2019s 5<sup>th<\/sup> when we went to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/06\/done-with-disney\/\">Disney World<\/a>.) \u00a0This time we are going to an art studio where the kids will get to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/02\/family-pottery-painting-fun\/\">paint a piece of pottery<\/a> and do a sand art but they will be sitting together at a table doing their crafts where they can enjoy each other&#8217;s company and the parents can socialize as well!<\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5056\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"DSC06958\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958-300x400.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958-188x250.jpg 188w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958-1000x1333.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC06958.jpg 1944w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>No presents, please.\u00a0 The last two parties we\u2019ve had I politely requested no presents (though we did get some anyways).\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe birthdays are about the presents but this year I\u2019m allowing it mostly because Honeybun is expecting it after being to so many parties and buying presents for her friends (and after all the money we\u2019ve spent on other people\u2019s kids, we deserve a little something back, right?) but I\u2019m definitely not looking forward to all the new stuff I\u2019ll have to find a home for in our already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/22\/playroom-organization-ikea\/\">overcrowded playroom<\/a>!<\/li>\n<li>The whole family is ALWAYS invited. \u00a0If I invite a kid with siblings, they are invited too and added into my count if necessary. \u00a0Birthdays are family celebrations and I try to encourage\u00a0my children to invite friends that we know the parents of so of course we&#8217;ll welcome the entire family!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I like to keep birthday parties low-key and for many reasons we don&#8217;t have a party for each of our kids every year. \u00a0And since my daughter started kindergarten,\u00a0we\u2019ve been invited to numerous birthday parties and there are a lot of things that bother me about how we celebrate kids\u2019 birthdays now. I HATE that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-time-to-celebrate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5053"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10542,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions\/10542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}