In our family, once June comes around, we start thinking about birthday parties for the kids. From the month of June to August, we have several birthdays to celebrate. Sometimes, I think that the adults are even more excited than the kids are, especially if the celebrant is still very young.
The preparations and all the fuss that surrounds birthday time was brought to mind again while I was reading this blog post by Kori Rodley Irons. She wrote:
Organizing and coordinating the perfect party has become an obsession with the average family-at least it can seem that way. We want our child to have a great day, sure, but we may also get caught up in trying to give the standard party for our socio-economic level, meet neighborhood and peer group expectations, and make sure that our child doesn’t feel slighted. What can get lost in the whole quest for the perfect party is just exactly who the party is supposed to be for anyway!
Indeed, I cannot count how many birthday parties – children’s birthday parties, mind you – that I have been to wherein more than half of the visitors were adults! Sometimes, in our excitement, we forget who the real star of the party is. We forget who the party is really for.
I got an idea – maybe this time around, we will ask the kids first. What do you want to do for your birthday? Maybe they won’t even want a party!
Originally posted on May 28, 2008 @ 9:19 am
