Will this birthday party be worth the stress, Mommy?

By Wendy Donahue, Chicago Tribune

Having the police show up at a 1-year-old’s birthday celebration makes a parent wonder: Is this party worth the stress?

Alison Ray said the police cameo at her daughter’s bash in August spiraled out of a neighbor’s being upset that guests were freely moving between the front sidewalk (where the plastic wading pool was) and the condo building (where the food and drinks were). While one officer was negotiating a peace settlement among the adults, the other offered a tour of the squad car and a light show to the kids. Ray sent the partners back to Chicago’s streets with homemade coconut cupcakes in hand.

The next week, Ray would be back to playing hostess, not just in her professional capacity as a...

Read more

Dominic’s first birthday party

Caution: Pictures GALORE!! Enjoy! …

Read more

Creative, over-the-top cake-making taking off

Melissa Kossler Dutton, The Associated Press

Kay Martin decided early on that she wanted special celebrations for her children’s birthdays. For her, that meant homemade, hand-decorated cakes.

“I bought a cake-decorating book before my first kid was even born,” said Martin of Plain City, Ohio. She wowed guests at her daughter’s first birthday with a three-dimensional cake shaped like alphabet blocks. “It got rave reviews,” she said.

Since then, she has created cakes resembling a country cottage, Legos and Noah’s ark for her two daughters.

9 to 5 to 9: They never forget

By Debra Legg, debralegg.com

Back in the spring, Big Guy was upset that Dad’s birthday fell during basic training and all he got was extra push-ups from his drill sergeant. Forty-two — one for each year. Then he had to do it again as the sergeant had the entire company help “celebrate.”

“It’s not fair!” Big Guy said. “How can he have a birthday if he doesn’t get to eat his cake.”

I said we’d have a birthday party for Dad when he comes home. It mollified Big Guy, and I figured he’d forget about it by June.

He didn’t.

Which is why last week I put in a rush order for camouflage napkins and plates and spent an hour in Target in an intense philosophical debate about which...

Read more

Birthday budget: Mom helps kids learn value of a buck

A few weeks before my daughter Emma’s most recent birthday — her ninth — she was sitting at the table leafing through supermarket ads.

“Mom, eggs are on sale. We could have scrambled eggs for breakfast at my slumber party. Oh, wait, another store has waffles on sale. That might be easier.”

I smiled to myself. My long quest to teach my kids about budgeting had finally paid off.

The high cost of celebrating birthdays had first become a topic of discussion in our house four years earlier. Our youngest at the time, Daniel, now age 5, didn’t yet have strong opinions on the subject, but Emma and her brother Jacob, now 8, longed to imitate their friends’ expensive...

Read more

Long live the party

Finally, it’s April. Another year has gone by and I’ve escaped both of my children’s birthday parties with only minor damage to my psyche and major damage to my wallet.

FEBRUARY BLUES

Nathan’s birthday was up first. We celebrated with a Wii bowling and Bakugan “brawling” party at home, and invited 10 boys from school. Eight of their moms RSVP’d and the other two boys told Nathan that they were coming.

However, on the day of the party, only three kids showed up. One mom called that evening to apologize, mortified that she had totally spaced it. Another I spoke to said she and her husband decided to let her son go to another activity, and that she had meant to call but had forgotten. I never did hear...

Read more

Moms Forum: The best goody bag items?

McClatchy-Tribune

Moms Forum spotlights useful discussion taking place on the parenting forums of newspapers around the country.

———

QUESTION: I’m starting to shop for goody bag items for my son’s birthday party and wondered if anyone would have some tips on what goody bag items they’ve received in the past which were great (and also ones that weren’t!). The age range is from 1 to 8 so am planning to do three different types of goody bags: one for those 18 months and under, one for the 2-3 year olds and one for the 6-8 year olds (there are no kids coming between the ages of 3 and 6).

— Posted by munchkinsmom at SacMomsClub.com

Birthday madness

Our daughter turned three on Sunday.  She’s finally old enough to “get” what all the fuss is about.  She’s also the only granddaughter on my side of the family.  Spoiled much?  You betcha! 

I’ve really enjoyed watching her developing personality these past few months.  She can be quite the girly girl with her friend, Sarah.  They painted each other’s nails the other day, slipped on dress up shoes and danced around her friend’s family room.  Then she’ll turn around and kick a boy two years older than her for taking “her” sand at the playground.  (She’s got two older brothers – go figure.)  She can do the ‘hands-on-hips’ indignation with attitude to spare when she doesn’t get her...

Read more

Are birthday parties for kids out of control?

Pretty much all the parents I talk to agree that birthday parties are getting way to exensive. They complain about the influx of toys (does anyone have a child who doesn’t have enough toys?) and the exhaustion that sets in once the whole thing is over. They complain about the noise and the work involved. I’ve had these conversations and I’ve tried to reverse the trend in my own family. I limit the cost of gifts and the number of gifts, I make gifts optional if we do have a party, and I ask family members to bring food items to help defray the costs, or I schedule it for the middle of the day and make it clear the only food is cake and ice cream. I’ve suggested a “bring a donation for such-and-such group or charity” to my oldest child. ...

Read more

Backlash to birthday mania

Aisha Sultan St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Mandy’s mom fretted that her daughter’s sixth birthday party was getting boring and, as a result, out-of-hand. After waiting in line for a pony ride around the block, many of the pint-sized guests had lost interest. They had started running wild in the house (the kids, not the ponies).

Her sister reminded her that at birthday parties when they were little girls they played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. And it was a picture of a donkey. On a piece of paper. Yet it managed to entertain a generation of kiddie partygoers. But no more.

Party entertainment has to be original and supersized. The goody bags are on steroids. And the decorations are fit for a Barbie Dream wedding.

It’s hard to throw a child’s birthday for less than $300.

I’ll confess: Once I spent twice that amount on a single party. Not only was it a ridiculous amount of money, but it also required a solid month of preparation and home-made decorations. The night before my daughter’s third birthday, I was up until 1 a.m. sticking “jewel” gumdrops on princess plates and tying pink tulle bows on the backs of 25 chairs.
…

Read more