Birthday carelessness

[ailbhe]

I am very bad at planning birthdays. Linnea's is around a major bank holiday weekend, Astrid's is at the start of the school summer holidays, and Emer's is at the end of the school summer holidays. So their parties will always, always fall naturally on days when all their friends are away.

This is less of a problem when the birthday itself is midweek, because either close weekend will do fine, but when the birthday is on a weekend day it's a bit of a stretch to have the main party on a totally different weekend to accommodate the people who jet off to sunnier or snowier climes.

This year, Linnea had THREE birthday cakes to fit everyone in, and Emer will be having at least two.

So perhaps there are some compensations...

Comments

[rmc28]

We have just had the conversation opened about Charles's next birthday. I am seriously considering the "no special gathering for the extended family" option and just concentrating on cementing links with his actual local friends (and their parents).

[ailbhe]

We're going to console Emer for the lack of friends by having loads of family, I think.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I have one right after Christmas, and one that's sometimes around Easter. Not ideal in either case. We've stuck with party-on-birthday for N so far, because I don't want her to feel it's not special, but waiting a few days/ a week would take us into term time and greater friend availability. This year, she gets to choose.

[ailbhe]

I think family-cake on birthday-day and party on party-day is how it's going to work for us. Luckily we like cake.

[clarahippy.livejournal.com]

Heh, funny how perspective changes things. I think those are perfect birthdays because mine is five days before Christmas. There was a brief period in my 20's when it was fun because everyone wanted any excuse to party but it is mostly a time people want with their families.

It's also funny to think of Astrid being at the start of the holidays because in Scotland the schools are almost going back (this year 17th August I think). Which is weird because I grew up in England.

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

thyme_slimy's is the August Bank Holiday weekend, so we were/are nearly always out of town for it; birthday parties, if they happened, waited a week until term had started.

Her son, James, has his birthday ("Such good planning on my part!") just at/before the end of the summer term (he's 4 or 5 days older than Astrid, I think), so his party will be the one to finish the school year, no doubt!

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

We're the start of Scottish summer hols (and a month after Xmas - poor kid) and we do need to think carefully about when to have parties. So far it's not been too bad, though I want a smaller party next year - the actual day one with 2 close friends was most fun.

[astrogeek.livejournal.com]

We struggle with this too - we have one birthday a couple of weeks after Christmas and the other in mid-July (which would just about be still in term time in England, but here in the US the summer vacation starts mid-June). The main problem I have with the January birthday is that with no option of an outside party, I am committed to spending at least $200 for any kind of party, as our house is too small to really do anything here. And being so soon after Christmas, gift buying is kind of difficult too, as he's just got a ton of new stuff already.

[ailbhe]

Wow, that's steep. We do a hire-venue about every other year, but we can get two hours in a church hall for £30 or so!

The gift stuff is a pain because really, we don't have space for any more stuff, and they get so much, all the time - two sets of grandparents and five aunts, let alone all their other adult friends, and that's before you count up the child-friends (whose parents thankfully buy much less because they are also buying for all the *other* children in the same social groups). It's mad. We basically buy very little ourselves, in terms of birthday gifts, just because they have way too much already. It's kind of sad.

[astrogeek.livejournal.com]

There's not really the option of a church hall here - churches are religious buildings and don't really perform the kind of community center role that they tend to in England. All the options for kids birthday parties tend to be at e.g. indoor playspaces, museums, zoos etc, where you pay about $200 for the privilege of having 10 of your friends admitted and a small room for a couple of hours to set out some food and cake (which you have to provide yourself). So far I've got away without doing anything, but I think this coming year, when turns 5 and will be in school he is going to notice that all his friends get a party and wonder why he doesn't.

I'm with you on the too-much stuff! Our house is splitting at the seams with all the toys I want to get rid of, but am just too overwhelmed with it all to know where to start!