Third Birthday Parties: Keeping up with the Joneses

[ailbhe]

In January there was one at a venue with softplay facilities (I was too ill to go). Last week there was one in someone's home with a local lagoon pool with wave machine hired for the second half (we attended the home bit but were too ill to go to the pool). Today there's one at a softplay venue with a Fimbles theme. Last week;s party had a real proper book in every party bag, and a very fancy multicoloured colouring pencil, and games with prizes, and smoked salmon sandwiches.

We were planning to have Linnea's in our own home, with plain sponge cake. However, one of the guests is allergic to cats, so we can't do that. Another guest is allergic to nuts. We're currently thinking of a picnic in the park, with a cake made by the woman at the Farmer's Market who also provides for the Workhouse Coffee Shop, but what if it rains?

The main problem is that although I have no objection to parties in venues, I don't like that they are becoming the baseline. These children are three years old. Most of them will play for hours with cardboard boxes or our out-of-tune piano. It seems very weird to organise activities for them, like pass the parcel which in general the parents have to play for the children, or lucky dips for exciting take-home party bags, or whatever.

Birthday parties happen in someone's home, in my universe, with the height of excitement being that there are junky fizzy drinks like Coke or, probably, Fanta, and cocktail sausages on sticks, and bowls of suspiciously orange crisps. The cat allergy makes this impossible - a 14-month-old can't just take antihistamines like an adult could. So there's a public park, which poses a toilet problem and a weather problem.

It has just occurred to me that I might be able to hire the local Bridge Hall. That might be perfect. I'll get back to you.

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I can't work out why the parents are going for these expensive venues. Are they all so loaded with money that they can't imagine doing things another way? Or are they people with normal incomes trying to show off to other parents how much they "love" their kids by spending money on a party that the kid will almost certainly not remember in later life? Or is it simply that, despite being parents, they are somewhat afraid of having 6 or 10 or 15 three year olds in their precious house, and want to offload the childcare responsibility onto softplay venue staff who are trained in dealing with large quantities of young children?

It's sad that the potential guest's allergy stops you from having the type of party that you'd really like :(