Birthday Bonanza

Today I was an additional adult supervisor at H.G.W.'s fifth birthday party, fourteen five year olds dressed as princesses with too much stimulation!  Within five minutes of arriving at the party the little girls were bored.  Did I mention H.G.W. has a toy store in her basement?  What ever happened to entertaining yourself, being patient, and showing kindness by waiting for your other friends to arrive?  Am I asking too much of a five year olds?  It is called respect and manners.  In order to insure everyone had a good time we dove right into the games: pin the tiara on the princess, hot prince frog, and pinata madness (the new safe version where everyone pulls a string instead of whacking it with a bat).  Then we jumped into arts and crafts: at home build-a-bear unicorns, face painting, crown making, and wand decorating.  Next the girls filled their plates with food: chocolate covered strawberries, magic wands (pretzels covered in chocolate with lots of sprinkles), veggies (you could dip in dressing found in Cinderella's carved pumpkin), chicken sandwiches, princess fruit snacks, and a cake in the shape of a crown with ice cream.  If you learned anything from reading the lengthy descriptions... the party was over the top.  You're lucky I did not even go into how the house was decorated!

Now my children will not only be deprived of a consumerism Christmas but also of birthdays... or the parties that come with them.  It's official, birthdays are dumb.  We are celebrating a day you do not even remember. In my opinion it is not an accomplishment to make it to 1, or 10, 0r 13, or 16, or 21, or 50.  Maybe in Lesotho it is, but we live in America.  It is sad to think that the chances of H.G.W. remembering her party that her mom worked on and stressed about for days are slim to none.  The memories she has will be through pictures and video recordings.  I was doing a lot of the recording... oh how badly I wanted to add my commentary.  

Birthday parties are so expensive, there an obligation, they contribute an unlimited amount of paper products to landfills, and are more about gifts than anything else.  All of the birthday bonanza really annoys me. Call me heartless because on your birthday I feel obligated to call and wish you a happy birthday, buy you a gift you told me to get you, or come and celebrate with you.  Frankly though as we get older it's totally meaningless when social networking (a.k.a. Facebook) helped me remember your special day.  I am going to call you when I am thinking of you. Send you cards when I think you need them the most or when I miss you lots.  If I see something that reminds me of you, I am going to buy it then.  Although I truly think non-tangible gifts are the best to buy and receive.  Peer pressure stop dictating the way I celebrate.  I am so over you.  

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years." (Abraham Lincoln)  Instead of celebrating each year, lets celebrate your accomplishments.