Is it okay to spoil your kid on his or her birthday with a big party?
Posted on 01 26, 2007 under Master Debaters by wahoodad |
When most of us were kids, we celebrated our birthdays in a minimalist fashion. Parents mostly hosted the parties at home, the birthday kid invited a handful of friends over to play some Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, everyone ate homemade cake and Hood ice cream off paper plates with plastic sporks, and guests left with a Loot Bag containing a few pieces of candy and maybe a yo-yo. If you’ve been out of the kids’ birthday party circuit for a while, prepare for the steady flow of invites once your kid reaches school age. Today, many parents opt for an outside-the-home party at places like Chuck E. Cheese’s, Gymboree or other play gym venue, or indoor sports complexes. If the party is at the home, it might feature a bounce house, a magician, or a professional storyteller. And all these things add up. If you’re frustrated with this generation’s birthday party arms race, you’re not alone.
An organization in St. Paul, MN area called Birthdays Without Pressure now offers a place for frustrated parents to vent about lavish parties, and to offer alternatives to over-the-top birthday celebrations. It’s a call for simplicity and restraint in a world where MTV highlights ostentatious, Lifestyles-of-the-Rich-and-Famous-type parties for brats featured on “My Sweet 16”.
Maybe you think the folks at Birthdays Without Pressure should mind their own damn business. Maybe you’re glad that someone finally has the stones to bring this matter to light. Whether you’re one of the culprits or one of the victims, we want to know how you feel:
Is it okay to spoil your kid on his or her birthday with a big party?
This is the latest installment in our Master Debaters Question of the Week Series. There are some topics that seem to fall into the consensus category: drunk driving is bad, guns kill people, Transformers are better than GoBots. But that only covers less than 1% of the decisions you and your spouse make towards the upbringing of your kids. The majority of issues tend to fall more in the gray area.Here at Noodad.com, we take pride in delivering important advice for dads. But we realize that some of our advice is subjective. The collected readership surely has things to add and unique perspectives to contribute. So, where do you weigh in?
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Me personally, I wouldn\'t want to. I think a simple party with some friends, cake, and ice cream is plenty. I honestly don\'t think that the kid will even remember or appreciate the huge party that you would give them.
My daughter is going to have two first birthday parties. Her grandmother wants to throw her one with all of her family and we are choosing to do a smaller, simpler one at our home with some friends and delicious food.
Our daughter isn\'t going to remember her first birthday parties let alone give a crap about some creppy clown making crappy balloon animals.
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