kids birthdays

I had very few parties as a kid - maybe a couple when I was too young to remember... and that wasn't very flash! mostly relatives (we don't have many anyway) and a few family friends + their kids. We would usually have a "treat" for our birthdays - go to the movies, or a trip to fantasyland (is now splash planet in hastings) Or a dinner at pizza hutt... but then alot of kids these days would consider those things normal.

In NZ for each of Charlottes parties (she had 2 before we left) we just basically had family, our close friends and a couple of Charlottes friends. We hired a few big toys and ate lots of junk food and had the whole cake thing. It was more for us really than her I think.

Over here (in the area we are in anyway) kids parties are a BIG DEAL. You hire a venue- either a soft play or a room and an entertainer, and then do a big seated meal for the kids (party food) afterwards. We went to a disney princess theme one yesterday and the party bags we bought home would have been worth almost as much as the present we got the kid! I won't even mention the cake- put my wedding cake to shame.

We will be doing parties for both the girls each year- mainly because I love doing them Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family (Mums side)- I let Charlotte have input (like this year she wants a tinkerbell cake) to a point and so far the requests have been pretty reasonable.

I don't think you're at all weird for not doing it. My Dad has never been into birthdays and thinks parties should be saved for the special birthdays. I don't think its necessarily a girl thing either- the boys parties over here are often just as extravagant! We won't be getting bigger and better as time goes on- we have a budget for how much we would feel comfortable spending on a party and I doubt that is going to go up.

jake's first birthday also conincided with us leaving Japan, so we invited a rther big amount of people. in japan - that is not really the done thing. The people we invited were ones that had met him and were close to us. His daycare asked if they could tkae him to the zoo so those kids could spend time with him, so we only invited my japanese teacher's little girl Ayaka, the rest were adults.
Taine - we invited all of our playcentre - about 10 adults and 20 kids. We had a ball - BUT his birthday is in summer and we had a huge yard at the time
Jake's second was close fmaily and friends and they have all continued to be so. I love the parties, but after Jake's first one was a huge deal (i refeused to have chicken nuggets and made them from scratch), I am a lot more relaxed about them - having food the ids like rather than food I can show off my cookng skills about.

i love making the cakes though!

I am with Paws, family and close friends for our parties, and even then, 1st and 5th will be the bigger ones.

Am glad you said something though Deb as was starting to feel inadequate about the birthday I have planned for Jack!

I think thats pretty reasonable. I worry that kids today get too many things too soon and nothing is special (I have my "I'm old" hat on today).

I expect to have a 1yr party as doubledee said, mainly to celebrate 1 yr since WE had him rather than anything he gets a say in (tehehe). and then I wouldnt expect a party till he was 5yrs, 13yrs, 16yrs and 21st.

I'm sure there will be the odd one thrown in but I dont want to have to do something amazing each year. I expect that we will do something special on each birthday (maybe a couple of mates around or go out etc but not the full on guest list party)/

But I'll probably cave in and get off my old high horse.

It's not something I had actually thought about for my kids. I love planning parties, but now that you mention it I remember not having birthday parties each year as a kid, and that made the big ones (5 years old, 10 years old, 13 years old I think?) even more exciting. Even though the 'big' parties were more often just a few of my friends for a slumber party night or something like that.
I think if you want to do themed parties for your kids and can afford to do so, then that's really cool. There are still ways to limit expectations/budget within that and it's fun to celebrate your kids and do something special with them. I guess it also depends on your definition of a 'party'.
For us, I don't think we'll be doing a big party for DD until her 5th. We will always do a cake and something special for the birthday, but not with heaps of friends/favours/etc.
Jen, those parties in London sound amazing!

We didn't have a 1st bday party for Jake per se, more just family around for afternoon tea and he had one little friend. We did have LOTS of kids for his second bday party, as his 1st birthday was more for me, his second was for him, if you get my drift, but our bday partys are more just kids playing outside and party food, we had hats and a banner (that I have had since rods 40th, lol) I can't get into the loot bad thing, its expensive enough as it is. We have a huge yard and lots of cool toys and I love all the kids playing.

We did the same thing for Chars first birthday as we did for Jakes 2nd, mostly Jakes wee friends and their wee bros and sisters as we see them all the time. It was great(except the weather. This time, though I invited my Midwife, as we won't be using her again, lol, and she is one of the family!

Probably now, it won't be weekend parties, it will be a wee morning tea, if anything, and have a big blow out at 5.

Having said that, I love kids parties, the chaos etc. Not so much into the whole theme and loot bag thing, cos I'm tight and I don't want to set expectations, but different strokes for different folks. Having said that, though, we did have a wiggles table cloth and table wear, lol as Jake is fully into Wiggles, but that was that was all!

Edited by fattartsrock

We did a 1st birthday gathering of close friends and family, but that day was special for DH & I aswell
We are not planning a "party" till he is 5, we will keep it as close family and friends.
The day is about the child (and parents for surviving) I think that can be forgetting sometimes.

LOL emma - i know about yours - i think we've attended them all!!!

We didn't do a big 1st bday party as I was shattered and Elle wouldn't remember it. I don't think we will do a big second b'day. I may do something more exciting when she is old enough to understand what is going on but it still won't be huge. Kids love the simple things in life!

Not sure exactly what I'll do when she is older but there are sure to be parties and friends involved.