It is clearly party season in the world of my soon-to-be-eight year old. In the last week she has attended three parties and my inbox tonight brought her yet another invitation. Further to that is her own party in three weeks time. This is on top of the three other parties she attended at the beginning of term. I kid you not. I suppose things really do come in threes.
All these birthday celebrations got me wondering; why so many? What is it about Sept-Nov that meant so many offspring were popped out during these three Autumn months? I did the math and came to a few conclusions:
September babies are likely to be the result of too much festive drinking and merry-making during the run-up to Christmas.
October babies clearly celebrated the New Year.
November babies are a result of Valentine’s Day and clearly not enough abstinence for Lent.
What do you mean I’m generalising a bit? Me? Generalise? Never…..
Either way it’s an expensive season. I have waxed lyrical about party bags and costs before so I won’t bore you, but I do think a better way to do things is to scrap party bags (which cost about a fiver each to make up) and say no presents please. Now, you can leave it at that and be quids in OR if you are feeling guilty generous you can take the fivers you would have spent on party bags and pool it into one BIG present for the birthday girl/boy! This makes sense in my brain. The guests are a fiver each better off (no present to buy) but a party bag down. The birthday child remains on an even keel but instead of lots of small presents they get one really nice present or the cash in their savings account! Or give the money to charity? Teach them about give and take.
I doubt this will EVER catch on but it’s an interesting theory, I think.
There were lots of fantastic blogs in last week’s Monday Club, so do link up your blog post below and join the blogosphere’s least exclusive club!
My birthday is two days after Valentine’s Day. My two eldest daughters are born in November, one day apart. My ‘once every 4 years’ birthday treat… I made sure my third baby wasn’t conceived anywhere NEAR the middle of February just to prove a point. Point proved. Back to once every 4 years on my birthday.
…actually, one more comment! When I was young, much younger than today (you’re humming The Beatles song there, I hope) when I had one child, was sub-25 (did I mention the much younger than today bit?) and idealistic, she had a party for her fifth birthday. I invited the whole class. I sewed pirate bags out of maroon fabric and leather string and filled them with gold coins, which took about five days. I also asked everybody to donate an amount to Children in Need rather than give her a present, trying to avoid the 30 small pressies (which I think sends most small children into a mental frenzy). She was the first grandchild, and the first child in any of our groups of friends, to say this child wanted for little in the way of pressies is an understatement. I said I would buy her a big present on behalf of her firends at the party. Most of the other mums thought I was terribly unkind and donated money and still bought her a present, which defeated the object entirely!! One child asked where her ‘proper party bag was’! I now leave these parties untainted. Party bags filled with plastic tat and a present frenzy. ;-)
I was humming the tune before I hit the brackets!
Yes, how unkind of you to give to charity at the expense of your child *ditches THAT idea*
I might just put space dust and a whistle in the party bags. That’ll pee off all the coiffeured mums!
This is not the best of seasons for birthday parties! Not in the run up to Xmas – I’m a November Baby!
I tell you…it is birthday season BIG time!
Too much pressure to follow the herd these days. I don’t take part in competitive parenting. Coming to the party is enough, no need for bags. I dunno who started the silly idea, as if parents don’t have enough to do.
Parties have gone a bit bananas if you ask me. What happened to everyone bundle into the lounge and pass-the-parcel? Now it’s all Pizza Express and ponies. I couldn’t keep up even if I wanted to!
It seems to be more and more about the parents (dare I say mummies). Kids are happy to run and play and scream, fight, eat and throw up, not in that order, and usually several times. I’d rather have the kids love it, and for my kids to make friends, than give a rats ass about my social standing.
haha…okay i am a very OBVIOUS demonstration that this is very much the case in my house…AHEM!!
Absolutely no party bags in this house. Just cake in a napkin. Maybe a balloon if they’re lucky.
But you did win them a wii….;) That makes up for it! x
God I have blogged many a time over my hatred of party bags! At the kids last party I popped a note on the invitations saying we wouldnt have any and to pre warn their kids – we gave them extra cake though!
We all hate them, yet the bloody things keep on coming….
I have decided to bulk buy on ebay to keep costs down. Pure class, me.
I totally agree with you on the whole party bag thing. I’ve stopped doing that now, just get them one worthwhile present to take home and give them a piece of cake – can’t bear to spend money on all that tat! We have 2 kids with birthdays in September and November……the middle child’s due date was 14th November – do the Maths!
You see! And since I wrote this I have so many people saying ‘Oh, yes I’m a Nov baby. And ALL women…..curious.
I don’t like party bags at all. But there’s no denying my twins love them. For their 2nd birthday they had a little party with some pals and instead of party bags we gave each child a trowel, and a couple of packets of seeds (sunflowers etc), tied up in a bow. I thought it was a cool idea…but even at 2yrs old a couple of the children looked thoroughly disappointed when they were handed their gifts!
Such an elegant thought….wasted on children who, on the whole, prefer plastic tat.
It’s incredibly belated – blame my dizzy head – but I’ve just linked up my post from the beginning of this week! X.
Always better late than never! x
Mine’s a December baby, he’ll be 1 this year so a bit young to understand about parties and presents yet, however, just out of interest, is it stingy doing the Christmas and Birthday presents/party in a one-er, thing? (there’s only a week between the two dates!)
Actually come to think of it, my next one’s due in January…hmmm…pushing it a bit?
:o)
i hate party bags too but for some reason the kids love all that plastic toot. i have managed to largely avoid it as one of mine has a birthday near easter so a nice easter egg for each child seems to work better, and these days we don’t really have a proper party for my autistic son as however many he invites he rarely gets any invites back to other parties. we try to have a special family day out instead. p.s. am loving your blog x
Hi Sarah, and may I say how wonderful it is to fall upon your blog. Love it. Wish i’d had the idea of the name myself…!!
Totally with you here on party bags. I’m really anti-party bags for the other reason that they’re full of plastic tat that are made by under-paid Chinese labourers and get chucked in the bin after a few days. So, when the kids were v small, i gave the ‘guests’ (!) a small present each like a garden windmill thing you stick in your flowerbed or a ball, and now they’re older (6&8) i keep them v simple with the cake, the presents they’ve won from the party games (v sneaky), and one or two other small pressies that aren’t made of plastic and aren’t a pencil! the stuff my kids bring home, if its stuff they have (rubber, pencil etc) I bung it in a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child where some child in a refugee camp will simply fall on a set of colouring pencils and use them until they’re run out.
Re presents – i tried once asking friends to just bring one present for each child when my son had a joint party with another friend, saying we’d divvy them up as it was an all class party and they don’t need 30 presents each (first and last time i’ve done an all class party). But people didn’t want to. At the end of the day, you can try and change a culture, but you can’t force it….!
Its all about resisting the pressure to do it like everyone else….hard, but necessary :-)
Am planning a little post on this subject soon, as part of a series i’ve started called ‘The Best is the Enemy of the Good’ following a massive response to a post I wrote on Oct 2 called The Good Enough Mums.
I’m a relatively new blogger, and just found you, and love your style.
Love the 100 words writing challenge too. Must try it out soon…..
Oh and yes, I AM a Nov baby too – twin with my brother though…..!