Happiest Birthday to She-Beast!!! It’s her birthday today and she turns 7!
As I just mentioned, it is my daughter’s 7th birthday today. It is so incredibly difficult to believe that time has flow by so quickly. My youngest is 7!?! I know every parent says that time flies but truly there is no better saying regarding parenthood than this: “The days are long but the years are short.” – Gretchen Rubin.
With it being She-Beasts’ birthday, I wanted to see what traditions you all have for celebrating birthdays in your household. At the HausofBurns we do not do the traditional birthday parties for the kids. For us, it is something we celebrate with our family. Instead of planning a party for the kids and their friends we try to celebrate with a meal as a family. Of course we have cake and sing “happy birthday” but we keep it pretty low key. I know it seems strange to not have birthday parties but truly it works for our family. Instead of having a big party, we allow the the kids to choose an activity of their choice. It has ranged from horseback riding, go karting, to trips to the zoo and even Atlanta for LegoLand Discovery. We do send in treats for the kids to celebrate with their friends at school so they are not completely missing out on celebrating with their friends.
Every year, the kids pick a treat they want to have at school with their friends. We make sure to keep in mind that it needs to be easy to handle so as not to complicate things for the teachers. Every year starting 3 years ago, when my youngest started elementary school, I also started renting the rock at their school and painting it for their birthdays. I let them pick out their theme and I bring it to life. Check out some of what I’ve done:
One of the other things that I try to do annually for their birthdays includes balloons. They LOVE balloons. There are years where its much more involved and some years its as simple as blowing up balloons and throwing them in their rooms while they sleep so they awake to the surprise.
I try to keep it simple, the focus is on the kids and making their day special. Last year I have also started taking their birthdays off so that I can have lunch at school with them. We get them lunch from a restaurant they want typically its Chik-fil-a. It is something they have started looking forward to and it is fun for us as parents too!
So before anyone asks or says something about not having birthday parties. It comes down to a few reasons, firstly, we do not live in a neighborhood. Since we do not live in a neighborhood we have really no neighborhood children for our kids to play with or party with prior to starting school. After they started school I realized that I have anxiety when there are a lot of people and noises. Kids parties; all noises and lots of people. I also have a hard time planning parties. I am very hard on myself and want to do things to the best of my abilities. For me, the anxiety of was it enough? was it too much? was it perfect? Striving for perfection is the epitome of setting yourself up for failure. Selfishly, our traditions for birthdays are just easier for me. They also allow the kids to maintain the focus on family.
The focus on family, for me is extremely important. We want the kids to value the time and memories made with family. While friendships are absolutely important, they will have time to spend with their friends to do things outside of birthday celebrations. Let’s be honest, one day not to far off, their focus and priorities will change as the get into their pre-teen and teenage years. I know they may not choose to do as many things with us as parents and that is completely fine. While they are still completely willing, I will choose to keep our birthdays a family affair.
Share with me what your traditions are with birthday celebrations. I know mine are not everyone’s cup of tea but it works for our family.