#5. Indoor Gym/Playground This is actually a great idea if you are hosting more than one or two kids and are short on space in your home — especially in cold weather. Giving kids a place to run around like mad is never a bad plan. They are not free, however, and they are not everywhere.
#4. Rented Equipment You can rent just about anything from a bouncy castle to a cotton candy machine to a big old tent. You will want first, though, to make sure you have enough space, money, and kids to warrant the expense. And, for heaven’s sake, make sure the rentals are age appropriate — nobody wants to put their one year old on that giant inflatable slide. (Or their 16-year-old for that matter.)
#3. The Theme Restaurant I remember Chuck E. Cheese’s from my youth and McDonald’s probably still does kids parties. There are probably lots of other regional variations, too. This is a chaotic and expensive option, but by all means, if it’s your cup of tea, go for it.
#2. Hired Help/Entertainment You can obviously get any party catered — even kids parties — though I really wouldn’t bother unless their parents will be sticking around. (Unless ordering in a cheese pizza counts as catering.) But you can also hire clowns, magicians, mimes, story tellers, and more to perform at the party. Just make sure you know what you’re getting. Take recommendations from people you trust or, better yet, hire an act you’ve already seen.
#1. The Friend Party This is really the basic party where you invite a few of your children’s friends over and feed them and give them some activities and eat cake and open presents and they’re off. This is a just-fine-by-me party. Still, if your child is likely to have a large number of grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins wanting to attend the party (or if that’s who he would like to see on his birthday) then skip the friends. At some point you will end up with two parties, I guess, or a party and a dinner … or grandma will just have to drop by without a party.
As Young C’s third birthday draws closer I decided that he will be just as happy with a barbecue for family and cake and presents and really won’t miss any of his neighbourhood friends or the bells and whistles. I figure that I’ll always take the path of least fuss when it comes to birthdays. Some kids will just never care to have a big ado while it will be very important to others.
Even though she loves birthdays, Scary Mommy writes, “I’m not a big fan of birthday parties. As a host I find them draining, expensive and stressful. As a guest they rank pretty low on my list of what I’d like to be doing on a Saturday afternoon, slightly above a trip to the pediatrician and several notches below spending a rainy day at home.” And there’s quite the heated discussion at Mamma Loves about what is and isn’t acceptable for children’s parties. I’m still pretty new to this aspect of parenting, but I don’t want to give my all on a third birthday and then have nothing left for the next nineteen years.
I’ll be setting the bar very, very low.
2 replies on “5 Birthday Ideas I Won’t Be Using This Year”
Yep – parties are way too much work! Which is why pretty much all we do is let the kids go nuts and eat pizza, while the parents sit, chat + latte ;-). Yes, “latte” is now a verb.
The older girls enjoy beach parties – we set up the vball net, and they play and eat pizza. Low key, lots of fun, easy peasy.
Family dinners for bdays we make the most special – we let the girls pick a country, and I cook the meal from that country while they decorate (with paper, table settings) for it. It’s incredibly memorable, but a ton of work.
That sounds just about perfect to me. Now I only need to figure out a way to get that beach vibe in Toronto in February!