My birthday is during the summer so as a kid I never had birthday parties with my classmates. My school friends and I all went our separate ways the end of June until September.
My son's birthday is in October. Last year, his first year in school (JK), parents were told they can bring in a cake to celebrate with classmates. So that is what I did. I brought in cupcakes (instead of cake) and a small treat (candy) for each kid in his class. He attends a private international school where class sizes are limited to 12 kids. Easy peasy.... I am not the "Martha Stewart" type so I can handle this.
With each kids birthday last year things got more extravagant. By the end of the year parents were delivering cake, McDonald's Happy Meals and a large loot bag full of toys for each kid. Boy was I glad I had his birthday over with before this started.
Well today was the first birthday of this school year. And the precedent has already been set high. Again with the Happy Meals and huge loot bags. This kids parents must have even found out girls vs boys because his loot bag was full of Spiderman and Ben10 items. Great ! With my little guys birthday coming up in a few weeks what the hell am I to do. I hate the idea of trying to "keep up with the Jones". Perhaps I will be the one to step up and "lower" that bar. I am sure that some of the other parents will appreciate this. Come on they are 5 year olds right?
DO IT!! Trust me, it's so hard to "keep up", & the more kids & the older they get, the worse it becomes! I took a step back a few years ago & just told them, I cannot afford this kind of thing with 4 of them. I even stopped buying teacher gifts at X-mas & end of year. My J/K already came home with a loot bag from a birthday kid, but we are no longer allowed to send treats (the whole peanut thing), so when her turn comes in February, with 20 kids in the class, I will do what I do with my bigger kids...nothing. I used to send mini cupcakes & leave it at that, now I offer them the day off, to skip school & do something alone with Mom. There are ways to get around it...offer them something "better", like the day off, or when I scaled down b-day parties, & instead went with 2 or 3 close friends & take them out to do something fun, & let them sleepover....stand strong woman, the parents WILL love you for it!
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