I have been meaning to start this thread all day... Is it just me or is today's kids overdoing the birthday party thing? I will be 37 in July and I can remember only having like 2, maybe 3 birthday parties my whole life. My daughter who just turned 10 had yet another birthday party (the 3rd one in 4 years since I have been in her life) this past weekend. This coming Saturday, I gotta go with her, yup you guessed it, to another BIRTHDAY PARTY!! I just don't get it - do the kids today think they are a failure if they don't have a birthday party? I really think this is more of a generation thing because it also dovetails into the fact that no kid today is getting spanked. And don't get me wrong, I would not spank my daughter, especially over stupid stuff like I used to get spanked before when I was a kid. But schools don't even use paddlins anymore..it is like there is no discipline anymore with kids. And I have noticed too that kids today are more argumentive and defiant with their attitudes. If I had talked back to my parents when I was a kid, I got a spanking or a hand across the face (sometimes both). It makes you wonder what these kids are going to be like when they grow up? A bunch of wusses?? Probably so.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4N3N1MlvVc4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4N3N1MlvVc4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> He says it better than I can.
The CPA would like to talk to some of us before we can discipline our children. But if we do discipline our children however we want, we're "bad parents" 'cuz we touch our kids with our hands on their bottoms or give them a slap on the wrist. THEIR WAY is always better? I agree totally, mister Ramirez, sir. We're having my younger daughter's 9th Birthday party this weekend and we're done with their parties until they have "Quinceañeras" since we have to save up for those.
I am 20, I had a birthday part from when I was about 5 to when I was like 12. Everyone I knew had them as well. I think maybe 4 of them were just a few friends coming over to the house and the first few were at like Chuckie Cheese's, Discovery Zone, or other things like that
No, I think it's just you. I had birthday parties every year as a kid and so did every kid I knew I am pro-spanking when necessary...my sister didn't spank her kids ever and it shows. But I'm sure there are plenty of cases where kids are respectful despite never being spanked And
I thought everyone had a birthday party like every year?? Maybe not on a grand scale like you're describing, but at least a small get together...
You can always tell them...we're not going to throw another b-day party this year b/c (reason). If you're sick of them going to other kids' parties maybe forbid them from having friends? What do you want us to say? They're kids and they have a life...you have to play the father role...sorry?
I pretty much have had a birthday party every year of my life. Im 30 now. Doing Vegas next year, so thatll extend my streak to 31.
We've yet to have a big party for our son yet, and he's turning 3. His first two parties were just large family get togethers. That's what we plan to do again this year, although I think I'll spring for a moonwalk or something this year. I think we'll probably do the Chuck E. Cheese thing when he turns 4 or 5, but definitely not every year after that. I might have had one or two parties at a "party zone" place, otherwise it was parties at the house, which was fine by me. What I don't get is so far we've basically just asked family to his parties, and will do so again this year. But in the past few weeks we've already gotten 3 birthday party invitations from kids in his day care. There is seriously no way I'm attending birthday parties for 16 kids...these are 2 and 3 olds.
"Cool story, b-- " jk I think today there is a little more importance placed on commemorative events like prom, birthday parties, VIP club outings, that kind of thing. Everything's about Facebook and Twitter pics so its even more about being showy, parents loving the chance to show off the kids. I only had a couple parties in my life too, though I wanted MORE. Cuz everybody else seemed to be having them. So THAT can maybe "dovetail" into adulthood and influence parental decisions. Cuz I didnt get it, overspoiling the kids.
I feel you Manny. Turns out that we're the same age (I'll be 37 in late June), and I agree. Damn kids and their attitudes and their vidja games and their computicas and their tight pants. I think it all ties in to the consumption fever that America has. Buy buy buy...gimmie gimmie gimmie. Kids today feel like you owe them something. The happiest and most grateful I felt as a child was when I got a Nintendo. I still appreciate it to this day. Side comment- I feel that modern American women follow this trend, too. It's all take and no give for the vast majority of them. I was so sick of them after my last relationship (before I met my wife), that I swore off American women except for recreation. I thought I would have to journey to South America, Asia or Eastern Europe to meet a nice, wholesome girl. I figured that if I were going to settle down with an American woman, she would have to be a yokel who was raised in a small town with pure values. That's pretty much how it went down- my wife is from small town Indiana, and her grandparents were Amish. It doesn't get much more wholesome than that. All of this spoiled crap also influenced where I decided to buy a house- yokel central NW of Ft Worth. The biggest thing that struck me when we were looking around was that some teenagers actually called me 'sir'. However, back to the birthday party thing...I got one or two a year. Sometimes it was family AND friends, sometimes it was the two separately. I'm sorry you didn't get more. Hopefully your birthdays were better than Bender's from Breakfast Club.
I had plenty of birthday "parties" from the ages of probably 6 to maybe 11 or 12. Though what I called a party was basically getting together with my group of 5 or 6 good friends when I was younger and just hanging out at someone's house, possibly staying the night. Not sure I agree the whole spanking thing is necessary... though maybe I'm biased, because by all accounts I was a pretty docile kid. Though... come to think of it, when I was a really little kid, whenever I annoyed my dad he liked to twist my arm with all his strength until I cried... but then the crying also annoyed him, so he kept going until I stopped. Perhaps that's why I never cry anymore. Gotta love parents sometimes...
I roll in a crew of about 25 people, and we average about 2 birthday parties a month. Who picks up the cost of the cake, is another thread by itself.
I tried for a few years to setup a sleepover/birthday every year, but after multiple rejections, my mom just told me to "give up, already." It's possible it was because I had a July birthday; but, God, I was a pretty annoying, emotional weirdo back then, and my two brothers never had problems having big parties. In any case, pizza, movie, cake, Nintendo game rental, and cash was more than enough. The "Physical Whimsical" party in the San Jacinto Mall penthouse was a big deal in Baytown. So was the wood-paneled Polo section at Foley's.
Thank you. It really is more about the "perception" of so and so is having a birthday party at this place, so I have to have mine at an even better place. It is like there is a constant game of trying to one-up others. I just think it is stupid and wanted to see if it is just my kid or all kids in general are like that now. And it doesn't matter what I say, all she has to do is go to my wife and she will get her way. Funny how that works out...some of you guys who are still single and don't have kids can't relate now but you might some day.
