If you don't have a birthday party for your dc - Page 2

[meemee]

no i dont. 

dd is  not a big cake fan. we got cake at parties for the others. not for dd. 

if dd had her way she'd rather have a giant sushi roll 'cake' rather than cake itself. 

however she will go for gourmet cake. she'd gobble up a tiramisu since she was 4. 

[Polliwog]

DS's sixth birthday was yesterday. Her party was on Saturday. We didn't have a cake or anything on her actual birthday. It never occurred to me. She picked out red glitter shoes (like Dorothy) at the mall and was happy.

[MrsGregory]

This is all so enlightening!  We celebrate our birthdays every year... yes, even the adults.  We have cake, we have friends, we have pressies!  Why would you want to miss that?

Husband, meanwhile, thinks even older children shouldn't get a "birthday".  So far, we've been content to just sit in opposite corners of the couch and mutter "Savage." at each other over the issue.

I had no idea not having birthdays was "a thing" people did.  Wow.

[choli]

Originally Posted by MrsGregory 

This is all so enlightening!  We celebrate our birthdays every year... yes, even the adults.  We have cake, we have friends, we have pressies!  Why would you want to miss that?

Husband, meanwhile, thinks even older children shouldn't get a "birthday".  So far, we've been content to just sit in opposite corners of the couch and mutter "Savage." at each other over the issue.

I had no idea not having birthdays was "a thing" people did.  Wow.

We usually don't have birthday parties, just family celebration. We don't usually have cake because none of us like cake (or anything sweet). We don't have parties because we never wanted to turn our birthdays into a grabfest centered around presents.

[Neera]

Originally Posted by choli 

 We don't have parties because we never wanted to turn our birthdays into a grabfest centered around presents.

That's one of the reasons I didn't want a party this year.

[mtiger]

We always celebrate family bdays. My parents and I are all w/in a week of one another, so we get together on a weekend around there (often Mother's Day, since that's also right then) for a dinner at home. I usually cook, Mom bakes a cake. With the kids, we also do a family dinner with my parents & brother on a convenient evening around the day, but never on the day. That is mine to spend with the kids. They each get to choose the meal (home or choice of restaurant), and they do get a gift from me. I go to great lengths to choose something meaningful for them.

When they were younger, they always had friend parties. As they got older, that morphed into getting together with a few friends, and either anging out here at home or going somewhere. For their 16th bdays... My daughter organized a surprise party for him here at home. I did throw her a Sweet 16 party (two months after LOL - I wanted the weather to be nice, as it was a beach theme). For their 18th? My son asked to go out to dinner on the day and to bring his g/f and best friend (which was convenient, as my daughter was dating him). The four of them sat on their own, and I sat with best friend's Mom - also my best friend. My daughter? She, her b/f and I went deep sea fishing. THAT was fun! (I get seasick...)

As a parent, my kids' birthdays are special to me.

[MrsGregory]

In defense of parties, the gifts we receive are meant to be small and heartfelt, or the whole idea of gifts is scrapped and in lieu of, some wonderful activity is undertaken.

I really, really...  no birthday parties? 

(I kid.  To each their own.)

[meemee]

oh dont get me wrong. we partaaay . dd loves a partaaay - just doesnt have to always be a bday party. 

till dd kinda lost interest in the party as she grew older. whom to invite whom not to.

we had initial bdays for the family. after that it was for dd until she hit 7 and then ... oh dear. 

we've done alternate year parties.

but dd's parties have always been friends family and children party. so since many couldnt attend dd had a bunch of lunches and dinners to go to by those who missed the party. 

we definitely made sure she had her double digits and the day matching the age party.  her golden bday. 

however i did bdays shamelessly for the presents. that is the only time dd got any presents. her gparents passed away early and there was no one really else showering her with presents. so bday is the time she got any. except from me. we did things/presents thru out the year whenever i had extra $$$s so never got her presents ever on her bday. but then she lost interest in the presents coz she didnt like them. till we hit upon wrap something from your house that you dont play with. 

going back to cake. the only time dd really wanted cake was when a friend made a delicious pound cake with raspberry preserve filling. last bday dd and her friends got together and made a candy casserole. it was to date dd's most memorable bday coz she had carte blanche to candy and she threw up a million times during and after the party. that made her realise how she cant really handle candy (sadly her friends whom she had over are v. mainstream - so dd was eating candy to fit in). 

however i DO do something for her bday. last year dd chose to go to a tea house instead of dinner and she loved the whole experience of an english tea with sandwiches and crumpets 

[Neera]

I guess grandma was just being a party pooper. Up until a few years ago, maybe 5, we gave her a present for her bday, a tradition dh had from before we got married. They'd give me a gift on my bday. It kind of ended on it's own and we both stopped. So, it's not like she wasn't enjoying a gift for all these years on her own birthday. And really, dd didnt' even remeber presents. All she wanted was a cake with stars on it.

[pek64]

The last party for my bithday, that I remember, was my twelfth. I'm the youngest, but I remember taking a cake to one of my sisters when we went to visit her near her birthday. Not me, though. My mother brought home a cake when we were getting together at her house for Memorial Day. It was a day old cake, on sale, and said Happy Birthday. My sister (different one) was upset that we were 'celebrating' my birthday, even though my mother brought it out saying she felt like having cake. I was home from college.

I passed that lack of birthday celebrating on to my son, I guess. We haven't had a birthday celebration for several years. We acknowledge the day, and might do something the birthday person wants to do, but it's all pretty low key. He gets migraines from sugar, and my alternative cakes always seemed pretty poor substitutes to me, that a cake is more work than it's worth, for us.