Little Kid Birthday Parties!

In theory, I love birthday parties.  I love seeing my kids interact with their friends.  I love how happy they are to host their friends and have a day about them.  I love that they talk about it for weeks afterwards.  But man, they are freaking exhausting!

First you have to decide if you’re going to have the party at your house or out in the world somewhere.  If it’s at your house you feel compelled to make your home spotless lest someone judge you for that laundry pile at the end of the hall.  You spend a day or two cleaning it like it’s never been cleaned before.  Only to have to clean it all up again after the party.  Who are we kidding?  We’re parents.  Our houses aren’t spotless, usually.  Most of us aren’t Martha Stewart Type A people.  Yet we all do it and then it just encourages others to do it too.

But then if you have it out at a venue, you have to worry about finding a location and a date that fits with that location.  This year, we’re having Squishy’s party at the kid’s museum.  I emailed them a month ago, never heard back and just finally sucked it up and called.  Of course the only date left was Mother’s Day.  Ugh.  Um, maybe dads and kids can come and moms can get some peace and quiet.

Then you have to lug all your food and decorations to the party location and hope that no one breaks anything while you’re there.

And don’t forget the weeks you spend stressing out about whether people are going to come or not.  Because sometimes people don’t RSVP anymore.  We luckily have had fairly good RSVP rates with our parties, but from the mommy boards on the interwebz it seems like the RSVP is largely a lost art form.  I blame it on the fact that we all hate making phone calls.  Evites for the win!

You sit there waiting and praying that everyone comes and then secretly hoping that people who said “no” don’t change their mind because you already accounted for those who RSVPed and don’t have room for extras since the venue only allows x amount of kids.

It’s tiring.  I love how much they love it but I look forward to when we are no longer waiting for a foster placement and we can go ahead and just go to Disneyland for birthdays.   In the meantime we’re sticking close to home and I’m praying that the 5th birthday party isn’t a total bust.

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