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Stupid adults....

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
... the parents can only blame themselves for these over-the-top kid's birthday parties... dumbasses.


Parents Turn Against Elaborate Birthdays
Jan 21 1:20 PM US/Eastern
By PATRICK CONDON
Associated Press Writer


ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Having decided on a ballerina theme for her daughter's sixth birthday party, Michelle West drove all over to find little dancers for the cake. Then she put 50 little beefeater guards around the edges. And she gave it beautiful white icing with peppermint trim.

And what happened? The kids wouldn't eat it.

It wasn't long afterward that she joined a group of St. Paul parents determined to end the birthday party arms race.

Birthdays Without Pressure is taking aim at the oneupsmanship that drives moms and dads to throw parties that will really, really impress the kids and the other parents, too.

"We feel there's a kind of cultural runaway going on right now around the birthday parties of kids," said William Doherty, a University of Minnesota professor of family social science who had a hand in organizing the group, launched publicly earlier this month.

Birthdays Without Pressure has started a Web site and launched a media campaign.

Among its suggestions for more modest, stress-free party planning: Hold gift-free parties, with a note on the invitation that says any presents will be donated to charity; eliminate theme parties and gift bags for the guests; instead of organizing elaborate activities, let kids play outside or hold a treasure hunt; and invite children only, not their parents as well.

The organization has also started collecting horror stories from other parents to argue its case. Among them:

_ A birthday party for a 1-year-old featured a gift-opening that lasted two hours. The child slept through most of it.

_ Seven-year-olds were picked up in stretch limos to attend the birthday party of a classmate.

_ A 6-year-old guest at a St. Paul birthday party didn't like the contents of the gift bag and declared: "This is a rip-off."

The race to provide a unique experience at kids' parties can even get dangerous. In December, a 4-year-old girl was mauled by a cougar that was brought in as part of the entertainment at a birthday party for a 7-year-old in Coral Gables, Fla.

Doherty, who previously led a crusade against what he called overscheduled kids, got wind of frustration among parents after a colleague related how a mother at a parenting class had lashed out against the gift bags that have become a staple of kids' parties.

That mom was Linda Zwicky.

"I just found myself wondering, you know, does he need another pencil? Does he need another rubber ball? Does he need another whistle?" Zwicky said.

But when Zwicky began planning her son Wyatt's third birthday party, she found herself engaging in the same kind of oneupmanship.

"I was going to do gift bags, but I was going to do them right," Zwicky recalled. The party had a train theme, so she got sticks and bandannas and made "hobo packs" that included animal crackers and bubble solution.

Zwicky said that party was a turning point for her. She helped found Birthdays Without Pressure.

What the members want, they say, is a general agreement that not every party has to be more memorable than the last.

"Why are we feeling the pressure to do all this?" said Julie Printz, another parent in the group. "Let's come up with ways to do this that's in your comfort zone, and have a broader spectrum of what's acceptable in terms of kids' parties."

When Wyatt turned 4, Zwicky put on a much more modest affair: No theme. No gift bags. Simple party games involving milk bottles and pennies.

"The kids had a great time," she said. "That's the thing _ the kids don't care what kind of effort and planning you put into it. They're kids."

___

On the Net:

Birthdays Without Pressure: http://www.birthdayswithoutpressure.com
 

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
... the parents can only blame themselves for these over-the-top kid's birthday parties... dumbasses.
It wasn't that your parents wanted you to have stress-free childhood parties, it was that they didn't love you.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,205
1,393
NC
Lucky little punks. I never even had the OPPORTUNITY to get mauled by a cougar...
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,430
22,519
Sleazattle
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.
Your lucky, my dad was usually too drunk to whip us to sleep. We had to do it ourselves.
 

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,801
5,315
North Van
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,430
22,519
Sleazattle
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

Your lucky, my dad didn't have any legs so we had to carry him around our graves.
 

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.

You were the lucky one!!!

I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."
 

peter6061

Turbo Monkey
Nov 19, 2001
1,575
0
Kenmore, WA
(snip)...and invite children only, not their parents as well.
Why are parents going to kids birthday parties? I don't remember that when I was a youngen.

And I just walked to school when I was young. The days were short, so I could play outside until the streetlights came on. It was hell.