Kids' parties and peer pressure

MY GIRL is turning one in a week - what a beautiful and special time for my little family to celebrate a wonderful year gone, and many more to come.....right? WRONG!

I am facing mounting pressure from friends and other mummies to throw a party. I keep getting asked what I have planned to mark the occasion. Truth be known - nothing.

Well, I do plan to make her a cute cake perhaps shaped like a flower and to invite her grandies and uncles and aunties over for a meal or even afternoon tea.

But no party planned - the girl is ONE for heavens sake!

When I say this to my friends, I get looks of horror - WHAT? No party? But it is her FIRST BIRTHDAY????

Okay, I better apologise now for any offence this post may give. But it is my opinion and my blog!

You see, I just don't get the big deal people make about their kids' birthdays when the children are far too young to ever remember the party - or even enjoy it for that matter.

A mother from my mother's group recently had a party for her little girl - complete with a face painter and a petting zoo. A PETTING FRICKING ZOO!

Coordinated decorations and paper plates and cups (fairies everywhere). She hired little tables and little chairs for one year olds to sit at nicely and eat and had enough food to feed all of the country's homeless in one hit. Shit - this wasn't home-made food either - she had the party CATERED! The cake was from CORICA. For a baby. Seriously!

IT was a fest of sugar and colouring and NOISE. There were kids EVERYWHERE. After all, she said, she just HAD to invite her uni and school friends' kids, the kids from mother's group, her neighbours' kids, her nephews and nieces.

But, she said, her little girl only turns one once. Well this is true. But is it really worth the stress and expense?

She isn't the only one. I have been to parties with bouncy castles, parties at Kidz Paradise, kids with those twistie balloon thingos - you name it, I have probably seen it at a party where a good majority of the kids can't even walk yet.

I just really think the whole thing is a load of wank for parents to show off in front of other parents and I don't want to be part of it. But clearly, from the reaction of family and friends, I am the freak here.

I may not throw her huge parties but I am always here for her and her brother and have been each and every day of their short lives.
This is the way I show love - I am prepared to give up nice stuff and a pretty nice job to be with my kids. Not by showering them with flash parties.

So my friends think I am a tight-arse. I just think I have my priorities right.

Oh and that little girl with the party? Turns out she was rabid by the end of it - tired, over-stimulated and full of sweets. Apparently she screamed and wouldn't settle until quite late that night. Yeah - happy birthday for her.