North Jefferson News, Gardendale, AL

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January 28, 2010

Child birthday parties can be a stressful affair

By Danielle Pelkey The North Jefferson News

COMMENTARY — Something amazing happens when you become a parent.

You are introduced to the joys of birthday parties, but they are not like the birthday parties that you were previously accustomed to. We are talking about birthday parties that include balloons, clowns, themes, huge cakes and ice cream. You name it, and it’s probably there.

This past Saturday, our family was invited to two different parties in one day. In case you don’t know, as a parent, you are required to be at any and all birthday parties that you can possibly attend without blowing a gasket.

This being said, we went to the first party at a local restaurant. It was crazy and hectic and included a whole basketball team of kids. Twenty kids were yelling out their orders and balloons were popping and the whole time, the regular customers were trying to enjoy their normal lunches. We made it through this one with no problems, because I left the husband and youngest child at home.

When we made our way to the second party we loaded the whole family together. Todd decided to go because it was for the son of his best friend.

The second party had a whole theme, centered around Blue’s Clues. There were bone-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, blue footprint mints, blue icing on a blue cake and blue balloons all around.

Things were going smoothly until the birthday boy decided to open his presents. Ben, who is turning 2, sat by his mom and took his time to open each present while smiling for the camera. That is, until a smaller version of Big Foot came into the picture. That Big Foot was my 1-year-old daughter, Anna. She stood right in front of Ben and tried to take his presents away from him. I moved her away about three times, but didn’t want to continue to get my derriere in all of the camera shots.

Finally, I took her to the side of the room. Upon this movement, she decided to throw her head back as far as it would go and put her body into a pretzel shape and scream at the top of her lungs. Embarrassment had set in and I was done with the party.

As I walked over to my husband, who was huddled in a corner talking to three other husbands about football, I declared that it was time to go. He cocked his head to the side and jokingly said, “I’ll say when it’s time to go.”

We all laughed and I walked away to pick up the little wild child that was running the show at the party. While standing by the door waiting to leave, I decided to put her down and see what would happen. About five minutes later, I heard another squeal and looked over to see a nice lady trying to save Ben from being attacked by my daughter over a toy.

Thank God it was the last toy to open and I didn’t have to keep her from all of the toys for much longer. The hard part was over and all we had to do was chat with friends and let the kids play.

At this point, my loving husband walks over and says, “So, I thought you said we were going.” I told him that the crises had been avoided and we were free to have a good time for a few more minutes.

After dealing with kids at birthday parties, I don’t see how clowns keep up the smiles through the whole party. We put ourselves through it year after year just to see the smile on our little birthday baby’s face.

I guess that’s all part of being a good parent.

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