Putting
Into Perspective BY: REBECCA BOWYER
I
t was supposed to be a low-key “easy” four-year-old birthday party. The concept was brilliant: guests would come to the local miniature railway, BYO picnic, pitch a rug, tote a present and in return they would get a couple of tickets to ride the rails and some birthday cake. With a newborn baby to care for, my friend didn’t have the time or energy to arrange anything too extravagant.
Showers were forecast for the morning, clearing by the afternoon. Perfect. Party is planned for 1.00pm. Mum sent out a group-SMS redirecting party-goers to their nearby house. A few minutes in, the kids didn’t seem to care about the change of location or the absence of miniature steam engines. The birthday boy spent most of the afternoon whooping about the house with his friends, dressed in his brand new Woody cowboy outfit (which he also slept in that night and wore the next day with a fresh pair of underwear, of course). This near-catastrophe-turned-great-success got me thinking: why do we worry so much about planning for kids birthday parties these days? What is the purpose of a birthday party, really, and who is it for? British researchers recently found that parents are now spending an
average of 213 pounds (around AU$360) on their kids’ birthday parties, with 11 percent spending at least 800 pounds (over AU$1300) in an attempt to outdo their child’s peers. Party bags which used to contain a freddo frog, a few smarties and a jelly snake now boast gift vouchers, make-up and even iPods. Australians are jumping on the party extravaganza bandwagon too, with event management businesses popping up dedicated to planning childrens’ parties. Parents have been known to spend up to $4000 on a five-year-old’s birthday bash. Children’s birthday parties were first celebrated by the Germans in the late 1700s. There were candles and cake, just like today. The birthday boy or girl blew out a candle for each year they had been alive, just like today. However, they also lit and blew out one extra candle to make a wish that they would live to see another birthday. And therein lies the true meaning of a birthday. Celebrating your child’s birthday is an indication that they have made it through another year. Alive and (hopefully) well. As the kids played happily around me, the image that played itself over and over in my mind was of a mother, desperately trying to rouse