My youngest celebrated his ninth birthday not too long ago. While most parents in our area opt for an indoor playground or museum to have the party, I decided to do it myself this time. We live walking distance from a forest. There’s an area dedicated for kids; it’s fenced off and there are plenty of branches, rocks and water to play with. I knew the kids would love it.
Plus, it’s free.
My only concern was, we’d have to walk for about half an hour to get there. I decided to make this part fun by creating a treasure hunt. And to make sure the kids were really invested in this, I presented it with a video. (It’s in Dutch, but you get the idea.)
The kids had fun and the parents seemed impressed:
I know they’re really trying to express their appreciation. But there’s something else in there too, I think.
When my oldest went to school for the first time, I was under the assumption that a birthday treat is just one piece of candy that the child hands out directly from the bag. I was soon to discover that you were supposed to create marshmallow snowmen or rainbow cupcakes presented on a decorated platter. Instantly, I got sucked into the madness as well. After all, who wants to be lazy when you can also sift through a bag of M&M’s to find all the orange ones and stick them to halved bananas with carefully melted chocolate to make an adorable army of penguins?
Four down, twenty-five to go…
Then one day, I thought: “I don’t want to make banana penguins or get up at five in the morning to cut fruit and string them on a stick. It’s hours of work that will disappear into the kids bellies in five seconds, best case scenario.”
IT’S NOT WORTH IT!!
So one year, I tossed a bag of candy in my cart the week before the birthday, my girl handed it out and you know what? The kids were fine and the parents loved it! They seemed so relieved to see you don’t have to make little candybar race cars or goldfish out of tangerines
This was ten years ago, it seems like the sizes of the treats have only grown since then. More often than not, it’s multiple things, including at least one plastic toy, wrapped in a plastic foil. It seems to me, that parents are so afraid to do less than the person before them - but also don’t have time for twenty-nine fruit bouquets - and so they try to make up for that by adding bells, whistles and these obnoxious clapper hands.
What I mean to say is this: if YOU WANT to get crafty, do it! I liked making a treasure hunt video, but wouldn’t expect anyone else to put on a wig and shout at a camera, even though I much prefer it over spending twenty five bucks per kid to give myself a head ache in an indoor playground.
If you don’t want to, simply pass. Keep it simple! Since we can’t one up each other forever, someone needs to dare to do less, it might as well be you!
I can tell you, from experience, kids don’t need much to be entertained. Just take them to a forest and you’ll see.
Of course, all of this applies to so many things that we do because we think we have to. I think it’s even worse when it involves our kids. I hope this helps you spot the places where you get sucked into doing something you really don’t want to!
With love,
Being creative you can do in many ways. 30 years ago my boy became 10. And as I did not want to keep up with the Joneses, I desided to take the kids on a trip on public transport. In the early nineties it was still affordable. By bus to the next village, crossed the river by ferry to the next town and back by train. Allong the way they could fill a small bag of candy. Scooping it in but no more than 100 grams. That was something new in that time. Also new was public transport. Only one boy had been on a bus before, but that was because his dad was a busdriver. No-one had ever been on a train. I was flabbergasted. So they had the day of their lives. Years later I would run into one of these kids and they would still mention it. Well if you want to do it now, you better start saving for over 2 years. Children are easy to please, do something they don't know.
I couldn't love this more! Hilarious that you and I have been corresponding in chat but I have no idea what you look like - until today. You will forever by my wild forest climate cartoonist friend, and I couldn't think of anything better! You also reminded me of an epic Hunger Games party we did for my eldest around the same age - a grand wild adventure across the farm. I talked with her this morning about it - she can't remember any of the details just that it was the coolest. She is studying human bio at uni now and says that doesn't surprise her - that when you are crazy excited apparently it interrupts memory formation! I also love your message - Dare to do less - the race to the top or bottom is never a good plan!