When I was a kid, I went to maybe as many as two or three birthday parties a year. When I had a birthday, it was an event for a few friends and family. At school, on birthdays, we'd celebrate in class with cupcakes and juice if it was grade school.
When did this change? My kids are invited to a party for every birthday for every child in their class. What a pain! This is no pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey affair at the kids home, either. Parents rent out a party spot like Pump-it-Up or Raddi-Jazz or some such and let the kids go nuts with cake and pizza and inflatable bounce castle things for several hours.
It seems like every other week one of our Saturdays gets decimated by this new fashion. And now, we are obligated by the other families and by the expectations of our kids to supply a similar party. Or, we could explain to our kids why they, alone amongst all their peers, are not going to these parties and are not having such parties. Yeah, right, Grinch of the year, right here. Not.
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When I was growing up there were no Cuckie Cheeses, or Gattistowns, or LaserQuests, or Celebration Stations, or Pump-it-Ups, or Raddi-Jazzes (I've never even heard of these last two)... T
Birthdays and parties, in general, are big business. Planning, executing, and cleaning up after a party is a lot of work and most parents are all too happy to let some business handle that for them. Of course, once it gets started, it spirals out of control. It becomes a competition, of sorts, where each parent fears the threat of maladjustment should their child not be, at least, represented in "the competition", if not the one who has the most memorable party of the year...
The real question is does the party demand drive the businesses or do the businesses drive the demand. I suspect this is a case of the solution leading the problem.
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