Oh p101!

[colliemommie]

I think it's strange enough that people even have first birthday parties for children, but sending the invitations out six weeks ahead of time like it's a wedding is just hysterical.

And who the hell would go to an put if town first birthday party? Unless its my grandchild, no flipping way.

Comments

[coendou.livejournal.com]

Right? I just left that post alone.

[chrispina.livejournal.com]

My parents and siblings and their kids live 3 hours away in one direction and my in-laws live 3 hours away in another direction. We have out of town guests for every birthday. We also give them lots of notice because several family members work weekends. We travel for their birthdays, too.

[hikerpoet.livejournal.com]

We don't do birthdays big here. Usually ignore our own. Haven't done anything at all for half of Bridget's nor Fiona's only and it was informal for the other ones.

That said, the couple we have had, we did invite out of town friends. For wee kids (especially one year olds!) they are more for the adults. We're social. But also busy. So we don't have people over as much as we want. Bridget's birthday is at a time (mid-May) when people are raring to get going on backyard barbecue season.

So, for the couple we did have? We did invite out of town friends. But we did NOT sent out cute little formal invites way ahead of time. We messaged them and said, "Bridget's birthday is this weekend. But she's just a tot who hardly knows what's going on. Mostly? It's an excuse to throw some stuff on the grill and drink homebrew while bullshitting on the deck while the kids play in the yard. Wanna come hang out?" And yes, people traveled, and had a great time, and it was basically just an excuse for a cook-out.
I didn't look at that post either, but partly it is just an...excuse. Now that she will be older and does deserve to have it be all about her with her friends we will invite neighbors and very close family members and come up with another excuse for a backyard barbecue. Like Bastille Day or something.

[pinkminx.livejournal.com]

I chortled at that same post, but that may have been because I envisioned the invitations engraved with gold leaf and delivered by a footman.

[skittish-derby.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I didn't touch that post either. :shrugs: The only time we have ever thrown a huge extended-family party for our kids was Hazel's first birthday and I felt so guilty cause it felt an awful lot like a baby-shower. no second-baby-shower for Toby.

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

I think that's where a lot of my feelings about first birthday parties come from. That and one of my main goals in life is to get rid of crap, and kid birthdays just ask for a butt ton of kid junk that I don't even have control over choosing.

[northernwalker]

I don't think I'd willingly attend a first birthday party unless it was my kid. Forget travelling anywhere!

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

I won't even have one for my own kids! Katrina is four and has never had a birthday party. Now she wants one, so that's fine, I'll throw her one this year.

But why anyone would go through all that for a baby who doesn't care about it, especially when it means you will end up w mountains of stuff the kid doesn't need, I haven't idea.

[kimie-catclaw.livejournal.com]

My husband's extended family are big into parties for any reason. They're technically out of town (about 45 minutes away) and we end up out there at least once a month for something. They all said they were coming to the Captain's party last year and then didn't show. That's just rude, though.

His second birthday is next month and he has enough little buddies/ we have friends with kids to have a decent party. And since we're not having it at our house, we wanted to book it in plenty of time so we'd have a few options for timeslots.