No longer are kiddie parties an event of pizza and sheet cake. The trend is for moms to themselves bake and decorate an elaborate cake in cohesion with the party’s theme. Yes, kiddie birthday parties now have themes.
It’s all so twee and cute. The best part is that it all seems almost, possibly, within reach.
Thanks to social media and sharing, not only will the perfect homemaker show you her photos of little Penelope’s perfect “Frozen” birthday party, but also where to buy the milk in glass bottles with colored paper straws, where to get the printables for seating cards and how to painstakingly construct that life-sized Queen Elsa cake.
My son's birthday party is this weekend. I started out with a big theme and all kinds of theme related ideas, because I am an A type personality who loves this kind of stuff. I was going crazy coming up with all kinds of theme stuff. Then I realized that I do not have time to do all this stuff. I am in my last few days before going back to full time work, and am trying to finish up all those projects that I thought I would have so much time for while on mat leave. I am still breastfeeding, which means I am pumping when my son is at daycare. I am trying to keep everything in our house afloat. So, you will all understand when I do a little write up about my son's birthday party why I decided to forget about the printout labels I planned for all the food, the frosted personalized jars I was going to make for each attendee, and the elaborate truck and tractor shaped food. All these things are fun and totally fine to do, but if they have become the expectation for birthday parties there is a serious problem. Why are we doing this to ourselves? (Unless we want to...)
On the birthday party note - another thing that has come to my attention recently is that kids will not eat junk food. My sister-in-law told me she had a birthday party for her son and a number of the boys there were refusing cake and ice cream because they were health conscious. This blew her mind. Seriously, I love that parents encourage their kids to eat healthy snacks but since when do five year old boys refuse one piece of cake with a small scoop of ice cream at a birthday party? This is a control issue that can easily snowball into an eating disorder, it's no wonder that doctors have recently identified a new, unhealthy trend - orthorexia.
Anyway, getting back to motherhood perfection for a minute. There are so many blogs on the internet featuring pictures of perfectly manicured nails, blending a perfectly healthful drink, in a perfectly immaculate house it is no wonder that moms are feeling the pressure. Somehow this seems attainable. Especially when so many of these bloggers are moms. I do not think there is anything wrong with these blogs, I love reading them myself. The problem is that sometimes we become disconnected from reality. I started this blog to share my experiences of being a working mom who holds strong family values, in the hope that some people might relate to what I write, and that maybe somewhere along the way someone might learn something useful that can help them. If you are looking for a blog of motherhood perfection you are on the wrong site. My house never looks perfect. I am in the middle of about 7 different projects. My son's birthday party tomorrow and I am wondering how I am going to find the time to finish icing the cupcakes, pickup the final groceries, and clean the house before company arrives. But I love it, and I love my life. It's an organized mess.
On that note, I have to go put a turkey in the oven before I run to work, before I pick up my son from daycare.
No comments:
Post a Comment