Child’s Birthday; Mummy tiredness
Posted: November 21, 2007My daughter’s birthday is coming next week. She is all excited about this. We started planning about 1 month ago. Each time round, my list of items to prepare for her celebration seems to get more and more. She is quite a character and wanted to know what is mummy planning. So for a while, she has been asking is her birthday cake ready, is her goody bag for her classmate ready etc. Well, at this period of time, she looks like the CEO and I am the personal assistance to her.
I do not know when that the norm started that children birthday celebration in school has to give out goody bags to her fellow classmate. But such norm seems common in her then Shanghai school and now Singapore school. Mind you, I am talking about kindergarten and not primary or secondary school.
Our family policy ( agreement with my husband) is to ensure we do not ” spoilt ” the child by giving out fanciful birthday party each year. So all celebrations are restricted to target audience. Example. Celebration of her birthday at the actual day in her class(preinformed her school- teachers) and Celebration of her birthday with family and extended family members only.
Just that day, I spoke to her on our way driving home. She asked about her birthday cake. She wanted a 3 D birthday cake with a doll within it for the family birthday celebration and another 2 D 2kg cake for her celebration in the class. I shared with her that when I was at her age, I do not have birthday cake . It was too expensive for my parents and we have 3 sibilings. So having a nice dinner at home with our favourite dish is a luxury and a birthday celebration. She is very blessed now to have 2 birthday cakes and 1 family celebration. To be able to give out goodies bag to her friends is definitely a luxury. We are doing this because we love her.
Anyway, the cakes are ordered. I am not a cake-maker and definitely would not want to panic at the last minute if I tried to make a 2-D cake on my own. 3 -D cake is definitely a master level of cake making.
The goodies in the goody bags are packed. Actually I am quite firm on what to pack inside the goodies bags. Many parents throw in sweets and biscuits and jelly, which most of these food are not good and nutritous to the child. After discussion with her teacher, I decided to pack stationaries like pencils, eraser, rulers, small note books for the children instead. Well, I have sourced these from wholesaler, so buying in bulk save much ! Sammi has a fun time helping me to sort out all items and put into the goody bags. I am glad she has helped instead of throwing that responsibility to me. In fact, I asked her to pack and I checked. This is my way of cultivating responsibility and excitement to her birthday planning.
I think the birthday celebration will turn out well. At least for the family celebration, most invites have been sent out. Thanks to the phone and email technology.
